8 weeek old FF baby - how long to feed? Should I change teat size?

[shish]

My ds will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. He normally takes about 20 minutes (sometimes longer) to feed and drinks anywhere between 3-5oz per feed. Been to see GP regarding his congestiont this morning and he feels that is too long for a 3oz feed and added to the fact that he can get deistressed and windy during feeding said that I should move up to level 2 teat. But I just tried that and he got even more distressed as if the flow was too fat for him.

Do I persevere with level 2 an give him time to get used to it or do I just continue with level 1 for now?

If he is congested then that in itself will slow feeding as he will have to stop drinking to breathe rather than breathing at the same time. I would stick to the slower teats until he is less congested. (20 minutes isnt excessively long for a feed)

The congestion seems to come and go in the day but seems a lot worse in the night

Have you tried saline drops to ease the congestion? Works wonders. But yes he will take longer as he is trying to breathe and feed at the same time. He will probabaly be a bit more windy too as he will be taking down more air each time he takes a breath. Stick to the first size teats for now. Also you could try some junior Olbas Oil and put 1 drop on a muslin near his cot/moses basket at night.
Good luck

I wouldn't have thought 20 mins was that long tbh.

Do they become more efficient feeders as they get bigger. Ds1 didn't take bottle until 6 months at which point he used to drown a full 7oz feed in 10 mins.

Gingeme - I have been using saline drops - sometimes they work great and at other times they don't.

Have just been so confused about how long he should be taking to feed, teat size and how much he should be drinking at each feed.

dd1 drank her milk in record quick time and tended to sick a lot up when she burped.

dd2 (8wo) takes her time - she can drain a 5oz bottle in 20-30 mins or it can take her an hour - with time for burps and a bit of baby gazing. She is hardly sick and very content.

Dd2 tends to have between 3-5oz per bottle. We use a mixture of size 1 and size 2 teats - just whatever is washed and sterile so I haven't noticed any difference.

Saline drops are great - dd2 hates then going up her nose, but it does mean she can feed (and sleep) more easily.

Am with wheely I don't think 20mins is long at all - your GP is talking nonsense!

Oh shish persivere with the drops. If not try one of those mucus sucker upper things. I never did with mine but DH did a few times and said it was pretty good.
No 20 mins isn't that long realy. Everyones different as to what speed they eat.

Meep it sounds like your lo is doing about the same as mine so that's quite reassuring, although he can sometimes sick some up with his burps. I think I will continue with the level 1 teats at the moment cos he seemed so distressed by the flow on level 2.

How will I know when to use level 2?

I am persevering with the saline drops as they do sometimes work. Have also tried the sucky thing - again sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't. Just have to try and make him as comfortable as possible.

With ds1, he used to fall asleep half way through a bottle, so that's when I changed the teat to a bigger size, it also started taking him ages to drink, so I figured he was exhausting himself which was why he was falling asleep.
I changed ds2's teat to size 2 at about 6 weeks because he was very windy, it didn't help, but he wasn't distressed with it.

My ds seems to fall asleep and slow down too which why I tried level 2 but he didn't seem to be able to cope with it. And he is also very windy. Lokks like some of the signs are there - I'm so confused!!! Maybe I should try again after a week or so????

you can get veriable flow teats too.

Don't think 20mins is too long either as at this age it tires them out feeding.

When he was little my DS used to take 45mins