Saturday, January 8, 2011

Little Bean Sterilizer & Warmer

This is my own free review based on my personal opinion and experience. I hope this review can help a lot of mothers-to-be out there with their planning and purchase.

Remember when I bought my Little Bean brand Bottle Steam Sterilizer and Warmer before I delivered? Well, it proof to be few of my best purchases so far, eventhough I can still wish for few features to be thrown in together. Let's get straight to the point:

A. Little Bean Steam Sterilizer
This steam sterilizer is in my opinion, a better alternative to the conventional method of sterilizing by boiling the bottles.



The pros are;
1. I never have to worry about forgetting to switch off the gas and frying the bottles instead.
2. It took only 8 minutes for the whole process.
3. It's easy to use. Just a push of a button.
4. It use only 90ml of water for the steaming process.
5. Can sterilize 6 bottles at one time, and can fit most wide neck bottles.
6. Resterilizing is possible and easy by just pushing the button again.

The cons are;
1. Of course it is the costliest among all method. But Little Bean steam sterilizer and warmer are one of the cheapest combo buy around.
2. The steam droplet stays on the bottles and accessories long after steaming process completed. Drying is a problem, so if you want, you may opt for a steam sterilizer that come with a drying option. There is one brand of steam sterilizer with this option, you can try look for it in Littlewhiz.com. (I against drying it on the drying rack as it is exposed to the environment, and can cause contamination instead. I use Ikea drying bowl that come with a cover, at least it's better than exposing it to the environment).


Wish Ikea had been more sensitive to the Bidayuh in choosing their product name hahaha! (Tokig means poopoo owkay? LOL)


B. Little Bean Warmer


We (me, my MIL, SIL and hubby) really love this little milk&food warmer/juicer for these reasons:

1. Compare to warming milk in hot water, the temperature stay 'constant' as it has a thermostat that can control water temperature to your selection. It means, the hot water will not turn cold, which is the case for the conventional method. This proof to be very useful when you are not using the milk immediately, but just to get it ready by the time the baby cry, or when u have unfinished milk. This reason alone far outweighing the cons of using this warmer.
Note: I heat up storage bottles instead of feeding bottles, so that I can half the quantity and use the rest for later, or when baby wants more than usual. I advise against reheating feeding bottles with unfinished milk because the teats is already tainted. I only do this if I continue feeding her with the same bottle she used before her shower, which is only a short span
.
2. You can use it to heat up solid food when the baby is older.
3. It can be use to sterilize small accessories like pacifier, but I don't normally use it for this purpose.

The cons however are;
1. That I wish I have bought one that can be used in the car or everywhere else. Little Bean also have a separate model that does have car adaptor with it. But I wish more for one that is portable AND battery operated, which I haven't found yet.
2. When you heat up storage bottles, there is a chance of heat build up in the bottle as the heat could not escape. So please check for temperature of milk before giving it to your baby. What I did is to loosen the cap of the storage bottle a bit so that it can release the heat during prolong warming of the water.
3. It can be a bit slow compare to hot water, so you need to set temp selection to higher at the beginning to melt frozen milk or to fasten the heating (not too high, you'll destroy the nutrition value of the breast milk), then lower it down to desired selection. Based on my experience, the selection of milk warming at 40deg only means the bottle is hot, but not the milk, unless you wait for few cycles of heating. So it takes some getting use to, to maximise the potential of this warmer.
4. If you dont switch off the main power overnight, the water may dry up eventually, so beware. Eventhough the thermostat still work to protect the warmer, errr.. you don't want that to happen do you? These warmers are not cheap leyy..

Note : If you are formula-feeding, this warmer may not be necessary except when you start on solids.

25 comments:

  1. owh..tokig is poopoo?
    let's blame the swedish then. i guess they are the one responsible for this. hahaha

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  2. lvy : hope it's useful for you too. maklum u dah expert, maybe can learn a thing or 2 from u too.

    isabelle : haha!

    coffee girl : any mama out there can't help it i think :D

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  3. Hi there. Nice blog. You have shared useful information. Keep up the good work! This blog is really interesting and gives good details. steam sterilizer, autoclaves.

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  4. A good review! Wish to clik a LIKE. Im thinking wether to buy it or not since it take times.to warm the milk...but with ur tipss...i gt my answer. :)

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  5. But i think urs is 100watt which come together with sterileser. If jus buy a warmer it jus 80watt...is slower to warm the milj.

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  6. i...already got this stuff, but dont know how to use the bottle warmer. i use the selection 40'c but the milk still cold (take out from freezer)

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    Replies
    1. Hi fayzal,did you manage to solve the problem? How to use the little bean? TIA.

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    2. Hi fayzal,did you manage to solve the problem? How to use the little bean? TIA.

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    3. The explanation already in my post. The warmer need getting use to, but once u get it, its very useful

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  7. Hi, I need help. What does the light indicator on the little bean does? Once I place the milk bottle in to the warmer and set to 40°... How long do I wait for it? My little bean light indicator goes on and off. Is that normal? TIA.

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    Replies
    1. See my reply below. Sorry for the extremely late reply

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  8. Hi all, i didnt realized ur comments where here, i just read it today. The light indicator is for the thermostat, this warmer act like ur cloth iron. True its a bit slow to warm and need few cycles of on/off, the warmer is good when u have regular timing of baby feeding. Not recommended for a screaming babies cos they cant wait that long :D

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  9. Hi Nini, need your comment. I noticed there are water which drops back ibto the base of the sterilizer. Do you dry it up before each use?

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  10. Hi Nini, need your comment. I noticed there are water which drops back ibto the base of the sterilizer. Do you dry it up before each use?

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  11. No, i didnt dry it, just use the bottles wet. But if some of the bottles unused after 24hrs, ill just re-sterilized it back. Re-sterlization is so easy, just push the button and thats it. But based on my experience, its better to clean up the whole sterilzer every few days. The one thing it cant clean is fat, esp breastmilk which is rich wt fat.

    Eversince this post was made, i have use anothed type of sterilizer, which is microwavable. This is far more convinient.

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  12. Hi Nimi,
    Thank you for your nice post.My first visit to your blog and it's really nice and fulfill information.My opinion this steam sterilizer is better alternative Dr. brown stream sterilizer. It's a Breast milk and baby foods warmer.

    Thanks again

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  13. Hi,
    Here more about bottle warmer and sterilizer.
    Save your money and time . it's work easily and smooth

    ReplyDelete
  14. I appreciate everything you have added to my knowledge base.Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer.Thanks.
    best baby bottle warmer for breastmilk

    ReplyDelete
  15. Replies
    1. No i am looking to buy sterilisers warmer, do you know any seller who can sell this at reasonable cost. If yes then do let me know about that seller.

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  16. Thanks for the information it was a great help for me. best bottle warmer reviews

    ReplyDelete