Teats

[Smellen]

Am bf-ing DS1, (16wks), but giving him a bottle of formula once a day mid-afternoon.

Up til now have been using a 'newborn' teat, as I thought that if I made him 'work' for the milk, he would not favour the bottle (and thereby lose interest in the boobs).

Recently he seems to be a bit cheesed off with the bottle and gets annoyed with it. Should I change to a faster flowing teat? If so, which type would you advise?

(Want to keep offering a bottle of formula once a day, as will need to return to work soon and don't want him to suddenly refuse to take it...)

Thanks for your advice.

My ds and dd have both been bottlefed formula for my own reasons.
We had problems with the formula not getting through the newborn teat, and were told to go to the medium flow straight away. It worked wonders!!

Hope that helps

I breast fed and then augmented with a bottle - used Avent newborn and then med-flow teats, but no use - we swapped to Maws variflow teats and they were great (but that was 3 years ago and I'm not sure you can even get them now!!)

Which bottles are you using?

I have had good success with no interference with bf when using the MAM ULTIvent medium flow teats. They fit wide neck bottles like Avent, boots etc not NUK or Chicco tho.

Have bought medium flow Avents today. Will try tomorrow PM and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the advice y'all.

Tried the medium flow teats this afternoon. Got through about 4oz quite quickly, but not sure whether it all counted as much of it trickled down his chin and got coughed back up.

Not crying over spilt milk, as DS having 5 bfs a day on top of this afternoon 'snack'. However, is it normal for baby to cough and splutter when bottlefeeding and changing flow of teats? (Not v confident with bottles as usually bf). Should I just give it a few days for him to get the hang of it?

my dd never got on with avent teats at all - whatever flow I used, most of the milk still dribbled down her chin and soaked her clothes. I switched to using the tommee tippee Nuby teats on the avent bottles and no more dribbling!! Quite a few wide necked teats fit the avent bottles so if you feel the avent ones are not working out for your lo feel free to try an alternative one.

P.s. did you go straight to medium flow from newborn as there is a slow flow teat in between. Avent sizes are 1=newborn, 2=slow, 3=medium, 4=fast. If you have gone straight to medium your lo probably will struggle with the difference in speed.

I'd definitely recommend the variflow ones - worked well for us. No holes, but a cross cut in the top. The harder they suck, the more comes out.

Could try an adjustable flow from Playtex - they do not drip at all but dont fit avent bottles :(
Sizes Slow flor 0-6 months Fast flow 6+ adjustable flow 3months+ (I think)- they work on the principle that they are similar to breastfeeding and therefore the harder they suck the greater the fow!