Which bottles are the best for topping up bf babies ?

[WorzselMummage]

I have been told to top up Ds due to poor weight gain, 2-3 oz a week. I know usually this isnt recommended for term babies but George was prem and still only weighs 4lb8 so i think its just a case of getting food in him.

I am, after a lot of effort, exclusivly breastfeeding him and i want that to continue. He's never had a bottle so i don't want to confuse him, i also don't want to damage my supply.My consultant told me to do it last week but i've been putting it off

Are the breastflow bottles any good ?

I honestly don't think there is any difference in the bottles in terms of nipple confusion.

Have you checked his weight gain on the prem baby charts ? I know Tinkerbellesmum said that Tinks weight gain was fine when plotted on those.

Are you doing switch nursing and breast compression ?

I have just started switching sides after 10 minutes and he'll have 3 sides at a push and my friend recommended compression yesterday so wil try that. i did that when i was expressing so i don't know why it hadn't occured to me.

I've not even seen a prem chart when we were in scbu they fed hm so much and with the fortifyer that he was following a nice curve but sinve we've been home he's dropped down to below the 0.4.. off the chart

He's having plenty of wet and pooey nappies so i thought all was well, i was gutted and the consultants appointment.

Tiktok will have much better advice than I have, but I was advised that to maximise intake you should think about the length of time you can get them to feed, and then divide by 4 - so if you have a 30 minute feed, swap after 7 minutes or so, giving 4 sides iyswim.

Theres some preemie and VLBW charts here - you can see that they have very different shapes to the term charts. They are from published data, but I am guessing that they are for babies predominantly fed formula - can't find any for bf teenies like yours. How old is he now (chronologically and gestation corrected) ? He was vlbw wasn't he ?

I agree - choice of bottle is irrelevant.

I'd agree about the switch nursing, as well, and while I haven;t read anything about judging the timing, the time to switch would be when the baby stops sucking consistently, so you do the swap at the time when he is still awake, and the swap will invogorate him as well.

invogorate = invigorate

ahh ok i'll try that ticyok thanks

i'm glad you said the botles don't matter.. the breastflow ones are rather expensive !

just of to look at the charts