Arshiya and others,

I was wondering if a bottle warmer was a basic necessity. Can we use the microwave or dip in boiling water to accomplish the same. I know it doesn't cost much, but I want to buy only if it is really necessary.

Vindhya Vindhya replied. Thanks for awakening me, girls. Microwave doesn't sound like a good idea at all. I will definitely go for the warmer and the sterilizer, hopefully this weekend.

Thanks,
Vindhya Arshiya replied. Hey Vindhya,
Just like M suggested, I have also read at few places that microwave is not recommended but I have few friends and they have been using microwaves since their babies were born. But, I was just little concern about this, so I just bought sterilizer and a day/night warmer. Like Avi said, it will be very inconvenient to boil water at night and stuff, so I thought of going for that one. Also, if you plan to use microwave and using formula, I guess it would be ok since you can warm the water first in the microwave and then add formula to it, and like M said, you won't get spots of milk, but if you use your own stored breast milk, I guess warmer would be great option.
Or I have seen one of our friend boiling water a lot and puts a milk bottle inside that for a while to bring it to a normal temperature. I guess that also works. But, surely warmer would be more convenient.
About sterilizers, my friend told she used to boil bottles like once a week, but I think we need to do that more often than only once a week atleast 3 times a week, so I just bought sterilizer.
Hope this helps.
Arshiya M replied. Hey Vindhya,
As far as I have read they don't recommend using the microwave since it does not heat the milk evenly. The bottle may have hot spots of milk which may scald the baby. They say that you can use room temp milk as that is fine or just run it under hot tap water. If you do plan to use the micorwave they say that you can heat the milk and then let the bottle stand for like 10 mins so that the temp of the milk is even throughout.
I don't remember where I read this info, but if you want I can search for it again. Let me know.
-M Avi replied. Vindhya, your question applies to bottle and bottle accessory sterilizers too...cause we will need to keep sterilizing things quite often. I guess we can try doing it without them for a while and then decide whether or not it would be more convenient to buy them... Avi replied. Hey Vindhya, I was wondering the same yesterday while I was going over the baby's needs list...

Although not needed, I guess it might come in handy during midnight feedings.. since I am not a big fan of microwaving too much.... I am ok doing it for me and hubby but I am sure, taken how much I worry about the bean's well being already, I doubt I would microwave too much... and boiling water would be a bit of an incovenience during the night...

Lets see what others have to say about it...