teat dilemma-advice needed!

[divastrop]

i have ff me baby from birth,and have been using avent teats.she used the 2 month+ones from birth,the 3 month+ ones from 2 weeks and i had to start using the fast flow ones from 6 weeksas the milk wasnt coming out fast enough for her(she is impatient like her mother).

however,she will be 12 weeks on friday and for the past few days has been struggling with the fast-flow teats,taking over half an hour to drink about 2oz of milk and getting really frustrated.

has anybody used any different teats that seem to have a faster flow than the avent ones?i dont think shes quite ready for a trainer cup yet!

TIA

ff my baby.

Have you tried the avent variflow ones? I think they do flow faster (although they are described as the same). They have a slit rather than holes - you rotate the bottle to dictate the speed.

I think tommee tippee do some similar ones - where they have a cross shaped hole. The harder they suck the faster it flows. Not sure if it would be faster or not.

i should have mentioned that i have tried the variflo ones and they were no good either,the avent ones i mean.i will try the tommee tippee ones and see how she gets on,thanks.

this might sound daft but what about making the hole in her current ones larger with a needle?

Also I think tommee tippee do some training cups where the whole of the top is silicon (not just the spout). They look a bit bottle like. Boots also do a trainer cup specifically for the transition from bottle to cup which might be worth looking at as it may truely be an 'in between' bottle and cup.

It may be that looking at trainer cups may be the only way to go forward for a faster flow.

The avent soft spouts are suitable from 3 months so it possible for a 3m baby to use a trainer cup. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the avent ones as they leak badly.

ooo Silly milly - doesn't sound daft. Sounds quite sensible to me actually.

The avent ones have 3 holes so you could do one at a time and see the effects.

i was under the impression that theres some reason why you cant put extra holes in silicone teats?i know you could with the latex ones(like in the olden days),but im sure i read somewhere about not doing it with silicone ones.or maybe they just say that to get you to buy loads of different teats?

I would just put a needle into existing holes and give the hole a strech. I wouldn't necessarily create new holes.

well i have done it before, didnt seem to cause a problem and i dont see how it could, as long as you were careful not to have any silicone bits loose

SMS - yes thats what i did

I found the same with ds, he is a "hard sucker" I found that if you unscrew the bottle and jut gently screw it close (not tight) the teat lets more air in and then more flow. Once the sucking is good and regular you can gently "unscrew" it a little more, you'll hear a whistle sound if the teat is still too tight and it will become a gentle noise when it is letting in enough air. Place an absorbent cloth under the bottle in the beginning, sometimes if you open it too wide you might get a little leak.
HTH

have you tries variflow teats. I use MAM teats in ordinary bottles and that worked for us.

Spacepuppy, good advice, I used to do that! Dd only got on well with the Tommee Tippee teats with dimples on them (hated the Avent teats) and I also enlarged the holes a bit as she sucked every bottle as if it was her last!