BARE: New baby bottle designed to better emulate the real thing

BABY GIZMO

BARE: New baby bottle designed to better emulate the real thing

By Darren Quick

19:53 May 19, 2011

8 Comments

5 Pictures

The BARE baby bottle is designed to better emulate the shape, texture and functionality of a mother's breast

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Although conventional baby bottles are designed to mimic a mother's breast, if they could talk, most babies - like the World Health Organization - would probably tell you they are a pretty poor substitute for the real thing. Now a New York mom has designed a new type of baby bottle dubbed BARE that is claimed to better emulate a mother's breast in terms of shape, texture and movement, as well as providing the air-free storage and delivery of milk for your bundle of joy.

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Frustrated with the performance of conventional feeding bottles when an inadequate milk supply forced her to supplement her breast feeding with a bottle after the birth of her first child, Priska Diaz set about designing a better baby bottle. Unlike conventional bottles that rely on air vents, gravity and nipples that are generally slimmer and more flexible than a mother's nipple, Diaz designed an air-free bottle to mimic a nursing mother's breast.

Air-plug

The keys to the BARE baby bottle are two patented technologies developed by Diaz. The first is a syringe-like air-plug piston inserted into the bottom of the bottle - which is actually more like an open-ended shaft - that allows mom (or dad) to expel extra air from the bottle before feeding. This air-plug is powered by suction and moves towards the top of the milk chamber as baby sucks down the milk. This results in a milk chamber that is kept 100 percent air-free to reduce air ingestion that causes gas and colic. Diaz says the air-free chamber also helps reduce the chance of milk oxidation and helps maintain milk nutrients that are normally lost when milk comes into contact with air.

Perfe-latch nipple

The second patented technology is the "perfe-latch" nipple that is made from silicone and is designed to mimic the softness and shape of a mother's areola. To promote a proper latching technique, the nipple tip is able to extend up to twice its length upon suction, while five angled orifices are designed to dispense milk only upon suction. This allows the baby the baby's sucking strength to control the flow of the milk in the same way as a mother's breast and negates the need for different nipple stages as the baby grows. It also also minimizes the baby's backwash from entering the bottle, to help keep the milk fresh and slow bacteria growth.

And unlike gravity-fed baby bottles, the BARE bottle allows infants to feed in any position and hold the bottle at any angle. Diaz says this better supports the development of self-feeding, proper posture and faster and more successful weaning. This is because the infant doesn't need to turn the bottle upside down, which can result in laying down when they move onto self-feeding and showering themselves with liquid when they eventually move onto drinking from cups.

Diaz has started a company, Bittylab, and plans to have BARE in major retailers in January 2012. She has also put the bottle on Kickstarter, where pre-orders can be placed for the first production batch at US$15 each to be delivered by December 2011, following lab and clinical trials and consumer testing.

UPDATE 27/12/2011: A pre-production prototype (which you can see in the video below) has now been produced, but the release of BARE air-free baby bottles has been delayed until summer 2012.

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User Comments (8)

The problem with bottle feeding is that artificial nipples often do not simulate the resistance to suckling of a real nipple - babies have to put some effort into it, with gravity fed artificial nipples (if the mother is having a hard time nursing) it's actually easier to suckle from the bottle than the breast and so babies learn to prefer the bottle, and give up on the breast accept for comfort suckling. The objective of a new bottle design, which this may well achieve, is to mimic the breast as closely as possible, to encourage breast feeding and thus increase milk supply from the nursing mother. Having watched my wife go through this process, I've discovered it's not at all as easy as some think, and results in many women simply giving up and going to the bottle.

PeetEngineer - May 20, 2011 @ 07:58 am PDT

I want one!!!!

Dana King - May 20, 2011 @ 08:01 am PDT

@PeetEngineer

You hit the nail on the head!!

One of the many benefits of BARE air-free baby bottle is that it dispenses milk only upon suction and the amount is controlled by the baby's sucking strength, like nature intended. Also the Perfe-latch nipple helps training the baby with latching techniques that may alleviate mom's sore nipples due to improper latching.

Priska Diaz - May 20, 2011 @ 11:24 am PDT

@Dana King

Dana you can pre-order from kickstarter, and have your BARE bottle before retailers. http://kck.st/bareairfree

Priska Diaz - May 20, 2011 @ 11:25 am PDT

Why re-invent the wheel? Playtex have been selling a system (now called Drop Ins) for at least 22 years. I had 4 children and as soon as they made the progress from breast to bottle they used this system. Firstly, it is far better than what this new system "seems" to be because it is far easier to sterilise. The drop in bags are sterile, relatively cheap and therefore a steam steriliser only needs to be used for the holder cylinder, the retaining screw, the cap and the teat. The teats were designed to mimic a mother's nipple and although I can't speak from personal experience of use, my 4 kids never had a problem moving over. They also didn't ever suffer colic or any other problem. So bally hoo for this lady, but in my opinion there's something cheaper, with at least 22 years history (my eldest son is 22) that does the job without technical solutions. Please have a look at my site www.loconoco.com which concentrates on low cost or no cost solutions to problems.

The Master - June 8, 2011 @ 01:14 am PDT

I need one now....ugh I will have weaned in December! I pledged $15 to get the bottle! I am so excited....DD2 is 100% BF...will not take bottle! tried them all...this seems perfect! Will hope to use these with baby 3 eventually!

Amber Noll - July 6, 2011 @ 02:45 pm PDT

@TheMaster Sorry but Drop ins don't even come close to this system. My friend used drop ins and told me how she used them. Here's the math: $8 per container, she bought 3 = $24. Her baby drank in the beginning like 10 bottles a day for a about 2 months, then it dropped to 6 bottles for the next 6 months and then 3 bottles a day for about 4 months. Let me do the math for you, 10 (feedings)x60 (days) = 600 liners, a box of 100 liners is $10. Right there is $60 spent in 2 months. Then 6 (feedings) x 180 (days)= 1080 liners, for this she had to buy another 10.8 boxes, adding another $100 dollars. And the 4th quarter she used 360 liners adding up to another $30. (I'm being kinds and leaving off the .8 + .6 additional liners that equals to 140, another box and a half of liners). In one year she spent over $225 in the Playtex system. I don't call that savings. Even if I were to buy 10 BARE bottles I will only spend $150... Now that's savings!!! I'm pregnant, my baby comes in April and I can't wait to buy the BARE air-free systems. Thank you Ms Priska Diaz for your invention.

Gio - September 28, 2011 @ 08:37 am PDT

Wow... this looks very interesting!!!! I'm going to seriously consider trying these bottles out!!! Thanks, Priska Diaz, for trying to come up with a better option! :) I hope they work as great as this article makes them sound.

Hare Krishna! :)

Kamalini Socha - December 1, 2011 @ 03:49 pm PST