Transcript:
Welcome to the Milk Minute, everybody. For a second there, we forgot where we were. I definitely did the wrong intro for the podcast. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we’re getting worse. We are. It’s really, well, you know, for a while we kept improving, and then we hit a plateau, and now we’re just coming down the other side.
It’s gonna be fine. It is. the Milk Minute. This is the Milk Minute podcast where we talk about breastfeeding. If you want to listen to Beyond the Boob, our other podcast, you can get that on Apple subscriptions or at our Patreon, and that tracks my pregnancy week by week, and Maureen is my midwife. Yes. So that’s fun.
But today we are going to be talking about breastfeeding friendly bottle feeding, what that even means, what we’re looking for in a bottle. This is a little controversial among lactation consultants and parents, parents have their opinions too. So we’re just going to, we’re going to give our opinion, do our best.
Yeah. And, and it’s not going to be the most evidence based episode, but it will be. Very professional opinion and I, I think hopefully an accurate professional opinion. Same, and mostly we just want to talk about how we can feed bottles to a baby in a way that decreases the impact on breastfeeding. Yes.
But let’s catch up a little before we get started because I feel like it’s been forever since we sat down. So okay. I enrolled Lyra in gymnastics. Oh, actually Griffin had been doing it before. It conflicts with his choir this year though. So he would rather do choir than gymnastics. And I was like, whatever.
But she, I signed her up for the tiny tots class, which is super cute, but. The first class started on Labor Day weekend, right? And in the email, it was like, class starts 9 2. In the class description, it said class starts 9 2. So, we all get there at frickin 9 a. m. on a Saturday. And I get there and there’s a bunch of parents waiting outside and I was like, and then we’re all just kind of standing there and there’s nobody there.
There’s no lights on. There’s like 15 toddlers standing in a parking lot at 9am on a Saturday. And turns out they closed for Labor Day weekend, didn’t tell us that the class actually started next week. Oh no. Even though everywhere it had said the class started on 9 2, but like on the, like, calendar link on the website.
It had said the studio was closed, which like, why would I check that? Well, you’re a parent. You have 20 million other things to think about. Right. Well, it was like when I signed up and it said class starts on 9 2, I wrote on the calendar and the time and then I just didn’t look at it again. Mm hmm. Right?
And honestly, I, I really like the instruction at this studio, but they do stuff like this all the time. Mm hmm. Small business flops. And it’s just so frustrating. You’re like, oh, sorry, that one guy that I pay didn’t update the website. Exactly. Well, and like, I remember last year, you know, spring break, like the normal, like, school spring break week was coming up, which we don’t even participate in because we homeschool.
And it was the end of the class. We were like the last kids walking out. And I was like, oh, are you guys having class next week because of spring break? And they were like, oh, no, we’re not. I guess we should have told everybody. And I was like, okay, bye. Good talk. Maybe put out a flyer. Glad you told me.
That’s funny. Theo did gymnastics for a little bit. Yeah. When he was six or something like that. And you know the foam pits that they have, like the foam block pits? I love the foam pit. So poor little guy, you know, they bounce around and bounce around and then they end the class in the foam pit. In the foam pit.
And he… This was a day that his dad was with him, not me, and his dad said that he jumps in the foam pit, and then he’s right in the middle, and he looks at his dad, and a look of panic comes over his face, and he has diarrhea. Not in the foam pit! In the foam pit. And then his dad is like, Oh, no. Like, how do I get him out?
And so Theo, poor guy, is like sobbing. He’s so embarrassed. Yeah, totally. And his dad lives like 30 minutes away. So they stopped at a gas station and his dad does not do well with disgusting stuff and was just gagging the whole time. And I was like, of course, it’s the one time I’m not there. Like, I know my kid’s poop faces.
Yeah, totally. I would have. You would have noticed probably a few minutes before that he was, like, uncomfortable. Yeah, although good learning experience. He never went back though. He refused to go back to gymnastics because of that. Fast forward a few years and he wants to do his birthday parties at the gymnastics center and loves the foam pit and always casually just tells his friends like, Yeah, I had diarrhea in here once.
