Bottle Brushes
Baby bottles are a necessity in every household, and so are the bottle brushes to keep them clean. Even breastfeeding mothers will require the use of a bottle sometimes. Bottles can make life a little easier by giving you a break from feeding. Bottles let dad or another friend or relative to bond with your baby during feeding.
Cleaning baby bottles is not as fun or easy. Even with a dishwasher, formula or breast milk residue can build up at the bottom of a bottle and inside the nipple. A bottle brush is the only tool that can get into these trouble spots and remove the build up.
Bottle brushes are specially designed to scrape away at the residue that builds up in bottles, nipples, and even sippy cup valves. They have long handles with curved bristles at one end that can reach to the bottom of the bottle; the bristles can be wire, plastic, nylon, or silicone.
Most bottle brushes measure ten inches long. Long bottle brushes provide enough room to clean eight ounce bottles. Some bottle brush handles have a hole for hanging the bottle brush.
Rinse the brush with hot water and let it hang dry to prevent mold from forming in the bristles. Other bottle brush handles are designed to float so you never lose your brush in the suds while doing dishes.
Some bottle brushes have a nipple/valve brush that stores inside the handle of the bottle brush. The nipple brush is easy to remove from the main brush with a gentle pull. To put the nipple brush back into the bottle brush, you insert it into the handle and twist it into place.
Nipple brushes may have bristles similar to the bottle brush. Bristled nipple brushes may tear rubber or latex nipples so you want to clean nipples gently. Some nipple brushes just have raised silicone ridges to clean nipples without tearing them.
If you use angled bottles, you want to make sure your bottle brush is flexible enough to reach the bottom of your bottle. Most bottle brushes are flexible enough to squeeze into any opening and easily clean angled bottles.
