Bottle Woes Solved

Well, made better at least. But first, here's the bottle back story.

Little Miss did great with the bottle from practically day one. Because she dropped 10% of her body weight in her first 24 hours, we supplemented with formula for a day or two until I was able to pump enough to supplement with breast milk. This turned out to be a blessing and disguise because she easily switched back and forth between bottle and breast. This made it possible for My Love to give her the 6 am feeding so I could sleep for 4 or 5 hours. That was bliss in those early weeks.

We continued to give her bottles at least once or twice a week until about 3 months when Little Miss was having feeding problems and I didn't want one more variable in the list. I stopped pumping as much because I realized that all the milk in my freezer was no good because of her dairy allergy. Furthermore, I didn't know if any new milk I pumped would also be bad if I found out we were dealing with more than one food allergy. It just became easier to breastfeed and not worry about what I had eaten when I pumped whatever was in that bottle. The few times I tried to give her a full bottle in the third and fourth months, she had fought it. I knew we were in for a struggle but since it was easier to just breast feed her, I let it go.

Then we started giving Little Miss Zantac for her reflux. I started pumping 2-3 ounces at a time and making several 1/2 ounce bottles with the medicine in them. At first she wasn't a big fan of these small bottles but she soon realized that if she sucked them down, she got to the breast sooner. I thought, great, she's taking bottles really well again. A few weeks ago however, all that changed. She stopped taking those small bottles. She wasn't taking bottles at church or when we went out for date night. Uh oh, now I'm in trouble. Little Miss would rather just skip a feeding than take a bottle.

Then I had an epiphany. We had been given lots of Nuk latex nipples in the hospital. We had been using these all along. I realized late one night after a failed bottle attempt that those nipples we had been using since the beginning were newborn nipples...with newborn flow. Little Miss is no longer a newborn and her appetite is no longer that of a newborn. I had heard about not giving a breastfed baby a large or fast flow nipple too soon, especially from the beginning. I hadn't thought however, about how frustrated she must be getting just a trickle from the bottle when she can nurse quite efficiently now.

So last night when it was time to give her a bottle, I tried the regular flow nipples. She fussed for a few minutes and then... she sucked down 4.5 ounces. That's the most she's taken from a bottle in about 2 months. Granted, this was only one time but at least it gives me hope that we are not doomed to breast or nothing until we wean. I'm hoping to breastfeed until a year so with just over 6 months to go, I'm glad to think that being apart for more than a few hours is still a possibility.