And I’m like, Well, it didn’t get on the blocks. Like, to be fair, it Then his friends are like, ew, bro, should we not be in here? That’s great. Yeah, boys, boys are something. Griffin loves the foam pit. He’s so tall, you know, that he can like launch off of the, he goes like so much further than the other kids his age because legs are so long and like.
Yeah, and Theo is 30.
How much? 33 weeks and some change today. And yeah, Theo will say goodbye to me and the baby separately. So he’s like, can I get a hug? And then he’ll hug, he’ll go to hug me, and then he’ll go, Sike, I’m hugging the baby. He’ll hug the belly of the baby. You’re like, that’s also me, bro. I’m like, yeah, get out of here.
Oh, goodness. Well let’s thank some patrons here. What do you think? Yes, I would like to thank Caitlin Trevinsky. of Morgantown, West Virginia. I’ve known Caitlin a very long time, since like middle school. Super cool girl. Mia Snow from Great Falls, Montana. And Anna Minton from Bonney Lake, Washington.
Oh, awesome. Thank you guys so much for supporting us on Patreon. It really makes every single aspect of this possible. Yeah, truly. We would not have been able to keep doing this financially for this entire time. And, you know, By the way, technically, we still take a loss on this podcast, which is fine, but it’s not a loss that’s so significant that we have to close.
You know, we still want to keep doing this, so just so you know. All right, well, let’s take a really quick break, thank a sponsor, and then we’ll come back and talk about bottles. And reminder, we both do consults and those links are always in the show notes if you want to book with one of us.
Have you guys ever been listening to our show and thought to yourself, man, I really want to work one on one with Maureen? I do every day that I sit here podcasting across from you. Well, lucky for you and everybody at home, I offer both in person and virtual support through my business. And in my business, Highland Birth Support, I’m dedicated to mentoring you guys through your childbearing year.
So that could start with fertility, all the way through pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum. I offer home birth midwifery services, doula services, lactation support, herbal support. You even do miscarriage support. Absolutely, I do. That’s one of the biggest things that is so hard to find, and I think that your people that are local to you are so incredibly lucky to have this service.
Thank you, and I just feel really happy to serve everybody, and I’m so happy I can expand my services virtually as well. Yeah, telehealth for lactation has been really important through the pandemic, and I think we just about got it perfected at this point. So if you guys want to work with me, head over to HighlandBirthSupport.
com and check out what I can offer you. That’s h i g h l a n d birthsupport. com. Welcome back, everybody. Okay, so before we start this, I just want to say that most bottles are fine. Okay. What? Honestly. I tried 72 bottles and the only one that worked for my kid was this random one from Saipan. Totally. But here’s the thing.
The amount of times that I’ve seen… A baby’s latch on a bottle interfering with the way that they breastfeed is like, it’s not that often, you know, because we, we kind of obsess over like the nipple shape on the bottle and I’m just going to say we’re going to downplay that a little bit today. Yeah, yeah, and we’re going to talk about the things that actually do make a difference that we have noticed as well.
Like in our practice as well as in the research, and we are going to talk about nipple shape a little bit, but all in all our main point is, and I’m going to let you give this point because this was a very good point. One of the most important things is that The bottle that you choose should be easily accessible to you for replacement parts, for replacement of the bottle.
It should be the bottle that you can find at a store near you at 2 a. m. Right. Just in case. Yes. You never know. Or like when you are traveling and your husband forgot to pack all of the bottles, you want to be able to go find the one that your baby is used to. Yes, not the random special order bottle so that it matches your areola color.
Oh, don’t get me started. Yeah, like the While I appreciate that many bottle companies are being innovative and trying to meet needs, there’s also a huge amount of that that is a marketing ploy. And a lot of those expensive bottles are hard to find, hard to find replacements for them, and really can leave parents in a lurch if that’s the only bottle their baby will use and they need to get a replacement very quickly.
Also, another disclaimer, There are no guarantees with any bottles. So when you look at the marketing on these bottles, it’s like guaranteed to make your latch better on the breast. Nope, no, that’s not a guarantee. Guaranteed less colic and fussiness. Also not guaranteed. Guaranteed to help your baby sleep longer.
No, it’s not. You know, the guaranteed to make baby’s feeding experience better. How did you interview the baby? So I’m going to say ignore all of the marketing. Don’t read. Any of the words, but please know that if the bottle costs 50, it’s not the one. If one bottle costs 50, no, no, I, more importantly, like I want you to go and look and touch the bottles before you buy them.
