How Long to Finish Bottle?
Eitak82
member
DS (13 weeks) has been exclusively FF since 1 month due to supply issues. At that point he would take 45 min - 1 hour to finish a bottle. Shortly before 2 months he became VERY frustrated with his bottles and seemed to be straining to get more, so I switched him to Dr. Brown's Level 2 nipples (medium flow) and he started taking his bottles in 35-45 minutes.
Now we are just past 3 months and he is still taking 45 minutes or so for each bottle, which, from reading other posts seems on the long side. He drinks about 5.5-6.5 ounces in each bottle and sometimes seems to strain for more, but I am hesitant to move up to Level 3 as it is labeled for 6 months +.
How long does it take your LO to finish a bottle?
How many ounces do they eat in each bottle on average?
Re: How Long to Finish Bottle?
i agree that does seem like a long time. but maybe your LO just likes to take his time???
my lo will drink an 8oz bottle in about 10-15 min tops. every 3.5 to 4 hours.
I don't know if he's just a slow eater, if I should try moving up, or what?!? It just seems to take a LONG time! At the beginning I attributed it to him being little and learning what to do, but I feel like it should have sped up more by now.
DD drinks 4ozs. in an Avent Size 2 bottle in about 10 minutes.
If I were you, I would try going up the size regardless of the 6months+ just to see if baby is more comfortable with it. If he/she starts gagging or choking from the faster flow then it might just means baby likes to eat slow.
We switched to level 3 at 4.5 months. He likes it so it works for us.
Buy a 2-pack and give them a try. If it's too fast for baby you'll know.
If not I'm going to try the Level 3 nipples tomorrow. These are the only bottles he's ever had and he has only been bottlefed, even when it was breast milk, so if the stretching out feeding time and move in nipples doesn't work, I may just resign myself to the fact that he is a leisurely eater.
Thanks again!
My DS is 4.5 months old and has taken between 30-45 minutes to finish a bottle since the beginning. Switching nipple sizes didn't really change anything, he takes the same amount of time. He's up to 6.5-7 oz of formula ever 3 hours. I've noticed lately that he'll drink about half of his formula, then chew on the nipple for a little bit, then finish.
Like PP, maybe your LO just likes to enjoy the yummy flavor of his formula? (I doubt this since the stuff just smells gross). Hope you get it all figured out!
Thank you for letting me know I'm not the only one!!! I switched today, but he was all sorts of off today as a result of bad sleep last night our building has yet to turn the air conditioning on, and it was warmer than usual.
Hopefully things are back to normal tomorrow!