Baby Bottles... They are so damn cool

I find Baby Bottles endlessly fascinating; not only as a trigger, but also for their innate variety and form in and of themselves.

The baby bottle has a long history. One of the earliest baby bottles goes back to 1500 B.C.E. It was an urn with a spout at the bottom. Typically a rag would be inserted at the spout as a nipple. In the 1800's the idea of a glass bottle and a nipple, the typical baby bottle we know of today, came to fruition. Back then the nipples were made out of an organic material (like cork) which was soft enough for baby, but wasn't the most hygienic. In the mid 1800's the idea of a rubber teat was discovered, which changed things considerably.

Now for some more personal history. When I was 16, I bought my first bottle for myself. It was a nerve wracking experience, going to the baby section of a department store, for perhaps the first time ever. I felt horribly humiliated, because what was a teenager doing in that section? Everyone m must have known that I was an infantilist. Imagine how I felt when the sales lady asked if she could help me. I found a bottle, and got the hell out of there. Part of me wanted to stay there, and marvel in the row upon row of pacifiers, bottles, feeding spoons, bibs and everything.

Imagine how I felt when upon getting home, there was no cap for the nipple, and I had effectively purchased a defective bottle! So back I go, only to return the bottle, and get a new one, feeling extremely sheepish indeed.

Bottle Types

There are a variety of baby bottles on the market now a days. No longer are we in the world of simple urns and rags. Baby bottles now can have embedded thermometers to make sure the formula isn't too hot, micropores on the bottom to let air enter the bottle without upsetting baby and even bottles to feed babyfood instead of liquid. I'll be going through a few of these, and talking not just about the bottles themselves, but how I feel about them, and how I relate to them.

Standard Bottles

In case you don't remember what they look like, the standard bottle is pictured at the top right. This is almost the iconic image of a baby bottle. It certainly is for me, as this is quite likely the kind of babybottle I had when growing up. These classic bottles make me feel a special kind of funny inside. Unlike some of the other cooler/weirder bottles, where my trigger is in the weirdness of the bottle, the trigger is deeply keyed to my own personal childhood, rather then an abstract notion of babyhood in general.

These classic bottles have a problem: because as more liquid is drawn out through the nipple, a vacuum is created. After a little while, air rushes in through the nipple, and through the liquid inside of it, giving the baby gas in the process.

Playtex Nursers

The Playtex nurser is a newer form of bottle that came out in the late 1960s. It features a bottle "shell" where a plastic bag (called a "bottle liner") is dropped in. The nipple is also typically wider. This design was used to try and stop the gas-problem that the typical bottle had. As the baby sucks the plastic liner can deform its shape, so no vacuum is created, and no air bubbles through the bottle.

I was personally exposed to these bottles later on in my childhood which makes for an interesting set of associations. Rather then a very deep seated babyish feeling that a typical bottle would give me, the Playtex nurser has a more "refined" babyish feeling associated with it. Even as an 6 to 12 yearold I would see these bottles, and feel a strong need to suck on them, without (yet) having any personal experiences with them. This is mostly due to the fact that when I was growing up, they were the most common bottle to give a baby. As such, I developed a very "babyish" association with them.

Vented Bottles

Vented bottles are a relatively new item on the market. The idea is to let air escape into the bottle some other way, thus reducing the amount of gas that bubbles through. In some cases (like the bottle pictured ot the right) a special material is used on the bottom of the bottle that lets air through, but not liquid. Dr. Brown's, another manufacturer uses a vent close to the nipple that is channeled to the other end of the bottle, again eliminating the vacuum.

I don't actually have much else to say about these bottles except "They're easy to drink from.". They don't make me feel as swoony and funny inside, and they typically don't have any cute babyish designs on them to increase their "babyishness".

Pacifeeder

The Pacifeeder, as you can see is a strange device. When I first saw one, I practically swooned. It is a bottle and a pacifier. On top of that it has tubing, which I find a little weird. These, and similar products (the Podee feeder) are harder to find. They are not sold in Canada at all in fact, due to some legislation.

It's hard to adequately describe the feeling I got when I first tried it out. In terms of basic mechanics, this is the same basic thing as any normal bottle, but there was something very...different...about sucking, and watching the liquid climb up the tubing and then enter the nipple before finally tasting it. The first time that it was upended, and the liquid was forced down the tube and into the nipple was an even stronger, more powerful experience. But I am getting ahead of myself, more on that later.

