Glass Feeding Bottles, or what goes around comes around!

Cue the ‘breast is best’ apparatchiks!

Hmmm.....methinks I saw one of those Historical programmes a few years ago that explained how dangerous it was in the Victorian or Edwardian home....one of the serious problems was caused by badly cleaned glass baby bottles!

I sold an old boat shaped baby bottle with two open ends recently at a car boot sale, had been in the family for yonks.

I don't think the modern, more open shaped ones will have the same problem, HildaW.

Well, glass bottles can be boiled to sterilise, so as long as there isn't a "tidemark" of old milk, I would imagine they are safer than plastic any day.

Germs were a fairly new concept in the Edwardian home, and unknown to most Victorians.

I think they will be very useful.
The fact is any way we can limit our use of plastic has got to be a good thing.
Funnily enough I was talking about the old banana shaped botttles to my husband the other day!
Stupid question but we’re they that shap to stop milk residue collecting in the bottom, and therefore more easily cleaned?

Banana bottles:

www.objectlessons.org/health-and-beauty-20th-century-to-present/baby-bottle-victorian-edwardian-original/s72/a960/

The problem with the very old glass bottles was the shape. The banana shape meant they couldn't be cleaned properly, and many babies became seriously ill with stomach issues. (Warm milk is a wonderful breeding ground for bacteria given the heat and the lactose in the milk.) Newer ones should be okay.

Indeed, HildaW. My granny, a bit haphazard and not the best housewife, looked after her sister's much beloved and long awaited only baby. Granny didn't clean the bottle properly. Baby got an infection and died. Her sister never got over it and it destroyed their relationship.

No I am sure any new ones will be a much better shape - and we are a lot better at understanding how germs breed in warm milk. That being said I do think we are getting a bit too keen to use sprays and wipes - a few friendly germs do help build up the immune system.

My niece has just ordered washable nappies for her new baby.

Excellent PamelaJ1.....I was probably one of the last to use Terries.....I loved them for their general usefulness and for the fact they REALLY encouraged you to get them on to the potty!

I used to sterilise bottles (glass and plastic), teats, dummies and attachments in the pressure cooker. Most plastic items for babies are surely boilable.

My DiL isn't half as fussy. I rather think we overdid it a generation ago.

HildaW My GDinlaw has used terry nappies for her two babies over the past 3 years she bought 3 dozen Harringtons and has worked out she has saved such a lot of money against what her friends have spent on pampers etc.

The banana shaped bottles had a teat on one end, and a rubber valve on the other end, I suppose to make sucking easier. Some old bottles were also designed to be laid flat, with a length of tubing to the teat so baby could be left unattended! I think this was the ultimate germ trap!

I still have a glass feeding bottle from when , I'd guess, my sister was a baby, or it may even have been mine!
I can remember when my brother was born, 5 years after me, the fun and games to get the teat fixed onto the neck of the bottle! No screw on cap to keep it in place !
The teats came with one sized holes in them, if they needed to be bigger, a hot needle was used to enlarge the hole !

Hi Urmstongran, breast is best apparatchick here. I breastfed both my daughters, I'm far to lazy to faff about with bottles, teats and formula etc as my poor DD did with her three. Us old hippy chicks had far more important stuff to do! Seriously though, coming from an allergy and asthma ridden family, it was the best choice and most healthy for me and my girls. One daughter however, chose to bottle feed and I supported her wholeheartedly

Jo1960, as you rightly say it was the best choice and most healthy for me and my girls. I think the salient word is "choice". I personally believe "Breast is best," but have also seen the distress my daughter and daughter-in-law went through because they struggles so much with breast feeding and, when they just couldn't do it any more, the guilt they went through because they felt that they had failed their child. My daughter went straight for the bottle with the second child and although it wasn't completely without problems, the difference in her ability to enjoy her child has been amazing. Healthwise, breast may be best, but it isn't always the bonding experience it should be so I've learned not to be such a "breast feeding nazi" as my daughter so charmingly put it!

*struggled.

I was neurotic about sterilising having seen a film at ante natal classes about gastro enteritis in babies. I scrubbed everything in sight and my hands were raw! A doctor friend subequently told me she didn't bother to boil water or sterilise anything for her chidlren - her theory was that our drinking water is first class, and if you are clean, hot soapy water does the trick for everything, and she was so right. I was a lot calmer with baby number 2. Incidentally, I think the breeding ground for germs in Victorian/Edwardian times was the teats - I can't remember what they were made from but they were not easy to clean and they were the source of a lot of fatal illness.

My DD had my first DGD 4 weeks ago and fully intended to breastfeed. She persevered for 2 days when it was discovered baby has a tongue tie. Apparently this causes problems with latching on to the breast (usually no other problems) so DD was advised to try s bottle - problem solved . A much happier and settled baby and a less stressed mum ?

Calendargirl
I remember seeing those boat shaped feeding bottles when as a child our next door neighbour had a baby.
Hope you got a good price at the car boot sale. Surprising what can become collectors items,

Offensive and unnecessary, Urmstongran.

Cue defence that it was a joke!

Yes. Breast just plain is best! Some mothers struggle with it though and I wonder how people managed in previous centuries when there was no fake milk to buy. Wet nurses I suppose- If you were rich.