BTDT moms- switching from NICU bottles to "regular"

EmJ628

our 3 wk old twins were in the NICU for 12 days. They gave us a small supply of the disposable nipples and bottles when we came home but we are starting to need to throw those away (even though we have resided them per the nurses instructions). We've tried medela and Dr Browns slow flow nipples and they seem to still feed too fast and have been really gassy and uncomfortable. Any ideas for really tiny ones? They are just over 5lbs now. My poor twin B screamed last night from 12 to 5 am until he finally passed gas and then he went to sleep after the 5am feeding. I thought the Dr Browns were supposed to be great for preventing gas but they do not seem to work for our guys yet. I have some avent bottles as well but I don't want to go through what we did last night again!!

blairdavis99

With the Dr Browns - are you using Preemie or Level 1 nipples? Not sure specifically what you meant by "slow flow." I think the bottles come with Level 1 so you may want to track down some preemies if you aren't currently using those. Dr Browns should be pretty good for preventing gas - my preemie twins do really well on them - but then every baby is different. You could potentially try asking the NICU for more of those nipples to use on the Dr Brown bottles (if they were the same ones in our NICU, they fit most standard-sized bottles). Although they are intended for single-use, we've used them for up to a month before throwing them out. We just keep a good eye on them to make sure they are fully intact and in good shape before using each time. Also, I'm sure you are already doing this, too, but are you taking a lot of breaks & burping a lot? My twins are 15 weeks now and we still have to stop at least at every ounce, sometimes more based on their cues. Good luck mama!

EmJ628

Thank you! We are using the preemie nipple, the #1 was way too fast. We're burping 1-2 times but they are only eating 2oz right now. I actually found the NICU nipples on Amazon, so I ordered some to get us through!! Fingers crossed. I feel like kids are such an experiment, poor little guys

mrsrichey11

I was just about to suggest looking on Amazon, but I see you've already done that! We ended up buying more after we ran out of the ones the NICU gave us. Thank goodness Amazon has everything!