Okay. I’m going to do a bottle workshop. I’m going to get one of all of them and let people come squish them. All right, so what really matters, Heather? What matters most to me is that you get a bottle and you bottle feed in a way that matches your boobs and your breastfeeding experience. My boobs and Maureen’s boobs do not perform the same.
They don’t look the same. They don’t perform the same. Our babies are going to learn differently how to maximize the output by… The shape by the flow by so like the way they feed is different. So bottles make it standard and that’s kind of weird. It is. It is definitely kind of weird. And you know, we talk about paste feeding a lot and we’re not going to go through every detail of that again today, but how you use the bottle is more important than the bottle that you use.
So can I also say that I am more picky about pacifiers than I am about bottles. I agree, because the babies suck on them a lot more. And they dangle out of the mouth a lot more. They do, they affect palate formation much more. And muscle, just the way the muscles are. Yes. But a bottle, it’s like, you know.
Yeah, a few times a day, maybe, but the pacifier could be hours and hours and hours, including all night all night. Yeah. So I am a lot more picky about pacifiers. Absolutely. Let me just say that. Well, where do we want to start with what we actually care about? Well, let’s start with the fact that it used.
We have to acknowledge the fact that it used to be it about nipple confusion. Yes. So there was a big, big public service announcement about nipple confusion and bottles. And from a marketing standpoint, every company in the world was like, perfect. I guess we’ll make our bottles more like nipples. We have a bigger pain point now to focus on that’s not provable.
And that is truly the number one marketing. Like, thing that I see is that this is most like your breast. Mm hmm. Which is technically not legal marketing, right? I’m not sure. I don’t know. Breast milk substitutes, no, but the vessel? Question mark. No, there, there are rules about that too, but I’m not sure. Mm, TBD.
So, We’ve kind of debunked the nipple confusion and what we found is it’s more about flow rate. Yes. So it’s not so much, you know, how we have research that’s like formula fed babies have a higher risk of obesity in childhood. Well, we’re finding that the fullness centers of the brain that are getting regulated by the flow is what actually matters.
Yeah, it’s not, it’s not actually that they ate formula and that caused obesity later in life. It’s that the, how quickly they were eating, how much they were eating. And it’s all bottle. Right. And it’s due to the bottle and the, the way that we’re using them that changed the way that baby eats for a lifetime.
Mm hmm. And babies will. Overfeed on a bottle, but they won’t overfeed on a breast. Typically not. So we’re focusing, let’s start with flow rate then, since that seems to be the biggest thing that affects the brain. I feel like we care the most. I talk about this the most. Yes. Okay. So, tell us, tell us what you care about.
Okay. So, usually, We recommend starting with the slowest flow rate, and there’s a few reasons for that, right? It does tend to be closer to what breastfed babies are getting from your body and it makes the baby work harder to get their milk out so that they actually need to use Like the muscles in their face to feed, which is what you want.
We want them to use their muscles to feed because they need oral facial development. Yeah. We do not really want a bottle that’s going to just, when you tip it, pour out to gravity really quickly, like a. Like a bong. Like a milk bong. We don’t want your baby to be like struggling to keep up with the bottle and the bottle setting the pace.
You want your baby to really be setting the pace. You do. And so for some people that’s gonna be the absolute smallest nipple. That’s not appropriate for every single breastfed baby, right? But we certainly don’t want to use the kind of nipple where, yeah, when you flip it over just a stream of milk comes out.
Right. Also, we have to think about the timing that We are typically introducing a bottle, so usually on average, I would say most people are introducing a bottle between four and six weeks if they’re breastfeeding. At that time, the baby does not need a medium or fast flow that because your boobs are most likely baby.
Not always, but most likely not super fast. No. Now, you know, when I do talk to people about using a larger or older size, I don’t know, nipple, it’s usually the folks who struggle with a fast letdown. They’re babies like choking at the breast. But when we introduce that slow flow, they’re like, what is this crap?
Yeah, no, thanks. And that’s fine because I’ve literally probably seen their breasts ejecting milk faster than just about any bottle nipple that I’ve ever seen, you know? So those are kind of special cases cause that’s not the majority of people. And I still typically recommend we start small. and then move up if there’s a problem, like if baby is collapsing the nipple on the bottle consistently because they’re having to suck so hard to get milk out, right?
