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Infant feeding

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

Which teat size for a 6-month-old breastfed baby

2 replies

Marabou · 14/11/2011 11:20

My DS is 6 months old and has been exclusively breastfed since about 3 months. Before that he would get the occasional bottle usually of EBM and sometimes formula, although he's probably got formula altogether not more than ten times in his life. We were using the breastflow bottle, which worked fine for a while, but then the inner teat collapsed and at first I thought it was because he grew out of the stage 1 teat, but when I bought him the stage 2 teat, it did the same thing so I concluded it was more the make of the teats. Later on I also read that other people had experienced the same thing. Also the breastflow bottle seemed to leak, which wasn't ideal when you'd put so much effort in pumping the BM..

I have recently started him on solids (with varying success) and I will go back to work part-time and partly working from home next week Monday. I am planning to continue breastfeeding, especially at night, as we co-sleep and he's quite used to just "helping himself" to the boob without disturbing my sleep much, so I don't really see this coming to an end in the near future. However, I would like to start mix feeding him with BM and follow-on milk. The problem is, I am not sure which teat to use in his bottle.

I realise he should ideally be learning to drink from a cup at this stage, which he is, but only manages to take about 1 oz from his Tommee Tippee free flow sippy cup. Because I will be working in the office one full day a week, when he will be home with DH, I would like him to take the bottle, as clearly 1 oz/feed is not enough for him. I tried the breastflow bottle again, but he doesn't seem to like it much anymore and I also tried Avent size 3 teat, which he seemed to like better for some reason in terms of the shape of the teat, but the flow seemed to fast for him and he was gagging and then projectile vomiting everything out. Should I try size 2 teat?

OP posts:
1Catherine1 · 14/11/2011 11:53

it varies from brand to brand as I understand. I think it is size 2 for tommee tippee and breastflow but was size 3 for advent.

Thing is though its just a guide. You DS is used to the speed of you so it might be best to experiment and see what he is happiest with. My HV also suggested that inbetween 2 sizes might be best as one might be too fast and the other too slow so I should stretch the hole in the bottle using a pin.

Although, tbh, 1 oz a day isn't that bad for a BF baby. It is a whole oz more than my DD takes (she is 7.5 months). Your DS will happily make up the missed milk from you when you get home :)

Marabou · 14/11/2011 18:28

Hi there and many thanks for your reply to my confusing ramble Blush!

Having been to Boots today I saw that there are, like you said, various sizes depending on the brand. So I ended up not buying anything, because I was so confused as to what to buy... But after I got home, I rummaged around and found my first manual breastpump, which was the Tommee Tippee closer to nature one and I let him try the bottle with the slow flow teat, which had come with the pump and he was absolutely fine with that, no gagging or throwing up!!

I guess I have a slow let down then and he's used to working for his milk, as he didn't seem to mind the teat, which I read was to be used for newborns:)!

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