Bottle/teat issues or slow drinker?

[sweetlullaby]

Posting in here because I'll get more answers! Hope that's ok I know I rarely go into the bottle feeding section myself!

Ok LO is 7.5 months old. He's on Tesco's own skinny bottles (the lion and giraffe design one's ) and on stage 3 teats and I seriously feel as though they're too slow for him!

He can take up to and over an HOUR to drink 7-8oz of milk and will usually drink maybe 4 oz quite quickly then basically be sleeping in my arms but still dirking then when he's finished his bottle he'll still be sleeping and I'll go to set him down and bam he's wide awake or will just randomly wake up towards the end of his bottle! The variflow teats I got are really confusing because you turn the bottle for which stage you want i.e stage 1 2 or 3 teat like slow, medium and fast flow

We had so many problems when he was born with reflux, bottles, teats, milk etc that im worried trying to change anything will mess things up even more but I spend so long with him on his afternoon bottle mainly that we end up missing lunch or nearly have two bottles on top of each other!

But then again he has never really been a fast drinker but surely over an hour is far too long? But where do I go from here?

My mum keeps telling me to sterilise one of her sewing machine needles and poke a few extra holes in the teat's that she had to do it with us three when we were babies but surely you're not suppossed to do that because it's more fragile then and what if two holes join together and a wee bit of teat breaks and goes in his mouth and he chokes on it or something?

Im confused!!

 

[OmarsMum]

Do u mean 1 hr continuously sucking the bottle until he finishes?

We'r using Dr. Brown's bottles, & when Omar is keen to take a full bottle of 6-7 oz he's usually done within 20 mins if he's awake, 30 mins if he's half asleep & he always stops once he sleeps. We also had the reflux, bottles, formula issues.

I think there is sth wrong with ur bottles. My LO is not keen about taking his bottles, & most of the time he chews the teat & stops to play half way through drinking. But when he wants to take his bottle all at once, it doesnt take him all this time to finish it. xx

 

[sweetlullaby]

One hour or longer continuously sucking the bottle until he's finished. I think the bottle teats are too slow for him but don't have a clue what to do because they're the fastest teats there is

 

[OmarsMum]

One hour or longer continuously sucking the bottle until he's finished. I think the bottle teats are too slow for him but don't have a clue what to do because they're the fastest teats there is

As u'r using a standard bottle, I dont think changing it would do a harm, maybe NUK bottles would be similar to the ones u'r using. I dont knw about the needle thing, but it was common earlier. Continuous sucking might harm his throat or ears hun. xx

ETA: I would try the needle thing with one teat & see how it goes before wasting money on new bottles he might not like

 

[xpinkpandax]

there are some teats that are Y cut, maybe try to get some to fit the bottle even if its not tesco's own teats??

 

[sweetlullaby]

What are y cut teats? I like the sound of those! We're been through tommee tippee and avent bottles when he was born and he was on the x shaped variflow teats for a while with tommee tippee. Just at my wits end with it all. He's missed lunch again today because he took so long on his bottle and is still sleeping now and he sleeps so little during the day usually that if I wake him for lunch he'll be really grumpy right through to bed

 

[xpinkpandax]

Y cut are for for thicker liquids, I have some for the Dr Brown bottles I use but I think you can get them for tommee tippee bottles if you still have them. They are called thick flow teats, here is a link

https://www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/thick-feed-teat-y-cut/

 

[AP]

I am with nmwb78 - we had the same issue and NUK saved the day, different shaped teats did the trick, I wish I had used them sooner. We are reflux sufferers too

 

[sohappymummy]

I hope I'm not too late responding (this is my first post!) -- I, too, have a reflux baby and we've tried every kind of bottle or teat imaginable. Funny enough, we've just landed on the Tesco standard neck bottles and teats as the perfect ones for where the baby is at right now (and I've spent a fortune on every kind of bottle out there!)...the last bottle he was on sounds perfect for you -- he was on Nuk bottles and the Stage 1 Large hole teat -- it has a small 'x' in the hole and flows quite quickly. It worked well when he needed gaviscon but now is too fast now that he no longer needs gaviscon (hence we've switched to the slower flow Tesco bottles). I would recommend trying Nuk bottles and just buy Stage 1 Large teats, plus maybe Stage 2 Small or Medium teats. Nuk's teat system is a bit different than the others in that Stage 1 = 0-6 months and Stage 2 = 6 months plus, with Small, Medium and Large holes within each stage (they also offer an option of latex or silicone teats, latex is softer but silicone lasts longer). It may all sound confusing but it isn't really, Nuk has just made loads of options because all babies are different. Unfortunately we're just stuck 'between' Nuk's stages right now, so I needed to switch to a slower (Tesco) teat. So! You'll need to see what's right for your baby, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Nuk Stage 1 Large hole teats would work best. You can buy directly from Nuk's web site or from specialist pharmacies. I hope I haven't rambled too much, I feel for you and am glancing, embarrassed, at my big canvas bin FULL of every kind of bottle imaginable How funny that the 'winner' (for us) was found on offer, 3 for £5. Life is sweet sometimes. All the best of luck to you, you'll laugh about all of this someday (right??!).

 

[cherryglitter]

Variflow teats are my saviour lol!

 

[sweetlullaby]

Thanks girls luckily it was just a wee faze of not eating. drinking really slow etc he now guzzles his bottles like a little greedy piggy!

 

[special_kala]

River started struggling to drink bottles due to a very strong suck she kept caving the teat in. I think its due to her tongue tie.

I just shoved a fork through het teats

 

[Natnee]

Belle is still on size 2 teats (avent bottles) we went and got size 3 but she has such a strong suck she was guzzling 7oz in 5 minutes flat, and most of it was running down her chin! So we are back on the size 2's, which takes her about 20 minutes. We've talked about making another hole, but to me that's just making them into size 3!! LOL!! So we'll just stick to the size 2. I think I have one variflow teat but not tried it.