Bottle buying - do I preempt colic?

[Grainger]

Hi,
I'm 6 months pg with DS2. With DS1 I wasn't too keen on the idea of bf'ing and only tried it once before a very abrupt midwife told me I had very flat nipples and I would just have to try harder. Considering I hadn't wanted to do it in the first place but felt bullied into trying it, I just thought "screw this, gimme a bottle".

Anyway, I had prepared for DS1s arrival by buying tommy tippee bottles etc. DS1 turned out to have shocking colic with reflux to boot and several weeks later we had a combination of aptamil easy digest milk, dr browns bottles and colief to settle him. It cost me a bloody fortune. Before settling on the Dr Browns, I tried so many types of bottle including mam, more tommy tippee etc.

Whilst the Dr Browns worked pretty well, they were a huge pain in the ass with the fact that they came in 6 different parts, which required triple the cleaning time etc. They were also expensive to buy at over £10 for 2.

So, my question is.... this time around, do I bite the bullet and assume this wee man will also be colicky and buy dr browns now and just live with the cleaning? Or are there some other miracle bottles that are much easier managed that I'm unaware of? Or do I just buy cheaper, simpler bottles in the interim and pray that he has stronger insides than his big bro?

I would. Almost anything is worth it to avoid a screaming newborn at one o'clock in the morning! And I have never met anybody whose DC never suffered with colic at some point.
I agree with you, did not like these bottles either, they also leak like hell.

I had exactly the same question with dd2 and then what turned out to be dd3 I had used Tommee Tippee bottles for dd1 and loved them ,assummed dd2 would be the same type of feeder, but she was very windy, upchucky etc for the first while. I ended up using Dr Bs for a while but didn't like them either, with dd3 (now 9 weeks) I decided to get Tommee Tippee and see what she was like, turns out she's the best, neatest feeder ever , likes her food too much to waste upchucking it. Good luck.

YEP!! But those Dr. Brown's ones are rubbish!

Now, I say this as a bottle-feeding mum of a refluxy babe.....If breastfeeding is even a remote possibility, don't give up on it before the baby's born. Flat nipples do not mean BF is necessarily more difficult - nipples pop out and it's the areola that the baby needs to get in their mouth. The reason I say all that is that reflux is typically worse in bottle-fed babies, as they take in a greater volume of milk compared to BF babies, and if there's also a cow's milk protein issue (the symptoms of which can be almost identical to reflux) then you are quite stuck and have to use the hydroylsed formulas which taste awful. We have had one hell of a battle getting DS to take a non-standard formula. Don't want to scaremonger and I realise this isn't the question you asked..... but I thought I'd add my twopenneth which you can feel free to completely ignore.

We had the Dr. Brown's bottles with DD1, I hated them and they made no difference to my daughter (who had reflux and an undiagnosed cow's milk issue). She was just as happy (or that should be, unhappy!) on the standard, easy to clean avent ones.

Thanks for your comments. Haven't been on in a few days.

namada - LMAO. I don't have FLAT nipples, they just aren't very big. And unlike the other parts of my breasts, didn't grow at all with either pregnancy. I just laughed at the cheek of the midwife (as I was doing what she was putting the guilts on me to do) and put it down to "wasn't meant to be".

It angers me that women are (and we ARE) made to feel so guilty for not bf'ing. Despite the motto, it isn't always best. Not when it's incredibly difficult for the mum, or if mastitis occurs, or if the milk isn't fatty enough. Plus, you have no idea how much exactly the baby is getting, especially with new mums who don't really know what they are doing. My friends younger sister (23) had a horrific time. She was happily bf'ing but got mastitis a few months in. GP told her to carry on. Baby suddenly not well with puking etc. She got worse infection. Had to go into hospital so expressed some milk... what came out was green!! no wonder the baby was ill! Both ok now though, so it worked out fine.

I know reflux is worse in bottle fed babies. And i know all about the lactose issue (I owe many a sleep filled night to easy digest or comfort milk). My son never once complained about the taste of it though.

So, does anybody know of any miracle bottles????

I always found NUK bottles best with DD. Or avent. Personally, I am really noy sure that bottles can prevent 'colic'. Actually, don't buy the colic theory much. I reckon in the majority of cases there's something else going on - e.g., reflux or cow's milk protein intolerance - lactose intolerance is really, really rare.

Op..I know this isn't the question you asked but I too have very small (and also inverted!) nipples and did manage to BF after a struggle. The midwives were pretty rude about my equipment also! It's totally do-able and I found dirty looks worked on the midwives. I;m just thinking as this is your second DC it might be good to save yourself any extra work e.g. bootle preparation so might be worth a shot?