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Dr. Brown vs. Comotomo
28 Plays9 months ago
Join Catherine and Tracie to discuss the differences, pros/cons, and ridiculous reviews of these two poplar bottle brands.
You can find the products mentioned in today's podcast at https://www.inspiredbirth.net/postpartum-amazon-suggestions
This episode was sponsored by Inspired Birth. Register and learn more about childbirth, postpartum and parenting classes at: www.inspiredbirth.net
Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss upcoming episodes! 5 star reviews are always appreciated!
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:19
Speaker
Welcome to the baby product investigators where a midwife and postpartum doula dig deep into the products on the market to solve the mysteries of what you really need. Every episode will answer parents burning questions, including could my babysitter use this product? And what will the grandparents really think about this?
00:00:40
Speaker
If you like what you hear today, don't forget to like, review and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on. You can also follow us on social media and find out more about our labor postpartum and parenting classes on our website, www.inspiredbirth.net. And well, if you don't like what you hear today, maybe we just have a different parenting philosophy. Try not to hold that against us, especially in the ratings.
Meet the Hosts
00:01:07
Speaker
Hello, everybody. I am Tracy, and I am a mom of four and midwife, and I have been teaching childbirth education for 14 years, which is where she met me, Catherine, a labor and postpartum doula who's also been teaching parents for years.
Humorous Reviews
00:01:24
Speaker
Every episode, we'll try to give you the chance to discover what we're talking about through a few of our favorite customer reviews, such as
00:01:33
Speaker
One, buy it if you like washing dishes. Two, buy it if you don't work and stay home and have a lot of free time. Three, buy it if you don't plan to bring your baby outside with the bottles. Or I bought these because they're silicone. Plastic is bad now, right? And highly rated. And they look a lot like what they're supposed to be mimicking. So that's good, right?
Sponsor Highlight: Inspired Birth
00:02:00
Speaker
Today's episode is sponsored by Inspired Birth. You can learn more about labor postpartum and parenting through classes available at www.inspiredbirth.net.
Exploring Dr. Brown's Bottles
00:02:09
Speaker
In case you couldn't figure it out from those rave reviews, today's episode will be comparing Dr. Brown and Como Tomo bottles. For starters, let's discuss what you get with a Dr. Brown bottle. Dr. Brown bottles include a cap,
00:02:26
Speaker
a nipple collar, a nipple, a vent insert, a vent reservoir, a travel disc, and any insert components. That's a lot of parts in case you missed that. They come in BPA-free plastic or glass options.
00:02:43
Speaker
You can also get them in tiny and bigger bottles depending on the size of your baby. So you can get a two ounce bottle, a four ounce bottle or an eight ounce bottle. They also offer wider and narrower bottles depending on your personal preference and the preference of your baby. And they come in a variety of color schemes. There's everything from pinks and purples and blues all the way up to patriotic red, white, and blue versions.
00:03:10
Speaker
However, one thing to note about the Dr. Brown bottle is if you don't put the vent insert in, it will link. And that is whether or not you plan to use the vent reservoir portion of the bottle. Another thing that I think is great about the Dr. Brown's bottles though is that the nipples come in different sizes and flow rates.
00:03:33
Speaker
That's right, Tracy. The Dr. Brown bottle goes all the way from size one to size four, which means that as your baby grows, you'll be able to adjust the flow to provide them with the appropriate amount of milk or formula similarly to what they would be getting from the breast.
Spotlight on Como Tomo Bottles
00:03:53
Speaker
Como Tomo bottle comes with a cap, a nipple,
00:03:57
Speaker
collar and a nipple. It comes in silicone and there are aftermarket compatible handle grips. Tracy, why would you want the compatible handle grips with the Como Tomo? It doesn't seem like we saw that a lot with the Dr. Brown bottles.
00:04:14
Speaker
the Kawatomo can be converted into a sippy cup, I think mostly because of the wide size of the nipple and the bottle itself. It's easy for little hands to grab. Onto the handle versus the bottle itself, even though the bottle is silicone, because they say that that's easier to hold. Small hands, handle grubs, makes sense. Yeah. I will note, Tracy, that the Dr. Brown
00:04:42
Speaker
has a lot more parts as we just discussed than the Como
Bottle Usage Tips & Tricks
00:04:46
Speaker
Tomo. But one thing I really liked about the Dr. Brown was that its measurement lines are very clear. It shows it in metrics as well as ounces. And it was just really obvious how much had been consumed out of the bottle. I also really appreciate that the Dr. Browns has the fill spill line.