Yeah, we don’t want them to be burning so many calories just trying to get the milk out. And we don’t want them to actually hate the bottle, right? We, so here’s the thing, it’s not nipple confusion, it’s preference. Your baby’s not confused. They’re actually quite smart. They’re super smart. And in their little brains with, you know, just these millions of synapses firing, they’re like the easier food is the better food.
Right? So if it’s easier to get milk from a bottle, they’re going to have a preference for that. And we kind of want them to be almost equal, as equal as we can get them to be, because we don’t want them mad at the bottle. We don’t want them mad at the breast. We want them to kind of be the same. Yeah, we don’t want it to be like a hugely different experience.
We want it to be similar. So they’re like, it’s just feeding. It’s not like, ooh, I get a boob from mom and I get this super fast milk bong from dad, you know, because eventually that kid and their brain is going to be like, you know what? Sounds amazing. Yeah. Just not working for this. Yeah. So I kind of think about, you know, If people were training for a hot dog eating contest, and you know, and it’s timed where they’re like trying to get in as much as possible.
But then you take that same person out on a date to a tapas restaurant and you expect them to eat these tiny meals that overall adds up to the same amount, but you’re trying to ask them to savor the experience. They’re going to be like, my brain is not, my brain and my stomach are not set up for this.
So we just need to be really cautious. It’s more of a brain. It is. Absolutely. You know, and we don’t want babies drinking so fast that they spit up, that they have, they’re uncomfortable after a feed because they ate too much. You know, there’s, there’s a number of things that can happen with that that are just not great.
And so when we say that we want to start on the slowest nipple, it’s usually a preemie or zero or maybe even a size one, maybe, but please be aware that the marketing on the bottles and nipples can be very misleading. It can. So, yeah, I think. It’s easier when I see them say zero months. I’m like, got it.
Newborn. Right. But even then, so like, for example, the Phillips Avent bottles, zero plus months, it still has two droplets on the side, which is technically a two. Right. So you’re looking, like, look at the droplets on the side, make sure that you understand because the grouping by age, like when they group the bottles by age, it’s very confusing and it doesn’t actually have much to do with anything.
Yeah, and you know, if you’re confused and you’re not sure which is faster and you have, you know, the money, just buy them both. Take them home, put water in it, and tip it over. You know, which one actually drips out a whole bunch and which one doesn’t. And they’re, all the nipples should have a number on them.
Or, so like, sometimes it’s really small. So look on the nipple for a zero, one, two, three, or four. Or, it’s S for slow, M for medium, and F for fast. So, could we have made it more confusing, Heather? What do you think? I don’t know. But my, my hot tip is that after your baby shower, please go through your bottle nipples.
Take anything that’s above a one, put it in a Ziploc bag and write larger nipple sizes and put it away. So your husband doesn’t accidentally, yeah. And I just wanted to let you know that. Fast flow nipples were actually created for NICU babies because they were trying to, they were hoping that it would decrease the calories that those babies are burning while sucking on the bottle.
But this actually just caused a lot of choking and stress for the NICU babies. So instead of those companies being like, Oh, you know what? We’ll just discontinue that. They’re like, let’s market it to older babies that can handle this fast flow, even if they shouldn’t. And, yeah, of course, from a business perspective, it makes sense.
Confuse the consumer and make them think that they need it.
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Thanks Aeroflow. Thank you so much. Go ahead and check out the link to Aeroflow in our show notes and order your pump through them.
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Okay, let’s address the most controversial elephant in the room, or whatever it is. Nipple shape! Nipple shape. So this is what all the marketing focuses on, and I, I do have a pretty strong opinion about this, mostly about what I don’t like. Tell me what you hate. Okay, I hate the ones that are actually, kind of look the most like a real nipple, because they tend to have a super wide ring.
That, that the actual bottle has at the top. And then a really flat disc of nipple. And then just like a little bit that sticks out. And those tend to be just like so stiff that when baby actually latches on, they just get on the tip of the nipple. Like, yes, if that was a breast and it was soft, they would have a great latch on that sucker.
