Wind Help! Dr Brown's Bottles & Teat Sizes...

[dizzyjoo]

Hi everyone, I am new! My little boy is called Toby and he is 10-weeks old today. Last week he weighed 11lb 1.5ozs and he is 100% formula fed after BF issues (we stopped at 3-weeks).

He suffers from wind quite a lot and it makes him very unsettled between feeds. He is grumpy when its playtime and doesn't sleep very well during the day. He sleeps well at night until his 3am feed, then is grizzly.

He started off on Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles. We quickly changed from size 1, to size 2 teats as he was falling asleep at the bottle, getting frustrated with the milk coming to slow etc.

Since about 5-weeks his wind has been getting worse and worse and now we have full on colic screaming fits at some evening feeds, but not everyday!

I have tried him on Avent bottles but found that their size 2 teat was too slow (getting cross again and falling asleep) and their size 3 teat was way too fast.

For the last 24hrs he has been on Dr Brown's bottles but I think the teat issue is the same as the Avent bottles. He is barely taking more than 3ozs per feed and wants to eat every 2hrs instead of his normal 3hrs ish (normally it can be 2.5hrs or can even be 4hrs). He is falling asleep on the Dr Brown's bottles. But he could be due a growth spurt hence the little and often feeding? Normally he takes between 4-6ozs per feed.

Toby still does have some wind on the Dr Brown's bottles but is visibly more settled after a feed. What are the Dr Brown's bottles meant to do? Reduce ALL wind completely? or just make it easier for him to bring up the wind?

He has Infacol with every feed and has been since 4-weeks. Often he'll also have a dose of gripe water if it gets very bad.

Do slow or fast teats have any effect on wind? i.e. are we better off keeping him on a slow teat? which teats produce more wind?!?!

I am hoping he'll slowly grow out of it, after all, he is coming up to 3-months... but at the same time it breaks my heart when I see him squealing from the wind pain and I want to do everything I can to make him better!

He's been using 1 Dr Brown's bottle (I've been washing and sterilising immediately after each feed) but I am nervous about spending money on more of them if they aren't doing him any good?

My only other thought was to try the Tommee Tippee anti colic plus bottle that has a similar system in it to the Dr Brown's bottles, but he can have his faster teat with those?

Our HV is lovely and suggested trying Detinox Drops in his milk instead of Infacol (she doesn't rate Infacol), but said to be honest, its better he gets more milk at his feeds (which he isn't getting on his Dr Brown's bottles).

Oh and we have tried changing his milk from Aptamil to C&G but that didn't make any difference either.

Help!!! Any advice welcome and very much appreciated!!!

Julie xxx

 

[penguin77]

We switched to Dr Browns when Jac was 2-3- weeks old. We were having evenings of 2-3 hours on/off crying for about 5 days so we switched.
The bottles didnt get rid of all the wind but the crying went.

We still had to wind him every ounce or so but that was great compared to before.
We wend every 1-2 ounces now as he's so much better at nearly 11 weeks.

I tried going back to avent bottles last week and had a really unhappy windy/griping pain baby for a few hours.....so for me the Dr brown bottles work and are worth every penny. They might not be the miracle cure for everyone or completley get rid of the wind but i cant image what we'd be going through if i'd have stayed on the avent bottles.

Cant help you with teats as Jac is on the slow flow no 1...i want to switch them but no2 still is too fast and he makes a mess.

xx

 

[lisaptas]

Julie,

Hi, my name is Lisa and I am a mom of two boys. I also work for Dr. Brown's and I noticed your post. I spoke with someone else at the company as well, and I have some information that you may want to consider.

From what you have said, your baby is definitely suffering. You said that you can see a difference using the Dr. Brown's bottle but he is still uncomfortable and is not eating as much as he should in the amount of time he should. The nipple (teat) level plays a major role in the amount of air the baby is ingesting as does the way the bottle is prepared. It sounds like your baby is ready for Level 2 nipples. Level 2 nipples are designed for 3+ months.

Nipples that are too fast or too slow can cause excess air ingestion; If the nipple level is not fast enough, he will suck harder trying obtain a faster flow, however all the sucking in the world is not going to make the nipple flow faster…it is a “natural flowing” nipple, not a traditional nipple that flows as fast as the baby sucks. If he is sucking harder, he is actually creating and ingesting excess air… so he is likely becoming frustrated and crying or frustrated and bored and falling asleep. You said that he has done both of these, and this is a definite sign that your guy needs a faster flow.

Our suggestion is to use the standard neck bottle with a level 2 nipple for a couple of days and see how he does. Our guess (and hope!) is that he will do very well and be far more content.

Additionally, and equally as important as the correct nipple level is the bottle preparation; DO NOT shake to mix powdered formula in the bottle…not only does shaking cause excess air in the bottle (air that our bottles are designed to keep out of babies tummy) but also with every shake the formula is going up and down the reservoir tube….the reservoir tube should be free from fluid otherwise it will not be able to function properly. It is the reservoir tube that is responsible for channeling the air up to the end of the bottle and away from the formula being ingested by baby…if the reservoir tube is full of formula then there is a “block” making it impossible for the air to channel through, therefore the air will be mixed in with the formula and ingested by baby.

If you would like, we can send you a couple of bottles with Level 2 nipples to try. We can send them from the U.S. I know you don't want to send your address, etc. so you can call the customer service number on the box (if you still have it) or check out the Dr. Brown's website. Please let me know if you have any trouble.

Please remember, Dr. Brown's bottles will not cure any medical condition your baby may have but should make him much more comfortable. Our bottles are designed to significantly reduce gas, colic, spit-up, burping and gas.

I hope this helps!

Lisa

 

[x-Rainbow-x]

He sounds similar to alex, we stopped the infacol completely and switched to gripe water which has made a massive difference he is like a different baby, we use dr browns no 1 teat , he does have wind but alot less.

 

[dizzyjoo]

Thanks all for your advice!
Lisa - Toby is already on size 2 teats! So I'm not really sure what else we can do as the size 3 teats will no doubt be way too fast for him!
I am tempted to try the Tommee Tippee Anti Colic Plus bottles as he can have the teat is he used too. He's been on TT teat size 2 (3m+) but they seem a much faster flow than other size 2 teats (i.e. Avent, Dr Brown's)
Julie xxx

 

[x-Rainbow-x]

just an idea but have you tried a variflow teat??
Alex cant use them but i bought one of asdas own brand ones because i thought it might fit in the avent one, any way i was stupid one night and trusted my hubby to make the bottles up from the steriliser and he put the teat in the dr brown bottle .

we did nt find out untill the middle of the night when alex was choking on the milk, but the teat fit the dr brown bottle perfectly!

 

[Pink_Witch]

have you tried using colief?? you put it in his milk its expensive-£9.99 for a 7ml bottle that lasts about a week, but i found it more effective than the infacol. i use that and the dr browns bottles and we have noticed a 100% improvement.

 

[belles mummy]

My little girl suffers with colic too we tryed everything infacol didn't work , gripe water makes her sick then we tryed colief you can get it on prescription it works wonders it wad like we had a diffrent baby but you wave to weene them off it and it can make there poo watery I just brough a doctor browns bottle didn't put and colief in and she brought her wind up in an instant I'm impressed so far it could be coincident but we will see