We’re STILL Tommee Tippee Mumb@ssadors!

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I’m chuffed to bits to have been asked to continue in my role as Tommee Tippee Mumb@ssador this year. My family all know I’m the go-to girl when they’re making purchasing decisions for baby, and Heidi is a walking (and sort of talking) advert for Tommee Tippee as it is!

She’s got all the gear; from bottles, to spoons; from baby monitor to nappy bin. We’ve reviewed it all on this very blog, in black and white (with a healthy smattering of pics). Our aim was always to deliver no-nonsense posts designed to show mums and dads nationwide how Tommee Tippee go the extra mile for babies and toddlers - and it seems that’s set to continue!

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SOME PREVIOUS REVIEWS

Tommee Tippee Sippee Cups

Tommee Tippee Sangenic Nappy Bin

Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep Machine

Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser

Tommee Tippee Digital Video Monitor

In my role, I’ll continue to bring the latest news from the brand including reviews, competitions and product launches, alongside my awesome fellow mumb@ssadors and dadvoc@tes:

Laura at Mummy’s Zone, Colette from We’re Going on an Adventure, Mrs Gorami from Dancing in my Wellies, Chris from Daddycamo, Kerry from Oh So Amelia, Emily from London Mummy of Two Girls, James from Daddy Space, Al from The Dad Network, Aby from You Baby Me Mummy, Jennie from Edspire, Liza from Glambeautys and Chelle from Unique and Chic!

If, like me, you have to know all the gossip first, you can try and beat us to it by visiting tommeetippee.co.uk or following on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. If not, just make sure you’re subscribed to me and sit back and relax!

Gemma & The Monsters


GIVEAWAY: Win 1 of 5 copies of Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding by Madeleine Morris & Dr Sasha Howard (CD: 31/10/2014)

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I’ve written dozens of posts now about breastfeeding. Although I’d urge mum (that can!) to try and breastfeed, I know better than most that it isn’t easy. I lasted 6 weeks with both of my babies and I’m incredibly proud of myself for lasting that long.

With both children I was hit by crippling depression and anxiety. Although I believe every mother has the capacity to breastfeed, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best thing for her or her baby. My mental health really suffered as a result of breastfeeding and yet I put myself under incredible pressure to continue. Panic attacks ensued and I wound up being hospitalised several times. As a result I wasn’t the best mother I could be, and I didn’t enjoy those first precious weeks with Dexter or Heidi.

But Breast is Best… right?

Maybe not. Madeleine Morris and Dr Sasha Howard have now launched a myth-busting book that shows women they are not bad mothers if they can’t or don’t want to breastfeed; Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding - why your formula-fed baby can be happy, healthy and smart.

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This isn’t an anti-breastfeeding book, it’s an anti-guilt book

Unfortunately, in the quest to promote breastfeeding, formula and mothers who formula-feed or mix-feed have become demonised… We have all come to believe that ‘good mothers breastfeed, bad mothers bottle feed’. This is not only simply wrong, this ill-founded belief is damaging mothers, and their relationships with their babies, in what should be one of the happiest times of their lives. Madeleine Morris

9781908281777
Half of all British babies will have a bottle of formula before they are a week old and their mothers feel guilty. They feel guilty because every single book, poster and midwife tells them that breastfeeding is the single most important thing they can do for their babies.
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But for some families, breast isn’t best. Some mums don’t produce enough milk, some have post-natal depression, others are juggling two kids already, or need to go back to work, and some mums simply don’t like breastfeeding. Are they bad mothers? No! But they believe themselves to be.
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Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding, written by award winning former BBC presenter Madeleine Morris and paediatrician Dr Sasha Howard resets the conversation around infant feeding, revealing how the benefits of breastfeeding have been oversold to British parents, and showing guilt-wracked new mothers they have not failed their babies by giving them formula.
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With a thorough, yet easy-to-understand analysis of science, parenting sociology and the modern media, Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding provides a balanced, much- needed and long-overdue alternative view to the simplistic message that ‘breast is best’. This practical book proves that despite the huge pressure women feel to breastfeed, it possible to raise perfectly happy, healthy and smart bottle-fed and mixed-fed children.

Breast milk is wonderful stuff… but sometimes breastfeeding doesn’t work out, for a huge number of complex physical and social reasons. We need to show mums they are not failures for giving their babies a bottle. Dr Sasha Howard

Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding:
  • Examines over a hundred original medical journal articles to show the benefits of breastfeeding in the developed world are not as clear cut as women are told
  • Looks at emerging evidence that the immense pressure to breastfeed is now a contributing factor to post-natal depression
  • Shows how sloppy science reporting, ill-informed websites and celebrity culture unfairly demonise bottle feeding, leaving mothers feeling like failures
  • Points out the double standards of a medical system which relentlessly pressures mothers to breastfeed, but doesn’t provide them with the support they need
  • Calls for an individually tailored ‘feeding plan’, to give mothers a realistic feeding goal rather than the blanket 6-month exclusive breastfeeding target, which 98% of UK mums fail to meet
  • Calls for a mother’s physical and mental needs to be valued in the feeding relationship
  • Reveals the ‘X-Factor’ of breastfeeding research, and why we may never know the differences between breastfed and formula-fed babies
  • Gives a large, detailed guide to choosing a formula, safe bottle preparation and how to bottle feed for maximum health and bonding – information which is shamefully lacking in the NHS.
Told with humour and personal experience yet grounded in years of fastidious research, Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding is a much needed real-world counterpoint to the almost religious promotion of breastfeeding which now dominates medical and parenting discourse.
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As mothers who both breast- and bottle-fed their babies (they met at their NCT class), and decorated professionals in their fields of journalism and paediatrics, Madeleine Morris and Dr Sasha Howard are uniquely placed to provide evidence-based reassurance to mothers they are not failures if they don’t exclusively breastfeed.
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Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding: Why your formula-fed baby can be happy, healthy and smart By Madeleine Morris & Dr Sasha Howard is available on Amazon for £7.59 (ISBN: 9781908281777), or in e-book format for £6.99 (ISBN: 9781908281784)
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*** GIVEAWAY ***

I haven’t read this book yet, but a copy is on its way to me. As someone who staunchly believes that breast isn’t always best and advocates pro-choice when it come to feeding your baby, I’m all for it.

