Philips AventAnti-colic bottle gift set

This newborn starter gift set is a fantastic all-in-one bottle-feeding package for new parents, so it makes a great shower gift -- both cute, well-packaged and extremely useful. The set includes two 4oz wide-neck bottles with size 1 nipples, and two 9oz wide-neck bottles with size 2 nipples, all with special air-free vents, designed to reduce the amount of air that your baby takes in while feeding, and two Soothie pacifiers (for ages 0 - 3 months). If I had known about this gift set before, it would have been on my registry in a heartbeat. These are BPA-free plastic bottles, not glass, which I prefer simply because they're lighter and easier to hold onto for long amounts of time...and in case you're super-tired and occasionally drop things in the kitchen, which is kinda where my level of fatigue and clumsiness is right now, there's no worry that they'll break. They're also easy to clean -- although you will need a separate bottle brush, which doesn't come in the set. (Also to note: I've only used these with breastmilk so far, so haven't had to deal with mixing formula in them.) They have a soft, slightly narrower nipple, which is helpful if your baby has had trouble latching with wider nipples. Ours does best when resting after feeding at a slight angle (head and chest elevated), because of reflux. He took to these bottles very quickly, can use them more easily when feeding upright, seems to be taking in less air than with other bottles, and there's definitely been a decrease in sleep/reflux issues! The best part of the pacifier, which sounds a little weird, is that you can rest your finger inside the hollow nipple, which both helps to hold it inside baby's mouth, and seems to add an extra level of comfort -- he feels the warmth of our finger underneath the plastic (which is really soft and malleable, made for the pre-teeth crowd), which seems to calm him more quickly. The only word of warning is to check the tips of the pacifiers before you use them -- each time. Because they're softer and thinner material, they can break off more easily than a paci for an older child, and probably won't last more than a few weeks, each. Luckily, they're relatively inexpensive, and come two to a pack. Calm, un-refluxy baby = calm mom. Thanks so much to the weeSpring Parent Panel, for sending me this item to review!

The Avent bottles and soothie/paci are a great gift for any new parent! I love the original Avent glass bottles and the anti-colic bottles are just as nice. The fat shape of the bottles is easy to hold and I am a huge fan of how easy it is to wash all the parts of the bottle. The soothie was actually even recommended to us by a speech therapist after our daughter was diagnosed with a tongue tie. We unfortunately switched from our Avent regular bottles to another brand for their anti-colic purposes but I would have 100% went with the Avent anti-colic bottles if I had known about them at the time. Since we had been using the other brand, she refused the ones that we received from the weeSpring Parent Panel which was rather disappointing since they weren't as much work to clean. One thing that was hard for us was that the vent had to be held a certain way and we sometimes fed her in the dark at night so it was hard to make sure the bottle was the right direction but that's a minor inconvenience and not a big deal. These would have been great when we were just starting our journey as parents because they are a great way to see if this brand/style works well for our baby. The soothie is also the best one out there in my opinion and all new parents should get one of them!