Okay, Ava will be 3 months old next week. Wondering if anyone has any ideas to make this go better. About the last month, it has been taking her literally an HOUR to finish her bottle.

She has been exclusively breastfed...but we give her a bottle of EBM about 3 times a week just to make sure she knows/remembers how to use a bottle. We started the bottle when she was 3 weeks old, so this is not a new project for her.

She has taken to any nipple or pacifier shape we give her...she'll suck on anything.

She gets the bottle always at her last feeding of the night. She gets 3 oz of EBM in the bottle. Many times she doesn't even finish it. Last night, my husband spent 30 minutes with her and she only drank ½ oz. She falls asleep right away, or just plays the whole time. She is hungry because there have been a few times I've put her to the breast & she eats like normal.

We are using the newborn nipples. I'm going to go buy some faster flow nipples to see if that helps...just haven't got out of the house yet this week.

The EBM is warmed up from frozen. She seems to be okay with the taste...doesn't show signs she dislikes the flavor. The experience is the same whether it's frozen or fresh.

My husband is always the one to give her the bottle. She won't take it from me.

I'm planning a weekend away in a few weeks, but if the bottle experience keeps going like this, there's no way anyone can bottle feed her through an entire day.

Any thoughts...experiences?
Gayle

When i started my DD on bottles, i literally tried all different botthles and nipples. From what I read and what i had been told, it's just trial and error. We ended up playing around to figure what bottle she didnt drink too fast or too slow and didn't give her the most gas. After numerous tries, we ended up feeding her the playtex lates nipples (yellow colored ones). I use the drop in liner as well. Like I said, i tried three different nipples and four differnet bottles.

Each baby is different as you know. I would buy 3 different kinds and see what she likes the best. Let me know how you make out.

I can't give you much for advice since DS is bottle fed but you can make the nipple holes bigger with a pin or wooden toothpick if you can't get out. Also, if falling asleep is the bigger problem maybe you could try it a bit earlier. DS's last bottle of the night is his slowest as well because he can't always stay awake during it. Even if he's awake he's pretty mellow by then so he usually takes his time. Maybe trying the bottle when she's more alert might help.

My daughter always took a while to finish her bottles, usually 30 minutes or so. The same ammount it would take he to nurse. She started to drink faster when I changed the nipple up a size. You could try it, it won't hurt. Now that she is older she guzzles in down in no time

My DD (bottlefed) has trouble staying awake at all feedings. What works for us holding her away from our body and about every minute or two I have to tap her cheek to get her mouth going again.

My daughter always took a while to finish her bottles, usually 30 minutes or so. The same ammount it would take he to nurse. She started to drink faster when I changed the nipple up a size. You could try it, it won't hurt. Now that she is older she guzzles in down in no time

At what age should you change the nipple size?

I changed around four months I think, but I used a varible flow nipple that I also liked alot. I changed again around 6, now I am back to the varible flow. Every baby is different. My nefew started on the 2nd one when he was about a month old. If you baby seems to be uncontent that is a good sign to change. You could always try it, it won't hurt. The make of nipple makes a difference too.

Are you at home or in the room when your husband is feeding her? She may be holding out for you. I would go out to eat with my husband and leave an EBM bottle with MIL and DS would have nothing to do with it.Sometimes he would even hold out for me and all I wanted was a break. You may want to look into nipple sizes for your specific bottle too. Avent recommends uning the newborns for breastfed babies because you don't want your babies to prefer the ease of a fast nipple. I just switched DD this week but didn't switch DS until he was 10 months or so.

Well, thanks for all the advice. I ended up going out and getting another nipple size. Went from Avent #1 to Avent #2. Feeding only took my husband 20 minutes for 3 oz!!!!! She still got pretty drowsy during the feeding, but didn't fall asleep or play around like normal. She was done eating & in bed so quickly that my husband didn't know what to do with all that extra time on his hands!
Gayle

Another update in case anyone would find this info useful...it was definitely the nipple size that caused the marathon bottle feedings! We are on our 3rd night of my husband using the #2 Avent nipple (up from #1), and all 3 feeings have been around 20 minutes in length. After the success of the first night, I had my husband give her 4 oz of EBM instead of the normal 3 oz, and she gets almost the full 4 oz down. I feel so much better now. It was a struggle before just to get 3 oz in her.

We were initially scared to increase the nipple flow because all the recommendations for breastfed babies say to use the slowest flow. I decided that Ava totally knows how to breastfeed, and she definitely prefers the breast over any bottle we've ever given her, so increasing the flow shouldn't cause too much harm in her preferences. She only gets a bottle about 3 times a week anyway.

For reference,
The #1 Avent is considered a "Newborn-Slow Flow".
The #2 Avent is considered a slow flow, and not labelled as Newborn. It does flow a little faster than #1.
The #3 Avent is considered medium flow. We haven't tried these.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!!!!
Gayle