How Do You Bottle Feed?

[RachH]

I have started to express milk and try bottle feeding DD with it. How far do you put the bottle into the mouth or should I let DD work it out for herself? She hasn't worked out how to suck it yet and I worry it's in too far because it sometimes sounds like she's gagging. Help - can anyone give me tips on how I should bottle feed? She doesn't seem to hate it, but she hasn't got the hang of the sucking technique yet.

I am on a roll tonight - my first day here on MN and my third post.

I am a BF person (mother of 3 now) and have always struggled to move my babes over, but I would like to recomend trying the Tommee Tippee bottle that I think is quite new, has a really, really wide neck and a teet that looks rather breast like. I have a rather choosy little DD, and it is the only bottle that she will consider (though the temperature sill has to be completely perfect - I dread it when she gets to be a teenager)

It's one of those things that's quite difficult to describe in words RachH. It also depends on which bottles you're using. I'd say let your DD work it out for herself but assuming you're using one of the makes that's "breastlike", they take it quite a way in so that they're feeding with a wide open mouth, just like on the breast. There should definitely be some teat still visible though! Hang on I'll see if I can dig out a picture...

DS bottle feeding with Avent bottle

I've found DS has taken more of the teat as his mouth has grown. He was about 3 months in that pic.

I don't know about getting her to suck though I'm afraid. You could just try giving a faster flow teat just to begin with so that she realises that milk comes out of the bottle, but then you run the risk of choking her. DS took the bottle with no problems and we successfully combined the two for 4.5 months.

HTH!

Yes, I'd recommend the TT ones - I use those as well as the Avent ones (got Avent ones with my breastpump).

Welcome nwgreenmum!

Sorry - my third post on this thread lol!

How does she go with sucking on your finger? Or a dummy?

Thanks for the info about the bottles. She sucks my finger, but not as firmly as she would need to suck milk from the bottle. I think I'll just keep trying with different bottles and see if she gets the hang of it.

some one told me you have to pull away, sonce they start sucking. god knows why. but that is what i did

Agree with bandstand - I was advised the same thing - basically move the teat in and out (not all the way out of her mouth tho'), so it mimics the way the breast moves when she is sucking on it. My DD didn't always seem to want to suck, but that definitely helped to get her going.

RachH - Also, if you want to try different bottles look out for NUK ones. They have a weird shaped teat, which is closer to the shape of a nipple when feeding, so lessens nipple/teat confusion.

PS - The Tommee Tippee one nwgreenmum is talking about is the "closer to nature" one I think.

i also used those TT ones from 2weeks and my DS had no problem taking from them... the only thing is that when i wanted to move up to a faster teat i couldn't get hold of them anywhere - boots don't do them and John Lewis have discontinued, and my local Tesco only do Avent... so I had to stop using them as the newborn teat was driving him nuts. He wouldn't take the Avent and in the end i bought the MAM bottles, which only come in a vile blue or pink, but they have a brilliant anti-wind device - DS loved them straight away and all our winding problems were over! Got them from John Lewis - that and the Ziko buggy are the best things I have bought.
And to answer the question about how far to put the teat in, i found that he would gag if i put it in his mouth, so I just put it on his top lip or rub it on his gum and he will pull it into his mouth as far as he wants... if he stops sucking just pull it out a bit and he sucks it back in if he still wants food.

(those TT bottles are half price in tesco at the moment)

Just remembered, I read that you should stroke their cheek with the teat to trigger the rooting reflex. I did this with DS and it really helped.