As promised in my last post, I was going to talk about the thinkbaby, the wonderful invention that finally got Cree to give up her favorite Pigeon bottles.
I discovered the thinkbaby on one of my marathon Amazon searches. At the time, I knew there were milk bottles and then there were sippy cups. Cree was at the point where she needed (or rather I needed her) to give up the milk bottle, but she wasn’t ready for a sippy cup (totally mental in my opinion). In Kevin O’Leary’s words, THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY (shark tank fan here!).
In case you haven’t noticed yet, on top of being over-confident, I tend to become slightly obsessive when faced with a problem I believe there MUST be a solution to.
That was the day I discovered toddler nipples. The perfect combination between a milk bottle nipple and a sippy cup.
I had to get my hands on one.
There were tons of brands that made them but two stuck out that day on my computer screen – The Pura Kiki which is a stainless steel bottle and the thinkbaby.
Both bottles boast being able to grow with your child. You can start your child with the traditional baby nipples and when your child, like Cree, is in that funky in-between stage, these bottles allow you switch the nipples out into toddler nipples. Once your child is ready for a “big girl/boy” cup, there are sippy inserts that can be bought and used. This means you can basically use the same bottle for three years-ish…
I WAS SOLD.
The question was then, which to get? Since I’m all about covering my bases, I figured why not get both? Especially since both were available in the toddler version and since I was going to get them off Amazon and have to pay for delivery anyway.
I ordered a purple pura kiki, and a thinkbaby in stage c on Amazon then hunkered down for the two week wait.
FAST FORWARD TWO WEEKS LATER
I’d never been so excited to see an Amazon box, nor had I seen prettier bottles than the two that sat in that box (again, all mental). Their arrival was perfectly timed too. Right before Cree’s after-dinner bottle.
Whipping them out of the box and ripping apart the packaging, they were quickly washed before I made the all-important decision as to which bottle to give her first. Now, this alone required quite a bit of thought, after all, I had two chances and they had to count.
Since the pura kiki was prettier (it is!), I figured wouldn’t it be awesome if that was the one she fell in love with and gave it to her first despite the much bigger price tag.
Immediately though, I noticed one HUGE issue. The nipple itself, as pretty as it was, was really really hard and the holes were such that she had to bite down on the nipple while sucking just to get the milk out. This meant that once the nipple came out of her mouth, so did a really nice trickle of milk. It took her about three tries before she gave me a look that made it VERY clear that this would not be her new bottle replacement.
The other issue I had with this was that even though the i like the idea of aluminum, it means that her little hands get very cold, very fast. Much colder than when holding a plastic bottle in my opinion. Pura kiki does sell an insulation sleeve, but that idea that I have to pay more for something that should not be an issue in the first place…not a fan.
It comes with a soft silicon cover. Again, for some reason I didn’t like it. Yanking it off and trying to put it back on was a bit of an ordeal since it kept losing its shape and sticking to the bottle.
The markings on the bottle are also all on the inside. Not a huge deal, but I like knowing how much I’m putting in, and how much she’s had without having to open the top every time.
Bottom line, I’ll stick with one Pura Kiki thanks.
MOVING ON.
I grabbed the thinkbaby. MY. LAST. STAND.
Feeling the nipple on the thinkbaby, it was much softer which immediately made it more promising since I figured it might give her the same comfort a regular nipple did (she’s a nipple chewer), while getting her used to a different shape. I also liked the fact that it’s handle could be removed. In my life, options are always good. The bottle itself is also clear which means the markings are easy to read. Again, a good thing.
I put the milk in, gave it to her and held my breath.
What happened next was worthy of glowing lights and a holy choir going AAAHHHHHHHH!
She took her first sip right in front of me, looked at it again, ran over to the couch, lay right down and proceeded to finish her milk.
In short, she loved it!
Since that day, the thinkbaby, complete with handles has been my go-to in the middle of the night as well as on flights, when she needs that extra comfort.
We’ve yet to experience any leaks with it, even though I’ve seen some reviews that say it does tend to leak with the handles on. (Knocks on wood)
The only downside to the thinkbaby is that I can’t find these in ANY store in Seoul. Luckily, I managed to stock up on our last trip to the US (I swear by the end of our two week stay, the lady in the store was my new best friend), but other than that, all our purchases have been made on Amazon (I do huge bulk orders of stuff which help me justify the delivery cost.)
There are a few other things thinkbaby promises, bpa free, no toxic dyes, no animal testing (more information can be found here http://gothinkbaby.com/) which is really nice but to be honest, the only thing I really care about is that is works.
The thinkbaby in stage c is USD9.99 on Amazon and KRW28,500 on gmarket while the pura kiki sippy bottle is USD17.73 on Amazon and KRW30,000 on gmarket.
a mommy's view 