One of my husband’s earliest memories of fatherhood was being up at 4 a.m. trying to soothe a screaming infant while also somehow mixing a bottle with baby formula, then waiting for it to warm up in a bottle-heating machine. This is a common story for new parents. Just when your baby is her hangriest, she has to wait—and wait and wait—for the very thing that will calm her down.
A new product is designed to make it easier to feed fussy babies. Called Baby Barista, it’s a formula-making machine, bottle warmer, and subscription service in one.
According to RKS, the California-based industrial design consultancy that has spent the past couple of months rethinking the formula-feeding experience, many parents reported struggling with nailing the ratio of formula to water, then getting the liquid to the right temperature. “Fathers, in particular, didn’t feel confident about getting it right,” says Ravi Sawhney, founder and CEO of RKS.
Armstrong knew she wanted to launch her own direct-to-consumer brand that provides an all-in-one solution for formula feeding. So she worked with RKS to create the device itself, and plans to sell packets of liquid formula on a subscription plan. That way, parents don’t need to keep remembering to buy it. She has developed the formula with an external company, and created pouches that are FDA-approved. Parents can use any bottle they choose with the machine. While there are other brands on the market that tackle some part of this process, the Baby Barista stands out for incorporating the machine, the smartphone control, and the subscription model into a single, streamlined system.
Though the system is designed to make parents’ lives easier, it’s also meant to help new moms and dads build confidence. “Our research revealed that parents are worried about whether they’re doing a good job caring for their babies,” Elam says. “This takes away one source of worry.”
Now, if someone could take care of the 20,452,124 remaining worries we have as parents, we’ll be in good shape.