Breastfeeding
mabst196
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Moving up to faster flow bottle nipples?
mabst196
member
DS gets bottles at daycare and if I am ever out and we're using level 1 nipples. Do you ever go up to a faster flow for a BF baby or stick with the level 1s? I have a pretty fast letdown so I'm not sure what is faster for him at this point. Daycare hasn't said he's had any issues with what we are using now.
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Re: Moving up to faster flow bottle nipples?
I've never switched. I don't think it's really necessary for BF babies because they take about the same amount of milk for the whole time they are breast fed. Formula fed babies increase the amount of formula in each bottle as they get older, so to keep it from taking a long time to suck down an 8oz bottle, you switch to a faster flow.
If it takes your DS longer to finish a bottle than it does for him to finish nursing, I'd switch to faster flow. Otherwise there's really no need.
It's recommended that with a BF baby, you shouldn't go above a size 1 nipple, because that's the sort of flow your LO will be getting from the breast.
However, if the nipple is collapsing while your LO is eating because he's sucking too hard, you might need to go up a size (or replace the nipple).
I'm just curious since I see this here a lot...who says that the flow they are getting from the breast is equivalent to a Level 1? I have a very strong flow that my baby has had to learn to manage, and there's no way it's a level 1, more like a Level 8 if it existed. My baby won't take bottles, but I'm sure if he did a Level 1 would piss him off royally because he isn't used to having to do that much work. Even as a newborn it has never taken him longer than 10 minutes to nurse, and he can get the job done in as little as 5 minutes when he's hungry.
So if my flow is different than others, why wouldn't you assume that everyone's flow is different and not everyone is a level 1?
My other confusion....if you only gave pumped breastmilk to an infant, you would gradually increase the amount they needed with time. You wouldn't be giving a 10 month old baby 2 ounces because the milk had changed.
It's my understanding that BF babies level off at about 5 ox per feeding or so whereas FF babies (at least my DD did) gradually go up to about 8 oz.
I agree with PPs, BF babies increase intake only to a certain extent, usually 4-5oz. Boobs don't magically start making more milk the older our babies get, so it has to level off and even bottle fed breast milk intake should plateau in the same way. Caloric content of breastmilk changes with age of the baby, but the volume doesn't.
I also have a fast letdown which would be a level 8 nipple, ha! But, with a bottle, the milk starts coming right away. With the boob, they have to work a little before they get anything. The goal is to have them take the same amount of time to finish, but with a bottle they slowly suck a steady amount out, whereas the boob is nothing and then a lot with letdown, then it slows down again. You just don't want them to get used to eating in 60 seconds with a high flow nipple because then they'll be even more frustrated waiting for a letdown when nursing. If you were EPing, you still don't want them finishing too quickly because then their tummies don't know they're full and they keep asking for more, which can lead to overeating (and I believe this is why statistically speaking FF babies weigh more).