(eat) Warming bottles

Many people find bottle warmers to be a waste. I am not one of them. Our bottle warmers ease our (necessarily) meticulous process. But I must say, I was hesitant. Then we were given one and found two on Craiglist from a mom of twins. Because we make all of the bottles ahead of time, all you have to do is turn them on, put the bottles in, set a timer, and then go change the babies.


Purchase the Avent bottle warmer on Amazon

But there are other options. Here are a few I've heard of:
* Microwave (I know, I know, everyone says you should never do this. But it's quick and easy. The microwave creates hot spots, so all you need to do is make sure you swirl the milk around to stabilize the temp. And this is why I love the little infrared thermometer - so you know the exact temperature.)

* Set the bottle in a large cup. Fill around the bottle with warm water. (I tried this but our tap water wasn't warm enough, so this took way too long. And it was hard to find a large container that would hold three bottles upright.)

* Mix the powdered formula with warm water. (This is great for all you folks who can actually mix up formula on the fly. Make sure to test the temperature. Some babies do fine with room temperature milk.)

* Keep bottles with concentrated formula in the fridge. When needed, fill bottles with very hot water. (The cold and hot water should give you the perfect temperature, but it may take a few tries to get the right temperature. This is what we do when we travel. We keep a cooler filled with bottles that have the full amount of powder, but only have the water needed. We also have a thermos filled with very hot water, so all we need to do is fill each bottle with the rest of the needed water and swirl!)

* Crockpot (Keep a crockpot/slow cooker filled with water and leave it on low all day & night. When bottles are needed, put them directly in the water. I'm sure this works, and I love the idea that the crockpot serves an unintended purpose. But I remember my husband telling me the story of his sister's crockpot melting and nearly catching on fire while she left it on to cook one day. I can't seem to get that image out of my head, so I never felt comfortable doing this...)

What am I forgetting? Leave your experiences as a comment.