However, usually they’re kind of tough. Well, and your breast tissue molds. It does. As the baby gets it in their mouth, it molds it into a narrow shape that can fit. In the tunnel of their tongue that they create. And so when we’re looking at that, I kind of want to see the shape that the nipple is representing what it would look like in baby’s mouth.
Because no matter what we do, we’re not going to get the nipple that we’re buying to be soft enough that it molds and doesn’t collapse. Like, that’s just not gonna happen, right? So it’s gonna have some molding, but it’s not gonna be perfect. So I wanna see more of like a cylindrical, like a cone kind of shape.
Like a gradual taper. Right, a gradual taper from top to bottom where we actually like have some distance from if we have a wide neck bottle, there’s a good distance from the actual neck of the bottle to the tip of the nipple. If we have a narrow neck bottle, that’s also probably fine, as long as the base of that nipple is wider.
Wait, clarification point. Yeah. Because I think people get very confused about this. When they’re trying to find a narrow nipple, but then they look up the bottle they’re looking for and it says wide neck. I know. It doesn’t mean the same thing from every bottle company. So wide neck is typically the opening of the bottle.
So that basically matters if you’re going to be pumping directly into the bottle. Does it screw onto a wide neck screw or is it like the Medela, which is like a skinny neck that has to have an adapter for a spectra or something like that, which is a wider. Neck. So the nipple can be narrow, but the neck of the bottle can be wide.
Yes. And honestly, though, like a lot of the wider neck bottles do tend to have those kind of flat, like disc nipples on them as I think of them. And I typically do see better latches on things like the Medela bottles, the Dr. Brown’s, like those ones versus those ones that are like, this is so breast like and it sucks because that marketing is really confusing.
Now, if you are currently using a wide neck bottle with a very like close to a 90 degree angle between the nipple and the, and the base of the squishy part. What are we calling that? The base? Yes. Okay. And it’s working for you and your baby and it’s not affecting breastfeeding? Then just stop listening to this episode.
You’re fine. You don’t need to do it. This is like… Like, I mean, Heather and I, I’ve seen a successful bottle and breastfeeding with like every kind of bottle, essentially. Yeah. And a lot of those bottles, by the way, are very convenient. Yeah. For a lot of reasons. And that’s fine. Which is why I like them, because I’m busy.
And so, you know, can I give a couple examples? Mm hmm. So, Comatomo. All right. So they have a much more aggressive angle. Yeah. But I love that it’s three pieces to wash. Yeah. I love that. The baby can massage the silicone base just like they massage your breast and if it doesn’t affect their latch, that’s who care cares.
Yeah. The kind bottles Also, it could not be more. Disposable, you know, like, and like they’ve, they’ve got like a weird hard part in the nipple, like looking at them, I’d be like, this is a shitty bottle for breastfeeding, but also can work out totally fine, right? But you know what? It kept me breastfeeding.
Exactly. It kept me pumping and breastfeeding because I wasn’t washing bottles for 14 hours a day, a million pieces with it. So. I got lucky in that arena where Heidi would latch on to those things. Other babies might not. Might not. No, and if we’re looking for, we’re kind of talking about the ideal for the very picky baby who’s very sensitive or whatever.
And what I like to do is I just look at the profile of the nipple and draw a triangle around it from the tip of the nipple. to the opening of the bottle and, you know, in my mind, and I like that triangle to kind of look like, you know, the typical, like equilateral triangle that you did in geometry, not one that like has a super wide base or like a super narrow base, you know, we kind of want it to just be like this nice little cute shape.
Yeah, just imagine what your… It’s a gradual taper. You know what your nipple looks like in your pumping flange? Kind of like that. Like that. All right, real quick nod to bottle size. Yes. So, you do not need an 8 ounce bottle, friends, if you’re breastfeeding. The 8 ounce bottles are for formula fed babies who eat like 7 ounces 4 times per day.
Right. All right. Your breastfed baby is probably eating three to five ounces, seven or eight times a day. Yeah, really at most get a five ounce bottle. I prefer the four ounce bottles. You can put a little extra if you need to. Or Refill the bottle, if your baby needs more. Right. Just throw another out.
