Customer Reviews

The First Years Breastflow Starter Set

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I bought the original versions of these that weren't BPA free for my first child and they were great! We had no issues with going between breast and bottle because they require the same latching as on a breast. I think this also helped with gas and overfeeding since the baby controls the flow. I have recommended these to all of my pregnant friends and I just purchased the new BPA free set since I am pregnant again. Worth every penny for the comfort of my child!

We tried getting my daughter to take a bottle daily starting at 4 weeks. During a 5 week span, we tried the Adiri, Evenflow, Playtex Ventaire, Nuk, and Sassy Mam without success. The first time I tried the Breastflow, she fussed for a few minutes but then latched on and drank the whole bottle immediately. The outer nipple is much softer than all the other brand nipples and she is able to control the flow of milk. I definitely recommend trying this bottle if you are having trouble getting your breast fed baby to take a bottle.

I've purchased 2 bpa-free starter sets already and have just purchased another! My son had refused to latch-on since he was primarily bottle-fed while we were in the hospital (I was running a fever for a few days and didn't breastfeed consistently). I tried these when we initially came home but he didn't like them (maybe because using these were more work than the Evenflo nipples we got from the lactation consultant) so I stopped trying. Then after he turned a month old, I decided to try them again since my son was still not breastfeeding and I wasn't ready to give up. This time he was more willing to try the nipples and we started using the stage 1 nipples with the 5-oz bottles exclusively. I'm happy to say now that my son is now breastfeeding easily with every feeding (although I still have to supplement with formula).

One of the reasons I'm buying another starter kit is that I was sterilizing two of the 5-oz bottles in the microwave and unfortunately I had put an eyedropper in the sterilizer and when the top melted, it melted against two of the bottles and ruined them (they melted at the point of contact). So I need to replace the 5-oz bottles and I figured it couldn't hurt to have more of the 9-oz bottles so decided to buy another starter kit vs just three more 5-oz bottles.

Yes, because of the non-standard wide mouth size, I have to transfer my pumped breastmilk from Medela storage bottles because I can't attach these bottles to the Medela Freestyle pump that I use, but I like the wide mouth - it's great for adding in scoops of formula easily in the middle of the night.

I also like the little storage container that comes with the starter kit - I'd buy them if they were sold individually (but haven't found anywhere that I can buy them alone). They're really convenient for storing individual servings of formula and they snap onto the bottoms of bottles. The fact that the sides are flexible mean you can squeeze the container to form a sort of pour spout when adding the formula to the water in the bottle.

All in all, I'm really happy that I purchased these although they are pricey comparatively speaking. I think it's well worth the cost though!

Before my son was born, I spent 6 hours researching baby bottles to determine the best kind. I chose the Born Free bottles. When my son was 9 days old we needed to begin supplementing with formula at every feeding, so I used the Born Free bottles I had been given. He had a terrible time with frequent colic and began to have nipple confusion. One night it took him 45 minutes just to figure out how to nurse! I then tried Avent and had the same struggles. Out of desperation, we switched to the Breastflow bottles and it has been a wonderful experience. He has received both breast and the Breastflow bottle at every feeding for 5 months and we have never had another problem with nipple confusion. His colic has also decreased because he is able to control the flow. I love the fact I can tip a full bottle upside down and nothing comes out.
For the people who are concerned about the lids leaking it's a simple fact of having two nipples together and if one slips down of course milk is going to come out. I simply make sure it's intact before shaking and if I want to empty the liquid between the nipples first I can do that as well. It's not a flaw with the product.
These bottles are a necessity for any mom who is both breast feeding and bottle feeding. I cannot recommend them enough!

Initially this product was great, our daughter latched on just as if she were breastfeeding and the milk flow seemed just right. Then, she got a little older (6 weeks) and the rhythm has been off since then. The double nipple system is supposed to allow the baby to control the flow, what results however is that the outer nipple fills with milk and then collapses while the baby continues to suckle-and that makes (our) baby MAD. Let's face it, breastfed babies generally prefer the breast-offering a bottle is going to be difficult-if you are like me you have scoured the universe trying to find something that will help this transition for both your baby. For us, this bottle was not the answer.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these. I love breastfeeding, but I wanted to give Grandparents a chance to feed baby when they came to visit, cause let's be honest, there would have been little time left for holding. Unfortunately, once Grandparents left and baby was back to the breast I started getting lumps, and then mastitis. I did my research and decided they must have been caused by a latch issue due to baby using bottles. So before I went back to work I decided to purchase these. I haven't had lumps since! I KNOW I have this product to thank. Baby still latches really well after taking a bottle, no more tight pinches or uncomfortable lumps!

A lot of low star reviews talk about the milk spilling out. I didn't have ANY problems with that.

My breastfed baby had such a hard time latching onto these bottles, and when he did, he took in so much air that he was extremely gassy afterward. We had better luck with the Playtex drop-ins system - which was not only more convenient, but the liners are also BPA free. Perhaps some people might have had better luck with these, but my baby did not take to them at all. Very disappointing.

I had high hopes for these bottles. They aren't the perfect bottle that I was hoping for, but they do a good job. We had been using the Soothie bottles, until my son decided he didn't like those anymore. So, when he was about 4 months old, I bought these. He latched on to these nipples right away, whereas it took him several days to learn to drink from the Soothies. However, he is older now, so that probably automatically decreased the learning curve.

I haven't had any leakage issues, and the double nipple really isn't that big of a deal to clean. The outer nipple does collapse on him, but he doesn't seem to care. It does also seem like the milk flows too quickly, so I have to pull it out to give him a breather so that he doesn't choke.

All in all, a good bottle system that I would buy again.

I bought this product based on other's reviews and how close the bottles are supposed to be to breastfeeding. My son drank the bottle in no time and thought he was still hungry for 10-15 minutes after. We had to use a pacifier to distract him until his belly caught up with his intake. The nipples seem to collapse the longer my son sucked, we had to constantly remove bottle, fix nipple, and drain milk caught between nipples back into the bottle.
My friends told me about the Dr. Brown bottles and showed me how the nipple flow performed. Dr. Brown's nipple flow was much slower, which compared to the breast. I bought the Dr. Brown bottles and could not be happier. My son eats slower, realizes he is full sooner, has less gas, and spits up less. I would not recommend the BreastFlow bottles to someone who is breastfeeding and using bottles as back ups because the flow is not comparable.

Very nice, appealing idea. It caught my attention when I wanted to bottle feed my breast-fed twins. HORRIBLE product. Here are the problems:

1. The nipple looks like a breast, but is hard silicone, difficult for the baby to latch onto, it keeps slipping out of the baby's mouth and air enters their mouth as they struggle to suck. the alternative is you pushing it in their mouth with a little force (which i hate doing).

2. there are tabs that help the milk empty out if there's extra milk caught in the nipple. HOWEVER they don't empty all the milk. It's heartbreaking when you lose about 1 oz of expressed milk, bound to happen. YES i followed the instructions, NO it doesn't all come out...unless you use a syringe and get the milk out.

3. annoying to clean, which would be ok if the bottle was easier to use. it's annoying to clean all the parts.

the good:

1. nice idea.
2. it does require some compression, similar to the breast. but as i mentioned above, the silicone makes it tough. perhaps this would be better if it was made of latex or rubber.
3. the milk enters the nipple when the baby sucks it, it doesn't flow freely. This makes me think it would reduce gas....but then again, there's still air in the nipple compartment.

Definitely NOT worth it. Every baby is different though.