00:05:10
Speaker
where it tells you if you go above that, it will spill, which is a really nice touch when you're filling up a bottle. Especially in the middle of the night. I've certainly done that before myself and popped that reservoir in there and overflowed the bottle onto the counter. It's two o'clock in the morning, you're tired, last thing you wanna do. One thing I didn't really appreciate about trying to mix the formula in the Dr. Brown bottles though, is that it does seem like
00:05:40
Speaker
If you don't do the water first and then add the formula, it's easy to miss measure things and also get a big mess on your hands after the fact. So it's really important, I think, to note that if you are going to be a Dr. Brown user, always put the water in first up to the appropriate measured line
00:06:01
Speaker
and then add the formula. Don't do formula first and then add the water because it makes a huge mess. Also, it's not recommended to insert the vent reservoir until after you have mixed the formula itself. Yeah. But do make sure that you put in the little vent collar at the top because otherwise you're going to have the formula spilling. So it's a little bit more precise in the process of making the bottle.
00:06:30
Speaker
but you do get a really accurate read on that because those great measurement lines. I definitely found I would sometimes mix in a separate bottle and then pour it in or I'd mix it in like a shaker bottle like for a smoothie and then pour it in or just not put the reservoir in and give it a good shake.
00:06:52
Speaker
You may want to have a separate Ziploc in your diaper bag where you keep the reservoir portion of the bottle and then you can pull it out when you're ready to use the bottle. That way you can store water in the bottle or have it like ready to mix and then dump that in later when the bottle's all mixed and ready.
00:07:14
Speaker
Something else I've seen that is really helpful for people with the Dr. Brown bottles, though, is that the slender design is easy to slip into the side of a diaper bag. That is a big difference from the Como Tomo, which is a little bit more bulky, wouldn't you say, Tracy? Definitely. It's not going to fit in the pocket of a diaper bag. Those are definitely designed for most diaper bags to be a traditional style bottle. And the Como Tomo is not a traditional style bottle.
00:07:41
Speaker
It might not even fit in the cup holder of your stroller.
00:07:45
Speaker
Do you think that it matters that it's shaped like a breast Tracy? For those of you who are wondering why the Como Tomo is the shape it is, it is supposed to more accurately resemble the female breast. From your experience Tracy, have you noticed that babies care about that? I would not say that. I definitely went back and forth breast to bottle because I was working as a doula and a student midwife when I was having my babies and
00:08:12
Speaker
I definitely didn't have any trouble with baby going from breast to bottle and back and forth. I did, however, follow paste feeding style when babies were on bottle.
Understanding Paste Bottle Feeding
00:08:25
Speaker
Oh, which is a great point to point out. For those of you who are not familiar with paste bottle feeding, it is the preferred method for anyone trying to do both bottle feeding and breastfeeding because it makes the bottle feeding process a little bit harder for baby. It makes it more similar to the breastfeeding, the work they would have to do with breastfeeding.
00:08:46
Speaker
If you're interested in learning more about paste bottle feeding, we do recommend that you take a class like the infant feeding class available at Inspired Birth. You definitely also want to try to use the slowest flow nipple that you can. Again, you want your baby to work hard at the bottle as well as at the breast, whereas that traditional style bottle has a very fast flow nipple and baby just chugs down that formula or that breast milk and then we get
00:09:16
Speaker
upset tummies, we get reflux.
Benefits of Dr. Brown's Bottles
00:09:19
Speaker
It's such a hard work to get that baby fed. And then they spit up everything they gave them, which leads us to one of the reasons people rave about Dr. Brown bottles, which is the reduction in colic. Now,
00:09:31
Speaker
You may be confused because you may see a lot of bottles say that they do great things for colic, but Dr. Brown bottles do rave about their great success and studies and various things with the colic. So that might be something you want to consider if you are worried that your baby has some tummy issues. I think that's a really important feature if you are going back and forth between breast milk and formula.
