The best feeding bottle for babies

Whether for breast milk or formula milk but finding the right feeding bottle for your baby may be confusing. The bottle which helps with colic, the bottle which helps avoiding nipple confusion, the bottle that your baby who is refusing bottle will take... Unfortunately we skip very important part while making our decision: the material of which bottle is made. 

Although almost all brands have glass bottles as an option unfortunately now the feeding bottle market is dominated by plastic (polypropylene) bottles. Most of them have the indication "BPA free" but it doesn't mean that  plastic is the best material to keep your baby's food in.

BPA (Bisphenol A) is synthetic compound which is used to make certain plastics.Plastic which includes BPA is  used to make a variety of common products including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical and dental devices, CDs and DVDs, household electronics, eyeglass lenses, etc. The major exposure to BPA is diet, and it's especially likely to leach from plastics when washed with harsh detergents and exposed to heat. It's found that BPA's effects on human bodies varies from obesity to different types of cancers, reproductive  disorders, heart disease.  

BPA is one of many synthetic compounds found in plastic and one that's known to be harmful. But BPA free plastic is still leaching different types of chemicals in the food kept in plastic containers or lined with plastic.

Otherwise glass which once was the only material used for baby bottles  is natural material made of sand, limestone and soda ash used for thousands of years and it's the safest material to keep food inside. Here are the pros and cons of glass and plastic feeding bottles:

GLASS VS. PLASTIC

Glass Bottle Pros:

- Glass is all natural, non toxic material.
-  It keeps the food free of any chemicals.
- Glass has an almost zero rate of chemical interactions ensuring that the product inside a glass bottle keep their  aroma and flavour.
- Glass is durable, it's one-time investment and saves you money in the long run.
- Cooling milk in glass is much faster process.
- Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity.

Glass Bottle Cons:

- Breakable.
- It's heavier to carry around.


Plastic Bottle Pros:

- Unbreakable.
- Plastic bottle is lighter and easier to carry around. 

Plastic Bottle Cons:

- Plastic realise chemicals into the food stored in them (even the BPA free ones), especially when heated.
- Plastic is easily scratched therefore is more prone to contamination.
- You need to renew the plastic bottle regularly because of the contamination risk.
-  At the end it comes more expensive than glass because you have to renew it.
-  Plastic is recyclable but it loses its integrity and  is “downcycled” and turned into other types of products. 

Weight wise it's approximately 150 gr. difference between 240 ml (8 oz.) plastic and glass bottles. I think it's not a huge difference to put me off especially when you think how many pros glass have.

     1. Dr. Browns 240 ml plastic bottle: 99gr.

     2. NUK 240 ml. plastic bottle : 245 gr 

When it comes to fragility  you should just be careful when handling it. And you can get one of these silicone sleeves to be on the safe side.