If you’re currently bottlefeeding, pregnant, or just interested in the findings, you can win 1 of 5 copies right here. Just enter via the rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

T&C’s – a.k.a – the boring bit!
    • Only 1 option is mandatory (leave me a comment) – the rest only improve your chances of winning so just complete as many as you feel like
    • UK entrants only – you must be over 18 too (sorry)
    • The winners will be contacted by email and must respond within 1 week of having been emailed (I’ll try all known avenues to contact them) or a new winner will be drawn
    • When the giveaway is closed, Rafflecopter will select the winner completely at random
    • The winners name will be published on this site

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com


Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser Review

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Let’s face it, sterilising bottles is one of the biggest faffs you have to contend with as a new parent. With guidelines changing every five minutes, bottle-feeding mamas don’t seem to stand a chance of keeping up. As if it wasn’t stressful enough getting to know your new baby and trying to piece together a routine, feeding times involve a punishing ritual of washing up, sterilising, boiling water, and mixing feeds.

Even if you’re breastfeeding, there’s still a surprising amount of baby paraphernalia that will require the bacteria-zapping treatment (think dummies, breast pump parts, medicine spoons… the list is endless). Milton steriliser tabs are great short term solution for hospital stays or holidays, but for day-to-day sterilising you need the convenience of an electric steriliser or you’re likely to lose the will to live.

Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser

I’ve had dozens of electric sterilisers in my time but none come close to the Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser. I’m not just saying this because I’m a TT Mumb@ssador, I’m perfectly brave enough to call a spade a spade. I’m saying it because it’s absolutely true. And to prove it, I’m going against the grain and am going to share exactly why it kicks butt… against its two biggest rivals; The Philips Avent 3-in-1 Electric Steam Steriliser and Dr Brown’s Deluxe Electric Steriliser.

It’s HUGE

Not huge as in ‘takes over’ your kitchen, it’s actually far more slimline than the Dr Brown’s. No, by huge I mean you’re able to sterilise 6x chunky bottles (of virtually any brand) in one hit. Other sterilisers will claim to do the same thing, but as their own-brand bottles are smaller than Tommee Tippee’s, you might not be able to sterilise all your bottles if you have various makes.

Sterilising 6 bottles in one go is a godsend. You might be following the guidelines of your preferred formula to the letter, but your baby is bound to have other ideas. For example, Heidi is supposed to have 5x 180mls feeds per day, but she’ll often decline a bottle halfway through. This means she can make her way through 8x bottles easily in one 24 hour period. The more I can sterilise in one go, the better.

Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser

It’s SPEEDY

With the above in mind, you might be thinking you’d have to be incredibly disorganised to get caught short with no clean bottles. Well, I’m incredibly disorganised.

There is nothing worse in this life than being woken up by a hungry baby at 4am, making your way downstairs in the pitch black, changing a nappy with your finger in your little one’s mouth to stop the screaming, rushing into the kitchen to grab a bottle, and… there’s no clean bottles.

The Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser can sterilise 6 bottles in just 5 minutes (as a quick comparison, Dr Brown’s takes a whopping 12 minutes). So a quick dunk and scrub in the washing up bowl, a speedy rinse with cold water, then plopping them into the steriliser, and you could have the whole lot done in under 15 minutes. Trust me, this is important when your baby is hysterical in the dead of the night.

Bottles stay sterilised for 24 HOURS

No explanation needed on this one. I bet you a fiver you can’t make 6 bottles last a full day anyway.

Easy to use with no gimmicks

The Dr Brown’s sterilser is highly rated, but in my opinion, is a massive faff. You don’t need trays galore to sterilise bottles, you just need something that works.

Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser

The Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser couldn’t be simpler. Bottles go upside down, a tray goes on top, the lids and teats sit on the top shelf. Simple.

Fine, the Philips Avent props is intriguing as it’s adjustable in height and width, but I can’t see why this is so great. You have to face facts that when you have a baby, your steriliser is a tool of the trade. It should have pride of place in the kitchen and you will be using it regularly. Why would you bother reducing its size purely to sterilise soothers?

There are extras!

Included inside you get a Closer to Nature Easi-Vent 150ml Baby Bottle, a 0-3m Pure Soother, and some teat tongs. This means you’re ready to go the second you whip it out of the box.

Best of all… Price

Not just price, but value for money. Tommee Tippee just blows its competitor out of the water.

Philips Avent 3-in-1 Electric Steam Steriliser = £60.00

Dr Brown’s Deluxe Electric Steriliser = £52.20

Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser = £46.99 (…and the bottles are cheaper too!)

Need I say more…?

To find out more visit tommee.tippee.co.uk or connect with the brand on Facebook and Twitter

This Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Steriliser review, is brought to you as part of a series of reviews as brought about by our involvement in the TT Mumb@ssador scheme. This product was provided to me free of charge in exchange for my opinion.

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