hello guys! i just had my baby 3 weeks ago today and she is having a terrible time with her bottles. She was five weeks early and very small and the formula seems to make her very conjested like and she gets choked up and loses her breathe a lot. Her pediatrician told me she prob has reflux and to put rice cereal in her milk. This has not helped. I think she is just having trouble with her bottles. I have tried all the playtex ones and they are not working. Does anyone have any sugggestions for a better bottle for such a small baby? Thanks.................................. .................Rhiannon
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DS had regular bottles with straight nipples and sometimes the formula would just shoot out and get him in the back of the throat. Would choke and swallow wrong. We switched to the silicone nuk style that fit his mouth -- used slow flow at first then switched to medium flow nipples after a couple months. I tried using the ventair and advent bottles, but he hated them. Ventair was too slow and he really had to work to feed and I think the advent ones, which were shaped like nipples were too big.
Some people swear by the Dr. Browns bottles. I've never tried them.
Has anyone mentioned a higher calorie formula for her? My son was born 5 weeks early, had an immature suck, and has sever reflux. Most formula's are 18-20 calories when mixed like the directions say. What we were told to do is make the formula 28 calories a serving. This meant mixing more powder for the same amount of water. This made the formula thicker to help with the sucking and choking issues but it also gave him the extra calories to help him gain weight. It is an actual equation on how you mix the formula so I would only do this under a Dr's advice.
If she has reflux, chances are the congestion might be slight aspiration. You can aspirate and not get deathly sick when the aspiration is only small amounts. For this reason, you think it's only congestion. If the problem continues, I would push for a swallow study to see if everything is working properly. My son has had 2 and they aren't as traumatic as they sound.
You want a bottle with a slow flow to stimulate the muscles she uses to suck. It is only through working those muscles that they get stronger. The higher calorie formula can come in handy there also as she won't eat as often but the meals will be more nutritious. Good luck
It's still early enough that you can breastfeed, breastmilk is the best you can do for a child, especially one that is premature and could really benefit from the antibodies and nutrients passed through breastmilk; Formula really doesn't compare (and I am a formula feeding mother, so I'm not knocking it, I'm just trying to help) and premature babies really thrive off of mother's milk. If you're interested in starting to breastfeed, you can relactate pretty easily since it hasn't been so long since your child was born, all these problems would probably clear up with a good dose of mom's milk.
I agree that mothers milk is the best, but I am a bottle feeding mommy. BF just did not work out for us. i would try the NUK nipples they make a style for most bottles. I like the playtex, my dd gets less air with these. The NUK nipples release milk from the top not the end so the chance of the stream hitting the back of the throat. Hope you can find something that helps!