Baby Food Feeder

Another Stranger Item. There aren't that many manufacturers around, Sassy being the only real active one I know of. These bottles are a little different in that instead of being filled with liquid, they are filled with pureé babyfood or cereal instead. The theory is that it is an easier transition for baby to make from the world of liquid food to "solid" food. Really they should just call this the transition between liquid food to liquefied food. These bottles have a sliding bottom, so that as the baby sucks, the bottom slowly slides up, again avoiding the vacuum. The bottom can also be pushed down so that food enters and goes through the nipple. Some varieties even have spoon attachments that go where the nipple should go, presumably to further ease the transition.

I have to buy one of these every time I see one. Not only are they rare, but the nipples they come with have bigger holes to allow the food to go through. These larger-holed nipples can be used on other bottles as well, making them easier to drink out of. I agonized for months before buying my first one. I look back to that day and wonder why I thought it was such a big deal, but it was. These things were just so weird, and I felt so weird buying it.

Now, being fed from it is also a weird, and intense experience. The babyishness of babyfood, combines with the nipple-based-feeding to form a practically transcendent experience.

Notes On Nipples

For a number of years, the only nipples that were available were the bog-standard rubber variety (pictured on the left). Now there are orthodontic nipples (pictured on the right) which supposedly stops overbite caused by the shape of the nipples. There are options in the shape of the hole as well, you can get cross-cut nipples instead of a hole, they have an x shape for faster flow.

Finally, even the material that is used has changed. Now nipples can be made out of silicone. Usually that means clear nipples, but even coloured ones are available. I haven't seen them recently, which is sad because I really wanted some (especially pink).

That Crazy Feeling...

Now in this little tour of bottles, I talk about how they can make me feel funny inside. They really do. It is tough to describe the feeling I get when seeing a baby bottle. But there is an indescribable sensation that happens when one comes in my field of view. I really have a hard time not staring at a bottle. This can be a little awkward at times.

Unless you are already an infantilist, it is probably difficult to even conceive of a baby bottle being remotely erotic. But I'll try to describe what I see in them, and why they are such a big trigger for me.

First off, the act of being fed a baby bottle is a very strongly sensual, bonding and loving experience. One of the things that I sometimes hear is that fetishists cannot have proper relationships because they don't express love like everyone else. Well this is a load of crap, and I think that a bottle feeding can bring two people as close together (if not closer together) then making love. A bottle feeding has the same atavistic, deeply genetic nature of sexual reproduction, but added to that is a slower, softer and more caring side to it as well. The sensuality of being cuddled up and held by someone you love, drinking a warm bottle of milk, staring up into their eyes as they stroke your hair is mind-boggling.

Bottles carry some raw eroticism, at least for me. To some degree or another they are meant to simulate a very erotic and erogenous zone of the body: the nipple. This can actually be played with, teasing the bottle nipple in and out of the mouth, or even toying with other parts of the body.

Drinking out of a bottle can be a humiliating experience as well. It is such a regression, a complete lapse into babyishness. Drinking out of a pink baby bottle is even more so. It makes one feel so helpless, so girly and so small. It is perhaps because of this feeling of vulnerability that make the sensual experience so powerful.

And finally, there is in fact a potential BDSM component, I even alluded to it earlier. Bottles can be used to force someone to drink something. Is it going to be that yucky fruit juice you don't like? Over concentrated baby formula? Or a babyfood feeder full of strained peas? The babyfood feeder and Playtex nurser both make excellent choices for force feeding, as you can squeeze the liquid (or food) out with very little effort, forcing it into (and out of) the nipple.

Describing the powerlessness of being fed something and given no choice but to consume it is difficult at best, but I'll try, with our friend the metaphor. Blindfolding someone is like visual bondage. Force feeding is like oral/flavor bondage. You don't get to choose what you taste, or when you taste it, your only choice is to drink it or suffocate. It's quite powerful.

I hope that my little exposition on baby bottles enlightened you a little. Maybe for those infantilists out there, it gives them some ideas to try out, or some new perspectives. For those that aren't, maybe it gives them an idea of where we are coming from, and an idea about what it is like. And hey, maybe you'll even try it!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post in the comments section!