Being a mother of twins, I have gone through my share of bottles. When looking for the perfect bottle, I wanted ones that didn’t have too many inner pieces that are hard to get clean. I wanted them to be simple, but also help protect my preemies sensitive tummies. I started out using Dr. Browns bottles but I didn’t like the inner tube piece because I didn’t feel like it was getting clean enough in the dishwasher, and with two little ones, I didn’t have time to wash that many bottles by hand every day. In the beginning we went through 16 bottles per day!
We also tried the Avent bottles but the girls didn’t like the nipples as much. So finally we tried the Playtex VentAire bottles. They worked great! All the pieces are easy to toss in the top rack of the dishwasher and they really helped reduce gas. I also liked these bottles because they had the X shape hole in the nipple instead of the pin hole. My girls like to toss their bottles around and the X shape would prevent the bottle from leaking milk out if the bottle got turned upside down.
This week I needed to purchase some new bottles because I noticed some cracks in the old ones. Probably from the constant use and putting them in the dishwasher. They lasted a very long time before needing to be replaced. Anyhow, I picked up a new set of the Playtex VentAire Advanced bottles. Playtex has made some design changes to their VentAire bottles, and I have to say, I am not as happy with the new design as I was with the old one. They have made some minor changes, most noticeably the nipple. They have switched to the pin hole nipples and got rid of the X hole nipples. You can’t even buy the replacement nipples that have the X in the top. This is quite irritating for me. Also, the bottom part that has tiny holes to vent the air out has been slightly tweaked and seems to leak much more frequently than the previous design. You have to get the bottom pieces together just right and they cannot be even a little damp from washing or it will leak.
So, overall, Playtex VentAire is still my bottle of choice. I have yet to find another bottle that works as well as these do. I’m just left wondering why the design changes were made. Why change a good thing, ya know? If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

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