Trouble transitioning from NICU single use nipples...

steph4gach

Hi ladies. My son was born on July 21st via emergency C-section due to preeclampsia. He weighed 4lbs, 8oz and was 19 inches long at birth. After 15 days in the NICU learning to feed, he was discharged on Neosure 22. While in the NICU, he fed from the premade Similac bottles with the single use nipples. Now that we're home, we're having a hard time finding a reusable nipple that he'll feed from as well as he does on the throw aways. We've had some small success with Dr. Brown's size 1 nipples however he dribbles out formula quite a bit with them.  The NICU sent us home with a ton of the single use nipples, however, they aren't going to last us forever. They are available for purchase on Amazon but we're hoping to be able to transition to a reusable nipple that fits larger than a 2 ounce bottle since he's now taking 2-3 ounces a feeding. Anyone with a similar situation? What nipples ended up working best for your kiddo? Thanks in advance!!

blairdavis99

We use the Similac single-use nipple for longer than single-use. The NICU nurse told us to wash normally after each use & just keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't falling apart. I throw away after 2-3 weeks just in case but have yet to experience one falling apart. They do fit on the Dr Brown bottles, just not with the inside bottle parts on it (which kinda sucks since those are great at helping avoid gas). We are now using Dr Brown Level 1 for normal bottles but still use the single-use nipples for our daily small bottle that has their vitamins in it. Also there is a preemie Dr Brown nipple if you haven't tried that yet.

danijo14

I was in a similar situation with my son when he came home from the NICU as well. I know that similac makes them in a reusable version. I signed up to get formula checks from them on their website and in the welcome kit they sent me, it had the same nipple but it said to wash and rinse between uses. I have two of them that came from those kits. I know when you buy the 2oz bottles in the store many of the packages come with a reusable nipple... I have yet to find a neosure package with them though. My son eventually got used to the Dr. Browns nipple though, and you can get those nipples in a preemie flow too:) Hope that helps!

danijo14

Oh and those nipples will fit any standard bottle... like a dr browns.

steph4gach

Thanks ladies! I picked up another Dr. Brown's today and am going to try and transition to those. We did try the preemie nipples and failed miserably. Our little guy prefers a quicker flow. I also emailed Similac thinking maybe they'd have a suggestion

lakinjane

My daughter was born July 19th because of pre-e. She was in the nicu for 8 days and we had a hard time finding a nipples she would use. She won't even attempt to suck on a Dr brown nipple, we tried Tommee Tippie that didn't work so we reused a couple from the hospital, and I kept trying different bottles and finally settled with Playtex Ventaire slow flow, and she does great with them.

Jenn5531

I had the same problem. Mine were the enfamil nipples. I found them on Amazon and wash them in the dishwasher. They also fit 8 oz bottles.

suzienickles10

Wow your story is very similar to ours! Emergency c section on July 21st here too. Also used similac nipples and have had a tough time getting baby used to another. We went originally with our first sons playtex ventair system but they made new parts in the past three years and we can't buy the same ones. Moved to dr Browns nipple as well and preemie was too hard to suck but level one seems to drip a lot. We stuck with it not pressuring feeds and making baby pause and now the level ones work great. My next debate with my husband is do the air vent bottles really work? I believe yes, he thinks we just need to buy the cheapest bottles.

blovemama

We used the a Medela nipples. Not the slow flow but the next one up. We are transitioning to exclusively breast feeding. We've switched to joovy during the transition. The nurses also said that we could reuse the single use nipples. They started getting grungy though!