mhb@wdl1.UUCP (11/18/85)
My wife and I are due in February, so naturally we are starting to look around and see what to get. Although my wife intends to breast feed, I expect that there will be the occasional need for a bottle (especially when we wean the baby off the breast eventually). What is your experience: what type of bottle to use? What type of nipple? (Orthodontic? Playtex type? Silicone?) Is it important to get one of those machines for taking milk out of the breast and saving it, and if so, which machine? Please help by sharing your experience. Thanks Mike Bender
canopus@amdahl.UUCP (Alpha Carinae) (11/20/85)
> My wife and I are due in February, so naturally we are starting to > look around and see what to get. Although my wife intends to breast > feed, I expect that there will be the occasional need for a bottle > (especially when we wean the baby off the breast eventually). > > What is your experience: what type of bottle to use? In our experience we didn't need a bottle. Both our girls were breastfed for approx. 9 months each. They went directly to one of those baby drinking cups. > Is it important to get one of those machines for taking milk out of > the breast and saving it, and if so, which machine? It depends. If the baby's mother will be working, it will be important to express milk and bottle it (so in this case maybe you will need a bottle?). As far as using a machine to express the milk (our family's collective opinion): hand expression is preferred. -- Frank Dibbell (408-746-6493) ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,sun}!amdahl!canopus Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA [This is the obligatory disclaimer..]
bethb@hammer.UUCP (Beth Bonness) (11/21/85)
> My wife and I are due in February, so naturally we are starting to > look around and see what to get. Although my wife intends to breast > feed, I expect that there will be the occasional need for a bottle > (especially when we wean the baby off the breast eventually). > > What is your experience: what type of bottle to use? > What type of nipple? (Orthodontic? Playtex type? Silicone?) > Is it important to get one of those machines for taking milk out of > the breast and saving it, and if so, which machine? > > Please help by sharing your experience. Thanks > > Mike Bender Congratulations, you're in for alot of good times. I work part time (3 days a week) and I nurse our 3 month old baby girl. Because I was going back to work and my husband would be taking care of her the days I worked, he obviously was going to have to feed her with a bottle. We had heard that if you wanted a baby to take the bottle, and were you going to breastfeed, that you should start as soon as possible, otherwise they may never go to a bottle. The same is true if you start a baby out with a bottle, they may not take the breast later. Anyways, within the first week I started pumping so we could get her used to the bottle. Now she'll take either bottle or breast, breastmilk or formula. She did have a funny reaction to SIMILAC with iron so we use ISOMIL, which is soy based and she hasn't had any problems. In fact I can nurse her for one breasts worth of milk and she'll take the second half of the feeding from a bottle. Not everyone is so lucky. Therefore, I would recommend that you try to get your new baby used to a bottle within the first month. Regarding type of bottles and nipples. The only problems we had with nipples was that Kalah would suck as hard on the bottle nipple as she did on my nipple and would choke because the milk would come out so much faster. What we had to do was find the smallest holed nipple. Most manufacturers have nipples for water, formula, and juice. You want to get the water nipple. When she was very small even those kind of nipples didn't work. There was a nipple that came along with the Kaneson pump I bought which had a nipple with a very small hole, and that's the only one we could use. I hear there are some nipples that used to be available where you could poke your own holes. That'd solve the problem if you could locate one of those. The orthadontic nipples, although she can take them now, were too big when she was young. Not all babies have the same reaction so you'll probably spend a little time and money buying different kinds of nipples, everyone does. I like the PUR orthadontic nipples for her now. Regarding pumps, you can get a good pump for between $15-$20 dollars. I use a Kaneson, which works great for me. The electric pumps may work faster, but I don't think the extra money is worth if. And I spend pretty much time pumping: three times a day 3 days a week. There's nothing like the pleasures of breastfeeding your baby, but it doesn't come as soon as I had expected. It took a good 6 weeks before I was over the sore nipples and could take a shower without cupping my nipples so the water didn't hit them directly. It also took a long time for my milk to come in. It was hard to convince my mother that this was perfectly natural and Kalah wasn't going to starve to death before my supply came in. What it meant was that I was feeding her every 2 hours to bring the supply in. Nursing sessions took about an hour, so for the first few weeks I wasn't getting very much sleep, at least not in chunks. But I can honestly say with alot of determination and support from my husband we both really enjoy watching Kalah nurse, and know she's getting the best food she can get. So don't be demoralized if your wife has problems. Enough talk, there's so much information about nursing. Let the group know if you need anymore help. Good luck! Beth Bonness (A happy working, nursing mama.)
