Breast milk is considered the healthiest and most ideal infant food parents can give to their children. However, there are instances when mothers cannot provide ample milk to their kids or enough time to breastfeed. To solve this dilemma, there are now artificial baby formulas on the market that serve as healthy alternatives to breast milk. For many parents, baby formulas are ideal solutions to their infant feeding problems.
Preparing formula milk for infants is easy. All you need to do is to correctly measure the formula, add the right amount of water, and your baby is ready to be fed. However, babies can’t drink from typical cups or glasses yet. Instead, you need to use baby bottles for your infant formula.
Baby bottles, or feeding bottles, are specially-designed bottle containers that are fixed with a teat at the opening. The teat allows babies to easily feed on milk.
Baby bottles are the most convenient and practical containers used for feeding infants today. These come in different designs and dimensions, although the standard types hold between 150 and 270 milliliters (ml) of liquid. These are either made from plastic or glass, with the teats made from specialized rubber.
The use of baby bottles for feeding babies goes back to prehistoric times, although the first bottles were very crude in nature. The first feeding bottle was made from an urn that had two openings. In one of the openings, the liquid was poured into the bottle, while the other opening was placed inside the baby’s mouth.
Eventually, people began experimenting with different materials for a more reliable bottle container and a softer teat. In 1845, the first efficient rubber teat was developed, but it was only in the 1900s that the first soft, safe and durable teat was perfected.
Today, many parents turn to baby bottles when it comes to their infant feeding routines. These containers are very useful since these can hold any type of liquid. These also have measurement marks along their sides to guide adults in preparing the formula milk.
If you use baby bottles for your child, make sure that you not only wash, but also sterilize each bottle before using it. Remember that germs can accumulate in the container. Since infants still have a low immune system, these germs can be very harmful to them. Sterilize each bottle well, either by boiling them in hot water, or by using a specialized steam-based sterilization appliance.