r/FormulaFeeders • u/Acrobatic-Topic599 • Apr 12 '26
Bottles / Feeding Gear / Equipment 🍼 If you use Philips Avent anti-colic bottles… PLEASE read this before your 4am mental breakdown 😭
Okay I need to share this because I learned it the HARDEST way possible.
Our baby had reflux, so we got those Philips Avent bottles with the green insert to help with air and spit-ups.
For MONTHS this is what we were doing: Make formula → close bottle → put it in warmer → feed baby.
Looks totally fine when you take it out.
But then while feeding… it starts leaking. Like fully leaking.
Milk everywhere. Baby soaked. Clothes change. New bottle. Crying (both baby and me 🥲).
And this always happened at like 4am when you're already half dead.
We kept thinking we didn’t close it properly but that wasn’t the issue.
Finally figured it out the hard way: When you heat the bottle AFTER assembling it, something happens inside (maybe pressure or whatever) and it starts leaking.
What worked for us: Warm the milk first without the green insert, and then assemble the bottle with the green insert.
Then feed
After doing this we had no leaks.
Just putting this out there in case it saves one tired parent from losing their mind in the middle of the night like we did.
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u/PercentageSignal3457 Apr 12 '26
This happens with the Dr. Browns bottles with the green inserts too. I can’t remember if it was on the bottle packaging or the bottle warmer, but one specified not to warm the bottle with the inserts in it already.
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u/Rana_Sunshine Apr 12 '26
Mine has leaks but we don’t warm bottles. Do you have any idea what it could be? I use a bottle washer and dryer
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u/Anxious-Mongoose858 Apr 12 '26
You can't shake the Dr Brown bottles if you use the green insert. Either swirl the formula or shake the bottle without the insert, overwise it will leak. Apparently it's in the manual, but who reads those? 😂
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u/Rana_Sunshine Apr 12 '26
Oh I didn’t know that but I use the pitcher method so I don’t shake or swirl the bottle unless we’re out and about. Good tip!
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u/MamaLoNCrew Apr 13 '26
You literally have to close those bottles SO tight, and make sure the top of the green part is in the tube part perfectly or it def always leaks!
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u/morbid_n_creepifying Apr 12 '26
You have to tighten them way more than you think you do. That's was solved mine. As soon as we started using them again (used them for our first kid who's 3 now and using them again for our second who's 10 weeks old) we started having leaks again and I was like "ohhhh, yes, this bullshit. I forgot about the bullshit". Since I've been tightening them more than I feel comfortable with, they don't leak anymore.
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u/dollrussian Apr 12 '26
…… my feeding specialist told us that you don’t have to tighten them super tight and instead should do a half turn to loosen.
Can somebody come to an official consensus on this cuz what the fuck lol
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u/Decent-Hippo-615 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
No you def have to close it super tight, like they can’t close any more.
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u/dollrussian Apr 12 '26
See, this is what I mean. I don’t know if maybe it’s different because we have to use a special blue disk to create the suction (cleft kiddo) but like the internet is telling me one thing, the specialists are telling me something else.
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u/Gullible_Desk2897 Apr 12 '26
When the blue disc is in it makes it different! Because it doesn’t allow the formula or air to go back into the bottle the same way. We had to make it looser when using the disc as well.
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u/morbid_n_creepifying Apr 12 '26
You have to close it super tight, but not when using the pacing disc (the blue disc). That's totally different.
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u/Rana_Sunshine Apr 12 '26
Thanks for the tip! You mean tighten the cap in general right? Not the green inserts? I just push them in all the way
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u/PersimmonTop3159 Apr 12 '26
I had to switch out my baby’s bottle nipples. As soon as I moved up to a bigger bottle and a faster flow nipple, the leaking stopped. I was never overfilling them, but even with 3 oz in a 4 oz bottle, they would still leak. It almost seemed like a vacuum was forming inside the bottle, which made it leak through the green insert. Then I tried switching to a size 1 nipple, he was almost 3 months old and had been using the T, and the difference was huge!
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u/justforthehellofit Apr 12 '26
I screw them with the bottle on the counter, and apply downward force on the cap while also screwing. We’ve been using these bottles since my son was born and he’s 8 months now! I do get the occasional leak, but it’s normally the nipple needing readjusting. I just push/squeeze the nipple around where it meets the base and that does the trick.
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u/morbid_n_creepifying Apr 12 '26
Yeah when I have to warm these bottles I always make sure the cap is all the way loosened so the pressure can't build.
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u/linixya Apr 12 '26
Also if you close the bottle too tight. When baby starts drinking (at least ours), the pressure increased and the bottle started leaking. Just hand tight fix the leaking issue.
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u/aleper Apr 12 '26
Happened to us too, even without heating! My other tip for the green insert - line it up with the Avent logo so you always know that should be the top. We spent too long trying to eye where it was when using the small bottles and the milk took up most of it. So glad we were finally able to move onto the bottle without them!
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u/unplan4610 Apr 12 '26
I do this too with the logo! There’s also an inverted bump on the bottom of the bottle that lines up with the logo so I can feel with my finger that the vent is upright in the middle of the night if I feel for that indent
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u/Waaterfight Apr 12 '26
I wonder if you can just "burp" the bottle after it's warmed. Untwist the cap a little to let the pressure out.
We warm my son's nightly milk in a dr brown sippy cup. Have to leave the straw out until it's warmed because the pressure inside will push milk out of the straw and into the warmer
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u/marcello1395 Apr 12 '26
Better yet, give them cold milk and this problem doesn’t exist lol
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u/Acrobatic-Topic599 Apr 12 '26
Haha true, our LO actually preferred the RTF room temperature ones, but when we moved to the bigger bottles and store the remaining milk in the fridge thats when this started
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u/Acrobatic-Topic599 Apr 12 '26
Yeah eventually when the baby grew a little older we stopped using the inserts too
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u/lo-- Apr 12 '26
Yep! We used Dr browns, but I remember reading you have to heat it up with the vent system not in the bottle. Dr browns made screw lids for their bottles we’d use when heating it up.
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u/GullibleFeedback7091 Apr 12 '26
I absolutely hated those bottles. I used the 4oz no problem with some leaks but when switched to the large 9oz they leaked like crazy. For some reason those green things just didn’t fit correctly.
I’ve since ditched them for Phillips Avent Natural bottles and those are amazing!! Baby is 9 months so I’m not worried about colic but im so glad I switched because they are way better.
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u/mlegere Apr 12 '26
What I was finally told many months in was just to tighten the top, then loosen it slightly. Never had a problem again.
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u/Brisbane4500 Apr 12 '26
If you are in Australia look at Lil’Kooee - no plastic insert required so less plastic in bubs milk and no leaking ever! Win win!
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u/Vegetable_Yam_7436 Apr 12 '26
Uhmmmmmn lifesaver!!!!! Idk what it was I thought the bottle washer was warping the lids! Povider prescribed 15mL of prune juice for one of my twins for constipation and it leaks. EVERY. TIME. I just tried your method and I am free from the brown stained tyranny at last!