smuga@mtuxo.UUCP (j.smuga) (11/22/85)
> > My wife and I are due in February, so naturally we are starting to > > look around and see what to get. Although my wife intends to breast > > feed, I expect that there will be the occasional need for a bottle > > (especially when we wean the baby off the breast eventually). > > > > What is your experience: what type of bottle to use? > > In our experience we didn't need a bottle. Both our girls were > breastfed for approx. 9 months each. They went directly to one of > those baby drinking cups. Same here. My breastfed babies rejected both bottles and pacifiers. They did like to suck on their own fingers. Frankly, I was just as glad not to have bottles to wash. > > > Is it important to get one of those machines for taking milk out of > > the breast and saving it, and if so, which machine? > > It depends. If the baby's mother will be working, it will be > important to express milk and bottle it (so in this case maybe you > will need a bottle?). As far as using a machine to express the > milk (our family's collective opinion): hand expression is preferred. > -- Ditto. -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Janet Smuga I've had a great many troubles in my time, ihnp4!mtuxo!smuga and most of them never happened. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
martha@geowhiz.UUCP (Martha Savage) (11/23/85)
> My wife and I are due in February, so naturally we are starting to > look around and see what to get. Although my wife intends to breast > feed, I expect that there will be the occasional need for a bottle > (especially when we wean the baby off the breast eventually). > > What is your experience: what type of bottle to use? > What type of nipple? (Orthodontic? Playtex type? Silicone?) I am still breastfeeding my baby (5 months old). He has been getting approximately one bottle a day if I'm away at work. He's not very picky--it doesn't matter what nipple or bottle he has. We usually use the bottles the hospital used for glucose water and were going to throw out if we didn't take them. > Is it important to get one of those machines for taking milk out of > the breast and saving it, and if so, which machine? At first I used one of those machines, but didn't enjoy them at all-- they took a long time to get just a little milk out, and I felt weird using it--like a cow or something. And we discovered that Patrick was just as happy with formula. So now we just use formula if I'm away, or me if I'm not. I sometimes get to feeling very full if I haven't fed him for 8 or more hours. But at those times I just come home and take him out of bed (yes, I work mostly at night so he's usually asleep when I come home) and he'll eat enough to relieve me even though he's still asleep. We were lucky--Patrick is very unpicky, so it didn't matter to him that we waited until he was 8 weeks old to offer him a bottle, but others are not so lucky. It's been suggested before to offer bottles early on. Also, he has no allergies to formula. While breastfeeding is really wonderful, it could feel slightly burdensome if your baby would refuse to ever take a bottle and you could thus never go away for more than 4 hours (or 2 in the first months, as it worked out for us). Breast milk is better for them, but I doubt a few ounces of formula a day is going to hurt him, and it's nice if the father can get a chance to feed the baby, too. Good luck. And don't worry too much about buying equipment ahead of time. You have plenty of time for most things--the only thing you really need right away is a car seat. > > Please help by sharing your experience. Thanks > > Mike Bender *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** -- Martha Kane Savage U. Wisc. Dept. Geology and Geophysics {ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!geowhiz!martha
mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (11/24/85)
In article <1652@hammer.UUCP> bethb@hammer.UUCP (Beth Bonness) writes: >Regarding type of bottles and nipples. The only problems we had with >nipples was that Kalah would suck as hard on the bottle nipple as she did on >my nipple and would choke because the milk would come out so much >faster. What we had to do was find the smallest holed nipple. While Karen was in the hospital with Adam, I read the propaganda sheet from the NUK people about how wonderful their nipples were. Basically their claim was that the NUK nipple was shaped in a way that duplicated the breast *when it's in the babie's mouth*. (This is a bit hard to believe but they had an illustration that indicated that this weird shape - the same shape you see on the NUK pacifier you probably got as a freebie at the hospital - is how the breast goes in the mouth.) Anyway, the claim is that it's HARDER for the baby to get milk from a NUK nipple, because the baby has to use a certain tounge motion. They described this as "beneficial exercise" and felt it to be the major reason why their nipples are wonderful. The claim is that the other "standard" (Gerber, etc) nipples practically choke the baby on the milk. We never actually got very many NUK nipples, because they are almost impossible to find in stores, and because the Gerber arrangement comes with a cap that makes the bottle very portable - this is a major convenience. But if you wanted to take Gerber bottles, rings, and caps, and insert NUK nipples, at considerable extra cost, it would probably work. Mark
mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (11/25/85)
One added note: we were in Sears today and I noticed they have bottle sets with NUK nipples for sale there. They are expensive ($4 for two bottles) but they are complete: bottle, ring, nipple, and cap. I also forgot to mention that the NUK people claim the exercise the baby gets from the NUK nipple duplicates exercise the baby gets from breastfeeding. Mark