The picture below will show you what I mean when I say, it's a marvel of baby science.
Before continuing the review of this bottle, let me make this clear. This bottle is by no means an excuse to get in that extra hour of PS3 time! This bottle does make life easier to manage when washing dishes, doing the laundry, driving and posting a comment. ;)
When we first got the bottle, I immediately ripped open the package and took out all the parts to see what I was up against. Boy oh boy! was there a lot of parts! There was a total of 8 parts to this contraption. After throwing away the instructions, which I would not recommend. I preceded to put it together and test it out on my son. (poor little guy)
When I plugged the nipple in his mouth, he started sucking right away and satisfied with a triumphant smile
I took two sighs of relief, one for being able to get more done now and the second for being able to put it together on the first go without instructions.The bottle over all was great at first for a few weeks, I was able to do more in less time and had a happier baby. There has been some issues though that I will now explain with the bottle. The first issue is cleaning the bottle.
The bottle itself is just as easy to clean as any other bottle. The other components however require a tool that resembles a pipe cleaner. You can usually get the bottle cleaning kit at the store you bought the bottle from or online. The hardest parts to clean are the tubes and can be a pain sometimes. I have found warm soapy water and the tube brush works best.
The next issue is leaks. After doing a little experimenting I have found that the tubes wear out quickly where they connect to the other components. The connecting rings also have no seals in them, which if tightened to much or to little, causes a rather leaky situation. The Podee company must have changed the rings and the thickness of the tubing because the tubes are stiffer and last longer, so does the nipples and the rings do not seem to leak as much anymore.
The only problem with the improved components is now my son can suck away and alot of the time, he cannot get enough suction to cause the fluid to flow up through the tube correctly. I wound up just using the old components which seem to work better but leak more.
The next issue I have found with the bottles is flying milk or juice! My son likes to hold the bottle just by the nipple when drinking from it while standing up. When he does this, the long tube usually pops off and flings milk or juice everywhere which depending on whats in the bottle, can stain fabrics or damage electronics.
The last more serious issue is with possible component breaks. Yesterday, I was putting the nipple and tube back on the bottle when I noticed it would not go back on. Upon further investigation I found that the post the tube connected to the bottle with was broken off inside the tube. Now if it had not been stuck inside the tube securely I might have been taking my son to the E.R!
Other than the serious issue I had with the bottle, it has generally worked quite well for our needs. I would give this bottle a 3 out of 5 rating just because some of the parts could break causing a safety hazard. I have provided a link below to the manufacturers website for your further review. For you Minnesota dad's I would recommend checking the bottle out more thoroughly at Baby's-R-Us or Toys-R-Us.
For more information on the Podee bottle, check out their website at http://www.podee.com/
I will be reviewing one of their competitors soon called "Pacifeeder". This device looks much more promising.
Happy Feeding!
Note: Please comment on my first attempt at a review :o)
