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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Best bottles / teats discussion...

16 replies

hub2dee · 28/08/2005 09:35

There was a thread a while back from a new dad on wind / Colic, and we too had a windy babba (erm, 'top' and 'bottom' venting, LOL), so for the past 8 weeks we've tried different bottles etc.

We had started with Avent bottles and teats because we bought the steriliser which had free bottles. IMHO they were pretty rubbishy. When you use them you can see air bubbles rushing in through the teat whenever baby breaks the vacuum (ie comes up for air), and the mechanism around the collar with the thicker lipped teat just plain doesn't work nicely / efficiently... IF air manages to enter the bottle through the collar (as it should to re-equalise the pressure), the air bubbles through the milk making it more frothy which I've got to believe ends up as extra wind. (I was careful to back off the collar a bit as over-tightening it compresses the teat base too much, blocking the vented channels).

In NICU / SCBU they used NUK teats with dd. These are excellent, though don't fit those wide-necked Avent / Dr. Browns bottles. NUK teats are good because they have a slit in the rubber at the base with the bottle and this lets in air as needed. They fit medela expressing / narrow-necked bottles, and are also sold with their own bottles. You still get bubbles going into the milk though, but as a cheap / easy solution, they seemed to work. Washing is just teat / collar / bottle.

A week or so ago we bought 4 Dr. Brown's / B-Free bottles (there is a massive palaver re: the name / design licensing for the UK; I believe they are near enough 100% identical regardless of packaging / branding). I think these are the best bottles we've tried. They definitely reduced the air getting into the baby. When the baby pulls away, there is no rush of air in. As the baby takes greater quantities of feed, there is no continual 'bubbling through' of air. They are a PITA to wash (loads of little bits), but you get used to it and can wash them fairly fast after a little practice. They also take a wee bit longer to reassemble. I think it's worth it and will only use these bottles going forward (maybe unless travelling as the NUK teat is not bad and less faff).

The big question though is whether this dramatically changes babba's wind... I think it is hard to tell... there are always so many variables, but the post-feed burps do seem milder / fewer, and the frequency / amount of posseting / sickups seems to also be much reduced, and dd seems better on them - although she is getting older, has bigger / stronger tummy / we're perhaps (hopefully ?) getting better at giving the right quantity of milk, in a position which suits her, and are probably better burpers etc. etc. so it can be hard to isolate the 'cure' IYSWIM)

Over to anyone else: Favourite bottles / teats and why...

OP posts:
misdee · 28/08/2005 09:38

tommee tippee nuby bottles. for some reason dd2 and 3 prefer them.

so is b/f not working then? how does dee feel about it?

hub2dee · 28/08/2005 10:24

dw didn't want to try for fear of Mastitis Part 3. She's still expressing.

What's good about those bottles misdee ?

OP posts:
lummox · 28/08/2005 10:30

ds only seems to be able to work out what to do with MUM teats (don't know if he is also attached to the MUM bottles as we've always used them together). he is mostly bfed with the occasional bottle of expressed milk, and the MUM teats seem to be the only ones that are slow enough/shaped the right way.

haven't tried the Dr Brown's ones though. Are they the ones that are very expensive?

misdee · 28/08/2005 11:10

they seem like softer teats than the avent ones, and they have little bobbles on them. not sure why dd2 prerred them, but its the only one dd3 will take ebm from.

hub2dee · 28/08/2005 11:11

They're about a fiver each.

I reckon anything up to a tenner would be OK if it cures the WIND PROBLEM, LOL ! We use 4 bottles, and if we bottle feed for, say, 6 months, I reckon that's OK, money-wise.

Hmmm.. haven't seen / tried MUM...

OP posts:
flamesparrow · 28/08/2005 11:12

DD was on avent, but that was more cos I had oodles given to me.

misdee · 28/08/2005 11:14

all babies are windy tho hub.

hub2dee · 28/08/2005 11:29

I agree, misdee.... and the bottles will only be part of the problem, and the babies often cope with it, regardless of the burping etc. that we do... but the Avent bottles DEFINITELY introduced A LOT more air into the milk, because they don't have a good venting system... this means the baby needs to use ever more force to squeeze / suckle the milk out of the bottle because the pressure doesn't get equalised...

Now... whether the reduced swallowed air in the feed, or air bubbles in the milk, actually give rise to the wind is another discussion entirely, LOL... but I think reducing the causes of wind (ie. through the bottle, trying to calm crying sessions if possible so less air is swallowed) has got to be a good thing.

OP posts:
Coolmama · 28/08/2005 11:31

DS is 6 months old and I used Dr Browns/Babybfree bottles from the get-go. Ds was very happy with them and we only had 3 days of mild colicky-like behavior which I am sure would have been worse if not for the vented bottles. They can be a PITA to clean but once you get used to what goes where it is as easy as pie. Plus babybfree have an online shop so you can order new teats, more bottles etc and they are deilvered the next day - dreamy.

chipmonkey · 28/08/2005 15:52

ds hates ALL bottles but we had more success with MAM ultivent than any others.

bubble99 · 18/09/2005 21:04

Excuse the hijack, but there's a bit too much anti-bubble talk going on here. Nothing wrong with a well-formed bubble, IMO.

hub2dee · 25/10/2005 20:08

Thread resurrection....

Just to say that we detest bubbles, however well formed

... oh, and that we have been using B-Free bottles to date and been very happy with them and dd only gives us small spit ups and isn't moody with colic etc... whether it's just her getting older or the bottles actually being a major help of course we don't know...

Anyway, two things:

  1. Bought some Dr. Brown's Bottles in Boots the other day (they look almost identical to the B-Free). But, we felt dd wasn't as good on them... more sickup, chokes etc. so managed to return them for a refund. They don't have the blue 'vent release cover' bitsie the B-Frees have, and it seems to have an impact. Also, the bottles aren't honey-coloured Bisphenol A-free if that is important to you...

  2. Ordered some more B-Free bottles direct, with free p&p, from the distributor , arrived next day. Recommended. Also bought STAGE 2 TEATS. cos dd is now 15 weeks and a BIG baby girl ... anyway, we used the Stage 2 'Medium Flow' teats today and there was a massive difference in the speed of the feed, and dd took it all in her stride... recently we'd been spending 20+ minutes with bottle propped up as she diligently drank her milk, this evening it went down in less than 10 minutes, and dd seemed rather pleased. A (slightly) bigger spit up as I think she is surprised with how easily / how much she took IYSWIM, but, when the time comes, I'd highly recommend other parents moving to the faster flow teats.

Phew. Long winded B*stard. He could have just said 'use medium flow teats from three months', LOL.

OP posts:
misdee · 25/10/2005 20:11

your propped her bottle up .

how big is she now?

hub2dee · 25/10/2005 20:19

misdee. Now you behave. You know what I mean.... bottle in hand feels propped up... I don't stick her in a contraption from an Eastern European orphanage which automatically feeds her.... although, I have been know to wedge a muslin under the bottle, lean her into my chest, and quickly hit MN, LOL.

Last measured 58cm tall. 50th centile height and weight for her age (from 36+1, not EDD). I think she weighs about 5.4 kilos.

OP posts:
popsycal · 25/10/2005 20:22

mam ultivent

flutterbee · 25/10/2005 20:23

Tommee Tippee all the way for me but only because I worked for them for 3 years and have loads of there stuff, te little dimples around the teats are there to help mimic mums breast, you know the little bumps around the nipple so lots of babies take to them nicely also bubbles in the bottle is generally a good thing because this means that the air is going into the bottle and not into bubas tummy. Different for every baby thought.

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