Bottles
How do I know which bottle is best for my baby?
Whether it's bottle refusal or challenges with taking a bottle, like a leaky latch, or a pinched bottle nipple-in young babies, these feeding "behaviors" can indicate oral-motor issues that are beyond a baby simply "choosing" not to take a bottle. Lactation consultants work with bottle-feeding babies all the time, so if your baby is having issues taking a bottle (and you need for them to take one), check in with her to see what can be improved.
Understanding of oral mechanics to consider when trying bottles with your baby
Babies were born with innate instincts to work for their food and when properly latched, they "hunt" for their milk by extending their tongues low and in forward movements in and out of their mouth. While making this movements, their tongues should be lowered in the middle, forming a trench that escorts mom's nipple toward their throat meanwhile a cupped tongue creates a tight but comfortable seal. When choosing a bottle, consider what your baby can and can't do with their tongues (on both the breast and bottles attempted) and choose a bottle that will maintain an already coordinated latch, or improve a struggling latch. Interestingly, choosing a bottle that "looks like a breast" is the last thing to consider when attempting to find a bottle that matches your baby's functional abilities.
Wide, narrow or sloped bottle nipple? Which bottle is best for my baby?
Sloped
Typically, a baby whose tongue doesn't extend past their gum ridge bunches the back of their tongue against their palate. When the tongue bunches, a bottle nipple that is too narrow and doesn't touch the lips on its way into a baby's mouth can cause baby to gag or reject the nipple. In a case like this, offering a sloped bottle can help baby's lips make contact with the nipple prior to the nipple entering, which consents the baby and helps them prepare their oral posture in a way that receives the bottle properly. Sloped bottles are also good for helping a tongue that sits far from the gum ridge to seal in the posterior posture while slowly moving the tongue forward. ALso, in the case of a baby who refuses bottles, beginning with a sloped bottle can bridge a baby to using a narrow bottle, which will help baby learn to seal with a trenched tongue.
Narrow
Narrow nipples are best for babies needing strengthen and coordinate sucking, and who are able to trench their tongues and extend it to or past their gum ridges.
Wide Neck
Rarely is the best bottle for a baby a wide-necked bottle. In fact, the comparison made by most wide-neck bottle manufacturers to breasts is more of a marketing scheme than it is helpful. Very few newborns have tongues that can fully seal around the base of a wide-based nipple, and as a result they retract their tongue and pucker their cheeks in order to only suck on the wide-neck nipple tip. The retracted tongue and puckered cheek suck-posture can create unnecessary tension in a baby's lips, tension that can become muscle memory down the road.
As mentioned in the Suck Tool and pacifier section, artificial nipples can have a place in improving breastfeeding. In the same way that a physical trainer may use machine-weight lifting temporarily to first teach their clients proper form prior to introducing them use free-weights, so can an artificial nipple be used to help the tongue muscle learn to posture itself.
Bottles & Nipples:
Understanding of oral mechanics to consider when trying bottles with your baby
Babies were born with innate instincts to work for their food and when properly latched, they "hunt" for their milk by extending their tongues low and in forward movements in and out of their mouth. While making this movements, their tongues should be lowered in the middle, forming a trench that escorts mom's nipple toward their throat meanwhile a cupped tongue creates a tight but comfortable seal. When choosing a bottle, consider what your baby can and can't do with their tongues (on both the breast and bottles attempted) and choose a bottle that will maintain an already coordinated latch, or improve a struggling latch. Interestingly, choosing a bottle that "looks like a breast" is the last thing to consider when attempting to find a bottle that matches your baby's functional abilities.
Wide, narrow or sloped bottle nipple? Which bottle is best for my baby?
Sloped
Typically, a baby whose tongue doesn't extend past their gum ridge bunches the back of their tongue against their palate. When the tongue bunches, a bottle nipple that is too narrow and doesn't touch the lips on its way into a baby's mouth can cause baby to gag or reject the nipple. In a case like this, offering a sloped bottle can help baby's lips make contact with the nipple prior to the nipple entering, which consents the baby and helps them prepare their oral posture in a way that receives the bottle properly. Sloped bottles are also good for helping a tongue that sits far from the gum ridge to seal in the posterior posture while slowly moving the tongue forward. ALso, in the case of a baby who refuses bottles, beginning with a sloped bottle can bridge a baby to using a narrow bottle, which will help baby learn to seal with a trenched tongue.
Narrow
Narrow nipples are best for babies needing strengthen and coordinate sucking, and who are able to trench their tongues and extend it to or past their gum ridges.
Wide Neck
Rarely is the best bottle for a baby a wide-necked bottle. In fact, the comparison made by most wide-neck bottle manufacturers to breasts is more of a marketing scheme than it is helpful. Very few newborns have tongues that can fully seal around the base of a wide-based nipple, and as a result they retract their tongue and pucker their cheeks in order to only suck on the wide-neck nipple tip. The retracted tongue and puckered cheek suck-posture can create unnecessary tension in a baby's lips, tension that can become muscle memory down the road.
As mentioned in the Suck Tool and pacifier section, artificial nipples can have a place in improving breastfeeding. In the same way that a physical trainer may use machine-weight lifting temporarily to first teach their clients proper form prior to introducing them use free-weights, so can an artificial nipple be used to help the tongue muscle learn to posture itself.
Bottles & Nipples:
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