The act of making a bottle is often a frantic one—you're probably dealing with a baby who is already upset or close to it. Working with an overly complicated or confusing bottle warmer just adds anxiety to the mix.
I tried a few of the newest bottle warmers with my own baby to see whether they make bottle warming easier or unnecessarily complex.
Baby Brezza Safe + Smart Bottle Warmer
The ideal warming speed of a bottle warmer varies widely by what's being warmed. For instance, a frozen bag of breast milk needs to be warmed more slowly than a bottle of formula or jar of baby food. Luckily, the Safe + Smart Bottle Warmer from Baby Brezza is a versatile piece of equipment. Tell this warmer the starting temperature of the milk or food, select the perfect warming speed, and off it goes. This warmer beeps to let you know when it's done, but you'll also get a notification on your phone. And all the programming can be done in the app.
Chicco NaturalFit
In our family, this is the official grandma-approved bottle warmer. The Chicco NaturalFit is smart enough to have several warming programs for different bottle sizes and jar foods, but simple enough to be a good option for caretakers who use it only occasionally. The NaturalFit is a wonderful mix of intuitive controls and versatility.
Kiinde Kozii
The Kiinde Kozii bottle warmer can be used to thaw frozen breast milk safely, since it uses warm water to slowly heat the bag or bottle. When you're in a hurry, this probably isn't going to be your favorite bottle warmer, but the controls are simple—just dial to a time and let it go. One element that will be either a pro or con depending on your situation is that when the timer is up, it doesn't make any noise. When you're trying not to wake a sleeping baby, that's perfect. But if you tend to walk away while your bottle’s warming, you might be disappointed with this one.
The First Years Remote Control Bottle Warmer
The First Years Remote Control Bottle Warmer offers bleary-eyed parents a better option for bottle feeding at night. In addition to operating like a normal bottle warmer, it can keep a prepared bottle cold for up to eight hours and warm it remotely from elsewhere in the house. You can prepare a bottle before bed, load it into the warmer with the supplied ice packs, set the desired warming program, and go to sleep. It will perform the program you've selected when you press the remote. The warmer has a handy slide-out warming guide to help you choose the right time, and it can also be operated via the controls on the unit when you don't want to use the remote.
The Best Baby Monitors
For more, check out PCMag's roundup of the Best Baby Monitors and How Amazon Alexa Can Make Life Easier.