There’s just so much mental drama around what a complete feeding is. If you constantly hand daycare or grandma’s 8 ounce bottles that are half full, compared to a 5 ounce bottle that’s mostly full. Right. And if you’re pumping into those giant bottles. What a mindfuck that is. Exactly. So, any who, get those off your registry, only switch to them if you’re formula feeding.
Let’s take a quick break to thank a sponsor, and when we come back we’re going to talk about positioning and pacing for feeds, and You know, chit chat more about what we like. Yeah.
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Hey, welcome back, everybody. So let’s talk about how we actually feed our babies. Positioning. Okay, so this is one of my one of my big Things here. I am a big fan of bottle feeding small babies in a sideline position. I like that too It’s just so much easier for their digestion We see less spit up more relaxing feedings where they’re not fighting against gravity And they’re not putting pressure on their diaphragm like when you’re trying to sit them upright And it’s just so much easier to pace the feeding it is and it is Excellent.
When we have babies with these oral issues, like tongue ties and whatnot, especially if we got a revision and we really need to make them like work to change, doing alternating sideline feedings. It’s like chef’s kiss and also if your baby has a breast preference because of oral stuff going on or torticollis Which often related you can kind of get the baby fed and work on some more body work when you’re in Sideline position.
Yes and have other people help you with this, too Yeah And you can do that with your baby draped over your forearm or even in your lap if you have your knees together You can kind of put babies lower Arm, like, between your legs, and have them laying like that, and they’ll kind of hug around your thigh, and then you’ve got the bottle, like, right on your knee, with their head there.
It’s nice. It is nice, and you can get the angle, and you can see what’s going on with their chin, with their lower lip, with their, if, are they drooling out of the lower side? Do they have poor oral tone going on? So, I really like to use this for really small babies. Yeah. Especially if we have to do a bottle earlier than we like.
Yeah. By, like, how old or how big? Well, more like if we’re introducing a bottle before the three week mark. Okay. So if we have to supplement, if we’re topping off, things like that, and we’re really trying not to get a bottle preference, we are using the slowest faux nipple. We are making the baby root for the bottle.
So we’re not just shoving it in their mouth like a shoehorn. We are tickling their nose, making them root around for it, and we’re waiting until their mouth is open. open and then we’re placing the nipple in the mouth. Do not, under any circumstances, let that baby slurp it in like a spaghetti noodle.
Nope. Oh, I hate that. That’s the worst habit. And it feels so bad when they do it to your nipple. Old habits die hard. Yeah. And like, they’re always going to do that as a toddler anyway, just to, you know, bother you. We don’t need to start it at two weeks. Because it will work for them. It will. And it’s fun for them.
And it feels… So horrible. It sucks. Lyra still does it every once in a while when I’m not paying attention. And I’m like, oh god, don’t do that. It’s just a bad feeling. So, you know, when they open their mouth really wide, place the nipple in there. And then adjust their oral posture. If you see that their top lip is tucked under, bottom lip is tucked under, fix it.
Untuck. Because we want that muscle memory to be what it is. is on the breast. And it’s probably easier to fix those things with the bottle where you can see really well than while breastfeeding, so it might be a good opportunity to work on that, especially, you know, if, if you’re like awake and alert and like you can see what’s happening versus 2 a.
m. and you’re like, just get on and feed so I can sleep. And a lot of people are going to be confused about the bottle being horizontal because they’re going to say, isn’t baby going to suck in a lot of air? Yeah, that’s fine. Yes, and then they should. burp. Yes, they should burp. And I do usually recommend a little burp break if we’re feeding like this.
And then switch sides. Yeah. Yeah. Switch sides in the same feed is great. I also like the upright feeding where we’re babies kind of like sitting, not straight upright, but just like slight, slight reclined maybe. With their head in like a sniffer position. Yeah. I really love that too. And it’s great because you can kind of sit.
baby on your knee. Just hold them up. And, and you know, this is kind of tough for kids that do have true reflux either way is going to be tough because the diaphragm just put so much pressure on the stomach in that position. So you might have to drop the baby instead of the bottle. So this is what I hear a lot.
How am I supposed to pace the feeding as the bottle gets emptier when I’m feeding the baby in an upright reclined position? And I say, don’t tip the bottle. Right. drop the baby. So you’re just going to lower the baby down a little bit and keep the bottle angle the same. Yeah. And that’s totally fine. You know, it’s, it’s not the same as like having them laying down with the bottle straight vertical.
