Newborns and bottle nipples?

[georgeb]

My daughter is now all of 12 days old, and my wife and I have some bottle-feeding questions--specifically, our DD seems to have trouble with the Dr. Brown's bottle nipples that we'd heard were great...she gulps and grunts, gets the formula down, but is very noisy and seems to be uncomfortable. We just tried some of the Playtex VentAire stage one bottles, which have a more "natural" nipple apparently, and she takes them better. So I guess we're looking for some validation that we're going in the right direction on this.

Second, we'd been feeding her formula that was sort of cold; not right out of the fridge, but not room temperature either. We thought that room temp would go bad quicker, and that would be bad. So with all the gulping and stuff, we thought that maybe room temp might be better--we don't want to go the "bottle warmer" route since she would get used to it and maybe not eat at all unless warmed...

So, as new parents, we're kind of clueless--no family or close friends here to give us advice on this kind of stuff, so I'm glad we found this bulletin board. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[JenCA]

First, congratulations on your new DD!

I'd say it's never a bad idea to switch bottles if it seems your child is having a problem with them. We started out using Avent bottles and DD seemed to have a lot of gas with them, so we switched bottles (to Dr. Brown's, coincidentally enough), and she's done much better with them. Sometimes you just have to kind of experiment until you find a product that works.

With regards to formula temperature--regardless of whether it's warm or cold, formula is considered "bad" after it's been out for an hour. After that point, you should toss it. Also, my kiddo's not picky about the temperature of her formula--she'll drink it ice cold, out of the fridge, or warmed (the only time I give it to her cold is if I'm out someplace where I don't have access to a cup of hot water). Warming her bottles has definitely not made her picky in that respect--but all kids are different. HTH, enjoy your new little bundle! :)

[caleymama]

We were pumping occasionally at that age and DD was using the Avent newborn nipples okay. At some point, though, she didn't care for them and we tried the plain Gerber bottles with the silicone Nuk nipple and used that for a while. Again, I don't remember exactly when but we did switch back to Avent and stayed with them until we stopped bottle feeding. My DH refused to use disposable liners so we only tried bottles that did not have that feature. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try something else (DD never cared for the VentAire or the narrow Dr. Brown's)

As for temperature, we warmed the breastmilk slightly (since it was coming out of the fridge) by microwaving a mug of water and then placing the bottle in the mug of water to heat it - I'm sure the same thing would work for formula. We never used a formal bottle warmer. When we were using formula, we used the powder so I would fill the bottles with water ahead of time and then just mix with the powder when DD was ready to eat. They would be room temperature when she ate. We used it within an hour and then tossed any leftover after that.

Congratulations on your daughter and welcome to parenting :)

[JElaineB]

Whatever bottle works for your baby is the right bottle to use. I had stocked up on Avent bottles, but DS gagged on them. I switched to Walmart nipples and regular Evenflo bottles and he did great on them. The VentAire's are nice, I have fed my cousin's baby with them. If they work for your daughter I'd say that's great.

As for the formula temp, whatever temp your daughter will accept should be fine. I would say as a newborn closer to room temp rather than straight from the fridge seems better, just because they are so small. I did warm my son's bottles, at least a little, until he was 11 months old though. But if what you are doing is working then I wouldn't change it.

As someone else said, formula should be thrown out one hour after a feeding starts no matter what temp it started at. We did sometimes extend it by 10 or 15 min if he was in the middle of eating, but I wouldn't go beyond that.

If the baby hasn't eaten at all out of the bottle yet you can keep it out at room temperature a maximum of 2 hours total. If the baby starts feeding after the bottle has been out of the fridge for 1.5 hours say, you need to throw it out in half an hour.

Prepared formula can be kept up to 48 hours in the fridge, after that it should be tossed.

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[Jen in Chicago]

We had to test a variety of bottles, and ironically Jude decided on the cheapest ones I bought, the Gerber ones, 6 for $4- or close to that. Sounds like you have a good fit, but if you test around more I suggest starting with the cheap ones and working your way up the price scale. Learn from my mistake please.

We were worried about the bottle warming thing too. We would make it room temp if it came from the frig. Daycare warms his bottles, I do not. It has not been an issue.

Good luck! You will figure it out.

[amp]

Just want to echo what others have said. If a particular bottle seems to work better for your daughter, go with that. We often tell expecting moms not to stock up on a particular brand of bottle until they know if the child will accept it.

We never warmed formula for our son. Water came directly out of the tap...cold, lukewarm, etc. He doesn't mind it one way or the other. If baby drinks from bottle, it's only good for 1 hour. If baby has not drank from the bottle, it can be kept in the fridge for 48 hrs, but then must be tossed. So you can either prepare a batch of formula and keep it in the fridge and fill bottles from it, or you can do like we did and make each bottle fresh when baby wants it. Don't make too much or you'll end up tossing a lot of expensive formula! It may take awhile to figure out how much she will generally consume in a sitting, but after a little practice, you'll figure it out and better be able to guess at much to make.

Oh, and FYI, even thought you are supposed to measure the water first....when we went out and about, we just put the right amt. of formula powder in a bottle and then later filled with bottled water when DS was hungry. So when you make formula at home, you may want to note where the line is once they are mixed so that you can know how much to overfill the water if there's already powder in there (since the powder displaces the water). KWIM?