Family Forum / Pregnancy / Breastfeeding / January 2006

I was all set to write another "help me!" post because Madi is just not
taking to the bottle well and I start work in a couple weeks.  We've tried
different brands of nipples, different people giving her the bottle, using
the car seat, etc.  She would either just gnaw on the nipple and some milk
would come out that way, or wail until we took it away.  However, on a few
occasions she did take the bottle sort of OK and I could never figure out
what was different.
AHA!  I just realized that mixed in with the "slow" nipples, I had two Avent
stage 2 nipples.  I had thought that she was avoiding sucking on the nipple
because it was coming out too fast, so when I got new nipples I got the slow
ones.  Turns out she must have wanted faster nipples and when she happened
to get one of the stage 2 nipples, the bottle went better.  Sure enough,
used one today and she drank 1.5 oz!  That may not seem like much, but when
the previous max had been 0.5 oz over a long time, I was thrilled.
I'm not sure if I should feel like a genius for figuring it out or like an
idiot for not thinking of it sooner...I knew I had a pretty fast let-down,
so why shouldn't she prefer faster nipples?  I bought a couple stage 3
nipples today and we'll have to see how that goes when she goes to visit
Grandma tomorrow (the first time we'll be separated...I need the practice)

Anyway, since I had planned to post anyway, thought I'd share a success
story instead!  Of course, tomorrow she might refuse all bottles just to
keep me on my toes!

Amy