We’re still going to be fairly horizontal, just slightly less, just slightly less. Yeah. And really I care so much more about that than anything we’ve actually talked about so far. Right. And also if you are a parent. who can feed four ounces from your breast in five minutes, then you have a fast flow that your baby can handle.
And your bottle feeding can last five minutes. Yeah, it’s gonna be different. If your baby takes 20 minutes… to nurse and a complete feeding, your bottle should take 15 to 20 minutes. And I think that’s a really reasonable thing to tell your daycare provider to a lot of, a lot of the time, right? Where we’re kind of struggling to get this message across to a daycare provider or a different care provider and just saying, Hey, you know, most breast feedings take about 15 minutes.
Can you try to make the bottle feeding last that long by, by feeding it slowly? Well, think about what it would look like for a toddler to sit down And hoover their entire lunch in five minutes or less. I’ve seen that with my toddler. But if it was consistent like that, you’d be like, are you okay? That’s a choking risk.
I need, and it’s not good for your brain. And then slow it down. So think about it as a solid, like, how long do you take to eat lunch? It’s stressful for your brain to eat quickly. Yeah, it really is. It gives your brain and your body the message that like, something is wrong. You know, like we have to eat quick and then we have to go.
Mm hmm. And also talk to me about how you feel about the anti-colic bottles and nipples. I don’t, I personally feel like I don’t know what we’re doing with those. Some of them I look at and I’m like, okay, I see that it’s like changing the airflow. And some of them I look at and I’m like, what, what is, what is anti-colic?
It’s like a release valve. Yeah. Or, or like some straw thing in there. Also define colic. Exactly. So I. For the most part, I do not care whether or not it says antecolic. I don’t think it makes a difference for most healthy babies. You know, especially if we’re pace feeding, we’re already taking air in, it doesn’t matter.
If your baby has special needs, that’s another thing. I don’t, I don’t care about that. I just care about whether the nipple is soft, slow paced, it’s a good shape that your specific baby can latch widely on it, and that I can find replacement. And how long is it going to take me to do the dishes? Yes, exactly.
Exactly. And, and truly, like, it’s just, it’s not that deep. It’s not, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. It’s not that deep, it’s not that shallow. Yeah. Like, not for most people. It’s not going to matter as much. And granted, of course, like with everything, the folks that struggle more are going to be more vocal.
We’re going to see it more on social media. We’re going to see more TikTok’s about it, right? And the marketing is going to be geared toward that struggle. When the majority of the time it’s, it’s fine. Yeah. So I hope this gives you some peace. We’re not dropping specific recommendations. Yeah. Because we don’t.
Because no one’s paying us for it, number one. And also, I don’t want to discourage you from using what’s working for you right now. Exactly. Yeah, like, I don’t want to do that. And, you know, I know we’ve talked before about stuff that worked for our kids. We’ll keep talking about that, too. If you want a specific recommendation, come book a consult with us, and we’ll give you, like, very specific recommendations for your boobs, your flow, your baby’s mouth, and then I will tell you what I think.
But if you’ve got a run of the mill baby that’ll just suck the milk out of anything, good for You do it. All right, guys, well do we have an award before we go? Mm hmm. Today, our award is for one of our patrons, one of our own little family. It’s for Sarah Coleman because she just weaned and she successfully breastfed for Four days.
Yeah. And how weird is it that I remember when she started breastfeeding? It is getting to that point where we have seen an entire cycle of like breast feeders through from their late pregnancy all the way to weaning toddlers. Right. And now they’re pregnant again. And we’re like, wait, how old am I? Yeah.
We have people in their second pregnancies. What’s happening? But we’re so proud of you, Sarah. It’s, it’s amazing. All right, Sarah, we’re going to give you the Long Haul Lactator Award, because that is a darn long time to breastfeed. And it’s a darn long time to keep supporting us on Patreon, so thank you so much for your continued support.
And if you would like to be one of our patrons, you can hop over to Patreon. com slash MilkMinutePodcast to get access to our other podcast, Beyond the Boob, and all of my bump pictures. You better hurry up, because Heather’s about to have this baby, y’all. Not today. Today, we’re going to my baby shower. You gotta go.
We are late. Okay, bye. Bye.