00:09:56
Speaker
or you're going back and forth between breast and bottle with either, you know, with breast milk. I think babies get very gassy. They swallow a lot of air when they chug down their milk. I think the Dr. Browns are a lifesaver for new parents when you're just trying to figure out how to burp your baby. You're trying to figure out how to soothe your baby. I think especially for newborns, the Dr. Browns bottles are a win.
00:10:23
Speaker
which they may be a win as far as the feeding goes. But Tracy, I don't necessarily think they're a win as far as the cleanup goes. Because they were comparing the Dr. Brown and the Como Tomo cleaning time, your Como Tomo is going to be cleaned a lot faster. The reason for that is there are just fewer parts to Como Tomo.
00:10:44
Speaker
and the parts on the comatoma are wider and easier for a brush to get into and clean. You'll notice with a Dr. Brown bottle, a lot of the parts are more slender, they have less wide openings, they're going to require you to do a bit more digging with your bottle brush or cleaner. There's a special cleaner brush that comes with your Dr. Brown's bottle to go into that lasebark.
00:11:08
Speaker
Yeah, there's just gonna be more time spent on cleaning. Now, both the Como Tomo and the Dr. Brown are top rack dishwasher safe, but we do wanna point out that it is important to do some soaking, even if you're gonna do it in the dishwasher. And also, you are occasionally gonna wanna use the bottle brush anyway, because you don't want any of that residue to build up on your bottle. So,
00:11:33
Speaker
You are going to spend more time. Also, I'll be honest, getting all the parts of the Dr. Brown bottles in those little baskets that go in the top rack of your dishwasher can be a workout. So if you're a sleep deprived new parent, that might be something you want to consider is how much time you want to spend cleaning those bottle parts.
Material and Design Considerations
00:11:54
Speaker
But I will point out that you will probably spend less time cleaning up bottle spills with the Dr. Brown, assuming you remember to keep the reservoir in because the Dr. Brown's bottle shape makes it less likely to tip. They do leak if you take that reservoir out. And I think that's one of the things that we see most online. People complain the Dr. Brown's bottles leak, the Dr. Brown's bottles leak. However,
00:12:19
Speaker
If you put that reservoir in, you have used the bottle as it's intended. You put all the pieces in that the manufacturer included, it's not gonna leak. Now, so it's really important though that you do put the Dr. Brown bottle together properly. And it's very important that you do watch where the Como Tomo bottles get put down because those will just tip right over real fast because their shape. And
00:12:45
Speaker
If you are someone who is very concerned about the exact amount of milk your baby is in taking, perhaps you have special health considerations or you're just nervous about the amount of milk your baby is drinking, the Como Tomo is just a lot harder to figure out the exact amount of milk that your baby is consuming. So you will want to consider that when deciding if it's the right bottle for you.
00:13:09
Speaker
I think one more interesting thing to think about with bottles is the feel. Like if you have any kind of sensory issues, you may not like the feel of the Col-Meltomo bottle. It's a silicone, rubber, squishy sensation. You might like the feel of the smooth glass Dr. Brown's bottle.
00:13:30
Speaker
Those are all important things to think about, but the one question that we know you're thinking about as you plan your nights out is, could my babysitter use this product? Well, hopefully your babysitter can handle a bottle because otherwise you need to find a new babysitter.
00:13:47
Speaker
But your babysitter may struggle with putting together the parts of the Dr. Brown bottle if they've never been exposed one before. So you will definitely want to ask your babysitter if they've used a Dr. Brown bottle in the past. A Como Tomo bottle is much more straightforward with such few parts. It's highly unlikely that they will have an issue putting that together.
00:14:10
Speaker
but the Dr. Brown, particularly with the leak concerns we've been mentioning, it's really important that you show them all the parts to that. It's also important any time you're asking your babysitter to bottle feed whatever brand of bottle you choose, that you remind them not to put the bottle with the formula or the breast milk in the microwave, and that you let them know when they should toss the breast milk or formula if the baby has not completed the bottle by the time they go to bed.
