bottle teats

[AmandaWJ]

DD is 11 wks EBF and is having about 1 bottle of expressed milk a day. She doesn't have much issue with the bottle feed in itself but the tommie tippie bottles and teats we're using don't seem great as i think she sucks too hard and the teat keeps getting pushed inwards. this results in her taking in lots of air and getting wind. can anyone recommend a better teat for EBF babies to use? thanks in advance :)

are they closer to nature teats with the valve? If so, the valve may have stuck shut - roll the valve between your thumb and finger to get it to open again.

yep its the closer to nature ones, not sure about the valve thing. my OH said that it doesn't seem to happen when he feeds her, so maybe my mum is doing something wrong?! i have no idea as i've never fed her with the bottle myself! will ask her to try rolling it and see what happens...

also, the valve should sit around nose level while feeding - might make a difference too

tommeetippee FAQs

The same happened with my DD and only stopped when I got the next teat up. Think DD went onyo #2 teats at around 6 weeks.

I would second the advice to move up a teat size. I used Dr Brown's bottles, but DS was on a level 2 teat from about 4 weeks. It made such a difference - he became more settled taking his feed, much less windy and a feed went from taking an hour and a half to an hour (he has always been slow with a bottle though). But he was more comfortable, and it made every feed less stressful.

Thanks for that link Seona. My DD gulps the bottles rather quickly, i presumed it was because she's used to breastfeeding but maybe she's just greedy :) will try the valve thing and if that doesn't work i'll go up a teat. thanks folks :)

If your DD is gulping it might be the flow is too fast not too slow. You would gulp if you were drinking out of something and the drink was coming out too quickly where as you would be sipping if it was too slowly.

Paced bottle feeding can help when the flow is too fast as it can be stressful to babies if the flow is too fast -watch out for a stiff body and starfish hands.

The milk automatically flows into baby's mouth from the bottle so they swallow which causes negative pressure in the bottle and makes more milk flows into their mouth so they swallow which causes negative pressure and makes more milk flows into their mouth so they swallow and so on.... That's why some babies appear to be starving and can down a bottle in minutes even if they aren't hungry really.

Pacing the feed (taking the bottle out of the baby's mouth and giving them time to breathe and register if they are full or not) can make bottle feeding easier for baby.

Just something else to consider.