Flow? Help me!

[AllBuggiedOut]

Have finally relented and realise I don't have enought milk in the evening to give DS2 (17 weeks) any chance of making it through the night. So am expressing in the evening to give a top-up bottle at bed time.

But don't know what teat to use - currently on Avent newborn which are the ones they say to use when combining with bf, but very slow. Can I use a faster one? Does anybody know?? Help please!!

why do you think you don't have enough milk?
if you can express to give a bottle then you must have enough to feed him with? 17 weeks is still quiyte young to be sleeping through...

if you do give a bottle though i would def stick with newborn teats. if you use a faster one he'll get used to milk coming much quicker and may prefer it to breast

I think you can use a faster one, if your DS2 copes ok with it. Might be worth buying the ones with 3 different flows, so you can alternate within the feed if necessary. Good luck!

Oops I bow to the greater knowledge - hadn't thought of the 'getting used to' aspect! I started DD on bedtime bottles at 17wks and it was fine (no boob reject or any other problems) - however not everyone is necessarily that lucky.

Does he get a vacuum going? i.e. get the bottle squeaking frequently and you need to stop him sucking to let the air back in? If so, and it happens a lot, move up to the next flow. We are still using medium flow for DS (5 months) who is fully breastfed and are trying to avoid going to the fast flow ones for the reason starlover gives.

I do exactly the same BTW. An expressed bottle every night. Mainly because when DS is tired, he fusses. And it ends up he's too tired to feed for more than a minute. So a bottle is easy for him. He sometimes sleeps well, sometimes doesn't.

ds needed fast flow as my boobs were the same.

Found ds was very grumpy until the fast flow teat finally arrived.

Hope everything works out ok

i use mam ultivent bottles with its teats dd. she takes ebm at nursery. they don't have the vacuum problem like avent ones which i found rubbish in comparison.

Thanks all - he's not going through, even with the bottle, but he sleeps a hell of a lot longer after it! Like you, suzi2, I can get him to keep feeding much longer with a bottle than the breast at bedtime. And the more he has, the happier I am!

Had no idea I had to pay attention to "vacuums"... think some experimenting may be in order!