Family Involvement with Baby Bottles
00:14:41
Speaker
The other thing to consider for us in this podcast is what would the grandparents think of this? I think that the grandparents will be excited to feed, help feed the baby, but they may not want you to breastfeed. Um, that you mean they may want you to breastfeed, right? Although you never know different cultures, different grandparents, sometimes they feel very strongly about breastfeeding and sometimes they don't.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes it's totally fine in its parents' choice, and sometimes grandparents feel very uncomfortable. The shape of the comotomo may throw off people that are used to a more traditional bottle. It's not the look of a traditional bottle. Again, it doesn't pop into the diaper bag so easily. It's just not something that grandparents may be familiar with. Also, if you're doing the paste bottle feeding,
00:15:32
Speaker
This might be very unfamiliar to grandparents and they may have a lot of questions about that. They might wonder, oh, is there air in the nipple? Do I have to be careful with the baby drinking out of this bottle?
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, they they may fight back on your directions for how you want your bottle given to the baby, particularly if you have strong feelings about warming or not warming the bottle or, you know, how you want the baby held during the process. So it is important to have those tough conversations with grandparents so that they know what your preferences might be.
00:16:10
Speaker
You may want to look in your area for what's called a grandparents class. And a lot of hospitals will offer these classes and it just brings grandparents up to date on what's new, what's cool now, what's different from when they had babies, the safe milk storage and disposal, things like that, new diapering thoughts and ideas, compostable diapers.
00:16:34
Speaker
It's a really great because it's usually like a one afternoon kind of baby care style class. And they're really offered all over the US. So I highly, highly recommend that if your parents or grandparents are going to be involved in helping with baby care. But whatever bottle you choose, they can offer some great snuggle time for grandparents. And many grandparents are all about that.
Bottle Rankings & Recommendations
00:16:56
Speaker
It's that time of the show, Tracy.
00:17:04
Speaker
That's right, as that baby crying tells us, it's the time for the final ranking of our product today. How would you rank the Dr. Brown and Como Tomo bottles, Tracy? I would give the Dr. Brown's bottle a four-clean diaper review. We do have to take off the diaper for how many pieces come with the Dr. Brown's bottle.
00:17:27
Speaker
and how much time you spend cleaning those bottles. But they do an excellent job of keeping baby's tummies happy. I would give the Como Tomo a two. I just don't care for the way it tips over, the size of it. I just think they're very expensive for, I just feel that you can easily go back and forth between breast and bottle with the right style of feeding.
00:17:53
Speaker
All right, I'm going to go ahead and give the Dr. Browns a four as well for pretty much the exact same reasons. A very solid bottle, but those extra parts just take so much time. And as a new parent, we know that you value your time. I will say I rank the Como Tomo slightly higher.
00:18:15
Speaker
I would give it from a three to a 3.5 on the clean diaper. My biggest concern with it is just that not every baby loves it. I think that I've seen more universal appeal for the Dr. Brown's bottles. I think the nipple shape is just a little wide for some babies out there.
00:18:36
Speaker
I will say as we think about the final ranking of this product though, that bottles in general do get a five clean diapers for the need to have them on your baby registry. If you don't have a bottle in your house, I would make sure you get one because you're going to need it at some point. Well, the other thing I think it's important to say about putting baby bottles on your registry
00:19:00
Speaker
Try to register for one or two of several different brands, and then you can try them out with your baby and see what your baby likes best. What does that sound mean, Tracy? This is the time where we need to talk about our manufacturer-related warnings. The Como Tomo bottle was not approved by the FDA as of May 31st, 2022.
00:19:30
Speaker
In fact, the FDA came out with a pretty strong statement that until the Como Tomo had gone through the review process, it was not approved and recommended. So it is important to keep in mind that the Como Tomo bottle is still awaiting that as far as we know.
Closing & Teaser for Next Episode
00:19:51
Speaker
At this time, as we wrap up our time with you today, we do want to remind you again that if you enjoyed learning about the products mentioned today, go ahead, like, review, and subscribe on whatever podcast listing platform you're on, because you'll want to be in listening mode for when our next podcast episode comes out to learn about a different type of baby related equipment.
00:20:18
Speaker
Also, make sure to learn more about us on social media and check out that website for Inspired Birth so that you can join in on some of the classes to learn more about things like paste bottle feeding. Thanks for joining us today. We wish you all the best. And until next time, the search is on.