Writing

Making my daughter's bottle just right

1 min read

The hacking parent, an overkill solution to a simple task.

As with most things in my life, I always have to learn from having messed up. This is a story like many I can recite.
It is a regular morning and I’m tasked with the duty of making my daughter her bottle. This seems like the easiest task to do. Boil some water, read the baby milk container for instructions & alas. What could go wrong? Well, a lot!

Making a baby’s bottle isn’t that easy. Well not unless you are like me. Hear me out, you need to know the perfect temperature, you need to measure the perfect amount of scoops to water ratio, the water needs to be pre-boiled and you have to be pretty quick and ready with one on-demand. Babies urgh let’s rephrase, my daughter needs her bottles almost in an instant. Any slower it’s an uproar. By now the picture is set, dad is dramatic and possibly so is my daughter.

This starts with having made a horrible bottle that was slightly warmer than my daughter liked. It was my first ever attempt at making a bottle. Failure isn’t an easy thing, but my daughter judging my preparing a bottle this badly hurt.
I’m already terrible at cooking, and hell this was a bad start.
Having made a horrible bottle, I wasn’t going to let this moment go to waste. I was pen and paper thoughts into ink.
Sat on the pouch took out my iPad and started with a 3D model. My daughter’s specific preference for milk had changed me. I was on a journey to redesign what would be a coffee machine and a baby bottle maker. Sounds weird and boring but no better way can make it sound any simpler.

To be a happy baby is to get your milk quickly. Being an adult you’ll need coffee quickly one day and like me regularly.
Excuse the long winding tale to all this, this is the beginning of my journey into making an industrial product. It’s a way to get my hands dirty in electronics and product design.

Follow along as I design and prototype a first in my life. An overkill of a product.

First published on Substack.