breast vs bottle!

[Anonymous]

I know this topic comes up ALOT! My 9 week old is almost always fussy when given a bottle...we have been using Dr. Brown's bottles with preemie nipples and am wondering if I should consider trying a different nipple... I have read about Avent bottles and adiri bottles... has anyone else had success with either of these? Suggestions to help with nipple confusion and nipple frustration! I just want to tell my baby its all the same milk but sometimes daddy needs to feed or mommy needs to supplement...whats a mom to do? So upsetting to hear baby cry when dad is trying to feed her...soon mommy will be back at work and she will have to take bottle!

[Anonymous]

She's probably frustrated by how slow the flow is on a premie nipple. Go up to stage 1 or 2. No need for a 9 week old to use a premie nipple. It's probably like trying to suck a bowl of icecream through a coffee stirrer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's probably frustrated by how slow the flow is on a premie nipple. Go up to stage 1 or 2. No need for a 9 week old to use a premie nipple. It's probably like trying to suck a bowl of icecream through a coffee stirrer.

i have oversupply, super fast let down and baby still chocked on stage 1 Dr Browns nipples.
DC will take it well on the P size.


OP warm up the milk/formula when giving it to the child a little warmer than room temperature.
also don't wait until the baby cries in hunger, try to offer when they're in a good mood.
another thing that might help is to start feeding from the boob and finish with the bottle in the same feed


GL

[Anonymous]

Look at the kellymom website...they have an article on bottlefeeding a breastfed baby and it includes recs on which type of bottles and tips.

You need that slow flow nipple. Also, what position are you putting baby in when feeding him the bottle...he needs to be "sitting" (I sit my DS up in my lap with his back to my chest) and the bottle should be level to very slightly tilted so he can keep the flow slow. Breastfed babies are used to very slow flow from the breast and if you just lay them down and/or tilt the bottle too much and/or use a faster nipple they will experience a much higher rate of flow and either end up gulping down the whole bottle even if they don't want it or they will pull off and get mad b/c they can't slow the flow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the kellymom website...they have an article on bottlefeeding a breastfed baby and it includes recs on which type of bottles and tips.

You need that slow flow nipple. Also, what position are you putting baby in when feeding him the bottle...he needs to be "sitting" (I sit my DS up in my lap with his back to my chest) and the bottle should be level to very slightly tilted so he can keep the flow slow. Breastfed babies are used to very slow flow from the breast and if you just lay them down and/or tilt the bottle too much and/or use a faster nipple they will experience a much higher rate of flow and either end up gulping down the whole bottle even if they don't want it or they will pull off and get mad b/c they can't slow the flow.

Not necessarily true that you need a slow flow nipple. I have super fast let down - the milk literally comes shooting out of me and it takes DS about 5 minutes to BF, so he was very frustrated with the slow flow nipple. Switched to medium flow well before he was 3 months old and then he had no trouble. Also - we didn't try everything, but had the best luck with the simple Playtex drop in bottle and "naturalatch" nipples. It's the kind where you buy the separate liners. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Echoing the pp who said they would not increase nipple flow. That's a great way to get a 9 week old with bottle preference. Sure, there may be circumstances where it might help but it is very bad general advice.

Make her work for the milk -- and if you actually leave while your husband gives the bottle that might help. She can smell mom from very far away and will want you instead if she can smell you.

[Anonymous]

Ours has taken a bottle every day since he was born. The week before I was going back to work, he started refusing it. Screaming every time he tried to latch on. One night, I pumped, put the bottle in a warm glass of water and went to bed. DS chugged it down 30 minutes later. Apparently he likes his milk super warm. Maybe try warming it a bit more?

I only switched the nipple when the nipple was caving in and I thought he was going to suck the nipple off the bottle, he was about 4 months old.

[Anonymous]

Make the child work for it, PP? Really?

Every child/baby is different. Some children like slower flow nipples - others prefer something faster. My daughter got very frustrated with the bottle when the milk from the nipple came out too slow.

