Teat sizes

[Psychick]

My daughter is 5 weeks old now and seems to suck the life out her teats when having a bottle but doesnt seem to get much so therefore takes along time to feed and often ends up falling asleep after not drinking much. I know from her weight gain she is getting enough but cant help thinking she may benefit from a faster flowing teat. I know all the medium flow ones are recommended for 3 months + but I was wondering if anyone has used them sooner and how they got on.

If anyone has any other suggestions or advice, please feel free to let me know. it will be much appreciated.

[ethanryan]

hi i had to use the medium flow from 7 weeks for my son. it took him a bit of getting use to but within a week he was fine with them, just put a bit extra in the bottles as they tend to spit some out at first till they get used to it coming out faster

[warpig3]

Just wondering, how long does it take to feed her and how much does she take at a feed psychick?

[Psychick]

Well it feels like forever lol

Sometimes she can be sucking away for 5-10 mins (at a guess) and only have drunk about half an ounce. Her last feed, she had 1 1/2 oz in total and was feeding on and off for over half an hour and in the end she fell asleep with the bottle in her mouth. I have tested the teats and the milk is definately coming out ok.

[warpig3]

I can only compare her to the piglet but half an hour does seem long. the piglet will finish off three and a half ounces in about 15 mins and that includes burping her after every ounce (but bear in mind that I reckon she is a greedy monster anyway). I am using fisher price and avent bottles and teats at the moment and she seems happy with them, I did try and drink some water from one of her bottles using the teat and it was bl00dy hard work so goodness knows what its like for the babies. Got the pictures, shes a little cutie and I love the ones of her smiling, cant wait until the piglet smiles.

[Psychick]

Ive tried two types of bottle and three different types of teat. She seems to prefer the Tomme Tippee closer to nature bottles. She can drink more and has even polished off nearly 5 oz before.

Oooh! Lightbulb is flashing! I have some bigger bottles that came with my steraliser, I will check the teats on there and if theyre different, give them a go.

[redcrx]

how about trying the variflow teats if they do them for your bottle. They usually have a cross cut in end so amount of milk given relates to how strong they suck.

I havnt much of a memory but little CRX used to down 6ozs in about 10 mins max when he was little. We had to use medium quite early on or he'd be full of wind

[Psychick]

Hi red, I did look for the vari flow teat but it looks as though this bottle doesnt have them ( or the Boots we have town doesnt). At the moment I have her in my other arm having a feed with a medium flow teat and she seems to be coping well with it.

I was worried that using a medium flow teat at this age would cause some kind of problem.

[victoriaw]

I tried to hold off giving my LO medium flow teats til 3 months but gave in cos he was doing the same as yours, getting bored and not finishing the bottle. I first tried him on TT CTN size 2 teats during the day before he got completely ravenous to see how he would get on and there was a bit of a cough and a splutter but after a few goes he's been absolutely fine. You'll know if he's too young to cope with the flow of milk, so just give it a go but have a size 1 ready just in case. If it all goes wrong then you can always try again in a week or so. Good luck! I'm now having the prob where he is losing interest again and looking around at everything else rather than concentrating on drinking!!!

[lnknprkbabe]

i used them from about 4 weeks as my son used to do the same too.

[Psychick]

Ive just realised I didnt give you helpful ladies an update!

She has taken to number 2/medium flow teats with very little trouble. The odd cough and splutter at first as expected but no has no problems. As soon as she was having different teats, she was taking twice as much milk in half the time!

Now, nearly 2 weeks later, she has started taking an average of 4oz each feed which is much better than the 1 1/2 oz she was taken before I changed them!

Thanks again for your advice on this :)