As you are aware, my daughter was bottle fed. We had all sorts of problems with feeding her and she struggled with all the bottle I gave her. She had colic and was extremely windy all the time. Believe me, we tried many (Tommee Tippee, Dr Brown's, NUK, Breastflow) as well as spending our life savings on new bottles each time. Then I discovered MAM. I bought their Anti-Colic starter set which has 2x 130ml bottles, 2x 160ml bottles, 4x 260ml bottles, 4 size 1 teats, 4 sealing discs, 1x soft spout, 1x handle and 1x soother.
The bottles come apart into six pieces, the bottle base, the valve, the screw ring, the teat, the bottle body and the protective cap. The valve on the bottom of the bottle enables air to escape, so the baby does not swallow air and can drink easily. 'This reduces incidents of colic in 80% of cases (source: market research 2009, tested with 131 mothers).' Mam 's website says. In my own experience, it definitely reduced my daughter's colic. We encountered far less crying, she was less windy and generally was a happier baby.
The starter set was good. It had everything I needed. My daughter was onto level 2 teats at about two weeks old as the level 1 wasn't fast enough for her. I only used the smaller bottles for about the first month but they were incredibly handy to take out and they fitted easily into a handbag or baby changing bag. The teats felt smooth in comparison with others and their shape is unique. They continue to be the only teat my daughter can easily drink from.
Another extremely handy thing about these bottles is that they are self-sterilising. This doesn't unfortunately mean they clean and sterilise themselves! It means that you do not need a microwave or electric steriliser as all you need to do is follow the instructions in the packs, and each bottle sterilises in the microwave. You can sterilise more than one at a time, although you obviously needs to increase the amount of time for them to sterilise. I found this incredibly useful for when we have been to visit relatives for a weekend as there was no need to lug the steriliser with us. Admittedly, at home, I still use my electric steriliser but it's great to know that the design of the bottle means they can be sterilised without this.
The soother was also very useful as I soon discovered that my daughter was not going to be like my son and not need/want a dummy. She sucked for England for the first three months of her life!
Because the bottles come apart into so many different bits, washing them up does take a little longer. I also had an incident when my friend said 'ooh, what's this bit at the bottom' and proceeded to unscrew the bottle, pouring an entire feed over herself. This would have been entertaining if it hadn't been the feed I was about to give my hungry daughter.
All in all, I think the MAM bottles are a brilliant design. They are easy to use and have an extremely useful self-sterilising function. Although the teat does not look or feel like a breast/nipple, it proved the easiest for my daughter to latch on to. I am still using them, even though my daughter is not suffering from colic any more and I highly recommend them to other mothers.