Perhaps try a different bottle/nipple? I'd experiment.

The other suggestions about warming the milk (if you're not doing that already) and perhaps leaving while dad tries to give the bottle are also good suggestions.

[Anonymous]

This isn't a newborn people. People seem to take the breastfeeding class and Kellymom advice for newborn babies and try to apply it to older babies. Things change as they grow.

This is a baby who loves to breastfeed and is not happy with a bottle. I highly doubt a 9 week old, breastfeeding fan is going to suddenly develop a bottle preference if the nipple flow is increased. That's just silly. Not only is the baby frustrated by trying to suck the milk out of a premie nipple but I'm sure it takes forever to finish a bottle and the baby probably won't finish as much as he would otherwise due to how long it takes.

Try a faster flow nipple, really.....

I've done this with several babies now and have LC's on speed dial along the way.

[Anonymous]

Don't worry if your baby isn't taking a bottle from you or your husband - the people at daycare have experience with getting babies to take bottles and most likely, your kid will get it once they are there all day with them!

Our son didn't go for bottles with us either, but was fine the first day of daycare. Just keep a slow-flow nipple so that baby doesn't get used to the faster milk. She probably likes the closeness of nursing, so don't worry too much about nipple confusion!

[Anonymous]

OP- we tried about 7 different types of bottles and eventually settled on BornFree for no other reason than my DS did the best with it. We invested in Dr. Browns with premie nipples and he did okay with that for awhile but after a few weeks he stopped taking a bottle at all and thats what started Our GreatBottleSearch. We tried Adiri- I wasn't impressed...plus I think they are out of business now? And Avent didn't seem very special either. My advice- pony up and buy 1 small bottle of each kind and try one for a few days then move onto the next kind. Eventually you'll find one that your DD likes, or you'll go broke!

At 9 weeks, I don't think there is any nipple confusion...I think your baby just knows what she wants and it's not a bottle.

[Anonymous]

PP - funny you should mention born free because I tried that kind as of yesterday and she seems to be doing much better with it. My DD mainly puts the tip in her mouth though..think thats ok? if she sucks hard enough she gets more of it in her mouth.

[cmkeough]

Honestly I think it's different with each child. With DD (who's now 2.5 years old) she was primarily BF with an occassional bottle of BM. By at 3 weeks she refused to take a bottle, it was PURE HELL for my husband and especially me to hear her cry. We tried every type of bottle/nipple, as well as warming the expressed BM. Eventually she took the milk (warmed, to almost hot) and we ended up settling on Playtex dropins with latex nipples. I have so many darn Adiri bottles (amongst other brands) I could open a store.

With DS (who is now almost 3.5 months old) we had to supplement with formula in the beginning due to a severe case of jaundice. This realllly had a bad effect on my milk production. I figured I would have an abundant supply like the last time and DS would get the hang of BFing like DD, in two weeks or less. Ha, that was a joke. He's never had a problem with the bottle, but took almost 6 weeks to get the BFing down properly. I was miserable, and felt like my nipples were going to fall off. Talk about depressing. Neither is fun or easy to deal with, but in hindsight it's far easier to stick it out and get them to take a bottle. I also found it was easier to get out of the house and let someone else deal with the bottle issue. You will breakdown and likely just end up BFing, and you definitely will not be able to feed with a bottle until the baby is accustomed to getting a bottle. They know who mommy is and that she's a yummy, warm, and comforting food source.

Good luck, and hang in there.
CK

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's probably frustrated by how slow the flow is on a premie nipple. Go up to stage 1 or 2. No need for a 9 week old to use a premie nipple. It's probably like trying to suck a bowl of icecream through a coffee stirrer.

Not always the case. I've always used Dr Browns with my baby (the others caused too much gas) and he is 9 months now and still sometimes uses the premie nipple, though I try my best to dig around for size 1's. He could not even handle the size ones and would choke on the flow until he was 4 months old.