Do I need Bottle Liners?

  

Bottle liners are a nifty invention. They are convenient to use since you just place the liner inside the baby bottle and then place the milk in the liner. The baby bottle doesn’t get wet which means you don’t have to do a lot of scrubbing.

In the Philippines, bottle liners are not commonly used. There are limited stores that sell these products. But, you can find sellers online. Still, bottle liners are not a must have here when you have a baby, at the moment, that is. It’s probably because a lot of mothers are breastfeeding, a lot of parents don’t know or are unfamiliar about bottle liners, and because it’s an additional expense. It’s basically cheaper to just use the baby bottle and then scrub and sterilize it after using.

We encountered bottle liners during our travel abroad. That was the first time we heard of a bottle liner and knew that such a thing existed. This was an answer to the dilemma that we were facing with our upcoming travel back home. We only brought along a few baby bottles and knowing that International flights take several hours, the bottle liner would be a convenient choice. I couldn't imagine washing a used baby bottle inside the plane and then not being able to sterilize it. It would also be difficult to bring along so many bottles and fit them inside our carry-on bag. And so that’s how we met the bottle liner.

Our little babet uses Dr. Brown’s bottles and unfortunately, we were unable to find a bottle liner specifically made for this type of bottle. We ended up using a slim type bottle liner from Tugaboos. Because it’s not specifically made for Dr. Brown’s bottles, it wasn’t a perfect fit. But it had to do since it was able to somehow fit and hold the milk. The issue we had with the liner was that the cap ring of the baby bottle, the one that holds the nipple in place, wouldn’t be sealed tightly because of the bottle liner in between. This resulted in a few leaks especially while shaking the bottle to mix the formula and the water. Although only a few leaks, we just placed a bib or a small towel underneath our little babet’s chin in case it leaked again. Also, although we purchased an 8oz. bottle liner, there is only a small gap from the opening of the liner to the 8oz. mark. This meant that we couldn’t actually prepare an 8oz. milk because it would overflow. But again, the bottom line is that we weren’t able to find a Dr. Brown bottle liner in the first place that’s why we encountered these issues.

We recently checked whether there really is a bottle liner for Dr. Brown’s baby bottles but couldn’t find anything. Perhaps they don’t have any liners at all. Although we found out that they now have wide-neck bottles and these could possibly make use of wide-neck bottle liners made for other brands. If you happen to try them out, let us know.

Now going back to the question of do you need bottle liners? Considering that you’re living in the Philippines, you don’t need to use bottle liners for daily feeding. For short travels by land, sea or air, you can live without one although, it will be convenient to have bottle liners around. For long haul flights, especially if you’re already bottle-feeding, you’ll still get through without them but they sure are great to have around. It’s convenient and disposable. You also don’t have to worry if you’ll run out of clean bottles. If you’re concerned about reusing the nipple, you can always bring along extra nipples that have already been washed and sterilized. Plus, they’re easier to carry than baby bottles.

The answer to the question will really depend on what do you need bottle liners for. The box we bought contained 100 pieces and we’ve only used them during that flight. But here’s something that will help you decide if you need one or not: if you don’t have a means of sterilizing the bottles then bottle liners will be a great help to you. Just make sure that you do a test run and that it’s the right fit for your baby’s bottles.