I am currently pregnant with my second girl and am wondering what bottle works best for a breastfed baby. I plan to nurse mostly with some pumped milk bottle feeding here and there.I nursed my 1st daughter until 13 months. We introduced the bottle too late so she took a bottle only a few times then refused. We used Platex with her because I like the drop-ins, but someone told me that Platex didn't usually work for breastfed babies. So what has worked for you or not worked? Also any pacifiers recommendations?
Thank you.
My daughter is also breastfed and we've been using playtex "ventair" bottles. We introduced those around 4-6 weeks and have had no problems. We use the "nam" pacifiers and again introduced them around 4-6 weeks. My daughter seems to be pretty easygoing about sucking on whatever she's given, but I know many moms who find what works by trial and error.
I too pumped at work and bottle feed my son. I did nurse him when I was home too. I found that a wider nupple helped be less confusing (depending how full your breast are). Here is a link to a bottle that is supposed to be very good.
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...
I never tried this one, but I will next time. I used the evenflo wide nippled bottles.
Good luck.
We use the Playtex Drop-ins with our breastfed son and he hasn't had any problems at all. We use the latex nipples because they are softer than the silicone ones and seem more like a real nipple. When we first introduced bottles, our pediatrician AND our lactation specialist said not to use Avent brand but didn't tell us why (we didn't ask...). Hope this helps!
I bought every bottle under the sun when I needed to switch to bottle-feeding - I thought the "natural - breast-like" etc. bottles were going to be less likely to cause nipple confusion and the ONLY bottle my son would take was the $.99 Gerber bottles at the grocery store, which I tried out of pure exhaustion.
So, based on my sons rejection and being stuck with over $200 in unused bottle kits, I reccomend trying to buy one bottle until you know your baby is going take that particular bottle. Each baby is different in their preferences and we all know they each have a personality, all their own.
Later I heard about a bottle from a friend I wished I had known about. It's made by The First Years and is designed for breast-fed babies.
The bottle can be found at some Babies R Us stores (so call before you go) and online at babiesrus.com. It's called Breastflow. It has a nipple inside of a nipple and forces baby to still have to work, like they do while breastfeeding. Then they don't get lazy. The mom I heard about these from absolutely LOVED THEM!
Good luck finding the right bottle and I hope you don't have as much difficulty as I did!! ;-)
We love our Avent! all the other ones leaked, for us. :-(
I loved the drop-ins too. I used Avent with my daughter and it worked fine. With my son though he would not take the silicone nipple. I noticed that he prefered the latex nipple over the silicone nipple in his pacifiers so I switched to Platex drop-ins with him because it was the only bottle that had a latex nipple that I could find at the time. He loved it. My sister used Avent with her daughter and claims she screamed with gas all the time so she is trying the playtex drop-ins. I like them because you can squeeze out all the air. I think that it just depends on what your child prefers.
All babies are different so I am not sure where your source got the idea that the drop ins don't work for breat fed babies. Both of my sons were breast fed and took breast milk and later formula from a drop in (Playtex) just fine. Don't discount the drop ins (I also loved the convienience and the not worrying about proper sterilization with them)until you try it on the new baby. Also, if the newborn size nipple doesn't work at first, try the older baby nipple (it lets the milk out faster). If your milk comes out quickly when you nurse, the smaller nipple (less milk coming out) could frustrate the baby because they get less milk. That is what happened with my second son. He didn't like the Playtex at first, I tried a million other nipples and bottle systems, and then finally tried the older baby nipple on the Playtex and he liked it just fine then.
I had a @ home nurse for about a week and she said Avent was the best. I had to supplement with formula for about a week when he was jaundice. And he went easily from bottle to breast, no "Nipple Confusion". They have a great starter set @ Babies R Us for about $70 which comes with all the bottles you will ever need AND a warmer. If I remember right there was about 9 maybe 12 bottles in there ranging from 4oz to I think 12oz. Cograts!
S.
Hi Megan~
I vote for sticking to the Platex brand. I nursed my girls for 12 mos., 17 mos. and 14 mos. and for me, and I don't know what the liners are like now but when I was nursing, (my youngest is almost 14) they were very easy to store expressed breast milk in the freezer with. I just put the milk in the liner and put a twist tie on it and froze it, so when I needed it, I would just drop the liner into the bottle. It was easy for my husband, too. I also like the fact that there was never any excess air and the nipple was most like my own. None of my girls ever spit up and I don't if that was because there was no air in the bottle-like the breast- or if I was just lucky.
You might try introducing the bottle, maybe by your husband, a little earlier to try to prevent the refusal and then only for a couple of minutes at first. But I'm sure you've read or heard that all babies are different (yes, even same sex babies) so don't assume this one will refuse it like your first one.
Good luck to you and your family, Megan
~Mary~
