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How long to take a feed & when to change teat size?

Hello, I'm a graduate from DIJ '10 and now mainly post in BIJ '10. I haven't posted in here before, but hoping ladies with older babies could offer some advice.

My lo is just over 7 weeks old, and can take up to half an hour to feed, (minimum of 15 minutes) on size 1 tt ctn teats. She has been suffering with bad colic so we give her gripe water, and have commenced Colief, which appears to be helping enormously.

The HV suggested going up a teat size as this may improve things. She is now taking a feed (5oz) in 5-10 mins with a break for winding. She seems to cope well with the flow from the teat, although there is a lot coming out of the bottom or side of her mouth (this is no different to when she had size 1 teat). She doesn't cough or look like she's choking either. She appears to be less colicky, although this may be the Colief taking effect also.

She has a very strong sucking reflex, and I thought that she would be collapsing the size 1 teat if this was too small for her, which isn't the case? Is it worth persevering with the size 2 teat, as I'm sure it's just a case of her getting used to it? Is she too young for the this teat size? Is the time she now takes to feed with a size 2 teat normal? She hasn't been sick after a feed, which would suggest that she's not getting it too quickly either.

Vicki & Poppy x

Replies

  • hey hun, i'm from BIJ too and my little girl is 7 weeks on thursday. she seemed to be taking longer and longer to take her feed recently so we've upped her to a size 2 teat (also tt ctn ones) and her feed times are now around the same as you've said.

    she also doesn't have any sickness or extra dribble etc so i'd presume that the time is normal and that if LO waas having any problems with the teat they'd soon let us know

    xx
  • I was always told to aim for 10-15 minutes, so if your LO was taking up to half an hour on the size 1 teats, I would agree that moving up to size 2 teats was the right decision. If she's not distressed by the faster flow, I would stick at it.

    Hannah xx
  • If its any help, i bottle fed my first son and he was on number 2 size by the time he was 2 weeks old. I found he was taking ages and was windy and going up helps.

    I would stick with number 2, its is def the right size for a 2 month old.

    My son went up the sizes before the recommended ages on the teats and i just moved him up when he started fussing again, or falling asleep.

    Gemm x
  • Sebastan is 8 weeks old and suffers from colic in the evening. Nothing we tried worked i.e Colief, infacol etc. I upped him from size 1 teats to the variflow teats when he was 2 weeks old because he was so slow at feeding and I thought size 2 teats would be too much but recently he has been strugglng with the variflow. I have now put him on size 2 teats (TT CTN same as yours) and he copes with the flow fine and defintely seems alot less colicky.

    If I were you I'd perservere. My daughter always went on to the next size teats way before she was supposed to. If it takes your lo too long to take a bottle then she'll start giving up and won't take enough milk.
  • Thank you all for your replies. She seems to have been much more settled this evening, almost like a different baby. We have changed all her teats to size 2 and we are going to continue with these as she seems to be doing well. Whether it is this, and/or Colief, I don't know, but not going to fix what's not broken!
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