My Favorite Baby Bottle Warmer! The Baby’s Brew Review

This post was previously published on The Formula Mom’s website.

Bottle feeding is more work than people give it credit for… the prepping, storing, heating and cleaning is a lot, and it’s even harder when you’re not at home!

Traveling with formula or breastmilk is a science, and today I’m sharing my favorite hack for feeding on the go. 

Read on for my review of The Baby’s Brew portable warmer, an overview of the features, and why I prefer it to others on the market when you need to quickly warm up infant formula or breastmilk.

Why Use a Bottle Warmer?

First, it’s important to know that most babies don’t need to drink warm milk. It is perfectly fine to serve room temperature milk or to offer milk cold from the fridge if your baby will take it! Even so, there are a few reasons why parents may want to warm breastmilk or formula:

• Their baby is a preemie and has trouble regulating his or her temperature
• They’re concerned about weight gain and want to eliminate the calorie spend required to warm milk internally
• Their baby prefers warm milk and/or won’t take milk of other temperatures
• They believe warm milk reduces digestive symptoms and/or helps calm their baby

If you’re in this boat, you’re not alone! Just know that the method you use to warm the milk matters.

Safe Warming for Breastmilk or Formula

Years ago parents were instructed to warm bottles in the microwave. This is a huge no-no today! Warming bottles in a microwave can cause hot spots to form in the bottle which creates a burn risk. High temperatures can also degrade the quality of nutrients in milk (particularly the bioactive components of breastmilk) and, if using plastic bottles, can cause microplastic chemicals to leach from the bottle into the milk. 

High heat is no good for warming milk!

Instead, milk should be warmed with a lower, consistent temperature. The problem? Babies don’t like to wait for their milk. A hungry baby plus tons of time spent on warming is a recipe for tears (from both baby and parent). Instead, you need a product that uses low, consistent heat but warms quickly and efficiently.

Why I Love The Baby’s Brew Portable Bottle Warmer

Most bottle warmers on the market have some tricky issues, including:

• A wall-outlet plug for electricity
• A basin for boiling water (which creates a burn risk, and can cause plastic leaching if a bottle is submerged)
• Slow, inconsistent heating that depends on the type of bottle, the type of milk, and the starting temperature of the milk

While these sorts of challenges may not be a problem for you at home, this is not what you want if you’re out and about. Who wants to bring a generator with them to soccer practice simply to heat a bottle? Not me!

This is why I love The Baby’s Brew, a rechargeable, battery-powered bottle warmer for use at home and on the go! This hand-held device holds a charge all day and can be charged using any USB port (at home, with a car adapter, or with a portable charger).

Here’s what you need to know about this fancy product that’s changing the game for bottle warming:

Slow-Heat Technology

The Baby’s Brew uses a totally different mechanism to warm liquids compared to traditional bottle warmers. While old-school warmers submerge or envelop the entire bottle to provide heat, the Baby’s Brew heats the milk itself through direct contact. This means that the plastic of the bottle only gets as warm as the milk and that the heat disperses evenly throughout the milk (avoiding the creation of hot spots).

Stainless Steel Heating Plate plus BPA-Free Silicone Cover

In order to heat the milk itself, The Baby’s Brew features a stainless steel heating plate. To heat a bottle, the bottle collar is removed and the bottle is screwed into the Baby’s Brew warmer. The bottle is then flipped upside down, allowing the milk to come into contact with the stainless steel heating plate. Once the milk reaches the appropriate temperature, simply flip over the bottle, unscrew from the Baby’s Brew warmer and attach the collar and nipple. When not in use, the Baby’s Brew also features a BPA-free silicone cover to keep the heating plate clean and protected from dirt and germs.

Four Temperature Settings

Like I mentioned earlier, some babies are particular about the temperature of their milk! The Baby’s Brew Bottle Warmer offers four temperature settings to accommodate different needs:

• 80° F – slightly warmer than room temperature
• 98.6° F – body temperature, which may be ideal for breastfed babies
• 103° F – the default temperature of other bottle warmers
• 110° F – the max temperature you’d want (above this, probiotics or other bioactive components in breastmilk may be destroyed)

Milk takes 5-10 minutes to heat depending on starting temperature.

Adaptors to Fit Popular Bottle Brands

This is my favorite feature of The Baby’s Brew! Standard warmers have trouble adapting to different types of bottles, and changing the type of bottle used in the warmer tends to create drastically different warming times.

The Baby’s Brew features a collection of adaptors (sold separately) to make it compatible with most bottle brands on the market, including Dr. Browns, Medela, MAM, Comotomo, Boon Nursh, Tommee Tippee and more. 

The Baby’s Brew Portable Warmer

The Baby’s Brew portable bottle warmer is a great option for heating infant formula, breastmilk, water, or cow’s milk at home and on the go.

Do you have the Baby’s Brew and love it? What are your favorite features, or the most unconventional place you’ve warmed up a bottle? Let me know at The Formula Mom.