1: Don’t be Fooled by Bottle Labels
Hey, mama, today we're going to talk about nipple flow rates for your baby bottle. We're going to talk about how they're labeled, why you shouldn't switch around frequently. And I'll even mention what my favorite one is right now. So let's get started. First of all, it's really important to know that bottle nipple flow rates are not labeled in a standardized way. In fact, how quickly the milk comes out of that nipple is not standardized at all. So the main point of this is the bottle nipple that you're purchasing and the flow rate it's advertising is all marketing related. Let me give you an example. The Philips Avent Natural Flow nipple has a label of zero plus months. And according to a study by Pathos Park and Dodrill in 2019, it has a flow rate of about 2.25ml per minute. The Philips Avent anti-Catholic, also labeled zero plus months nipple, had about a 17.44ml per minute flow rate, and that equates to over two ounces in five minutes! Which might not be a lot for us, but for a newborn baby and especially a fragile baby, that is a significant difference. Now, that's not how fast a baby should be eating. This is literally just comparing the flow rate with equal suction and positioning and parameters in the study. So it's really just trying to compare in an apples to apples way. So another example is the medulla wide based slow flow nipple and the Similac slow flow nipple. They're both labeled slow flow. And yet they have very different rates at how fast the milk comes out. Okay, so what's the point of knowing this? Well, what's good to know is that the labels on the outside of the nipple packages mean very little, unless it is the exact same nipple, and you have a medium fast or a younger, older age, then you can pretty much assume that one of those is faster than the other. Now that you understand that bottle nipple flow rates are not standardized in the way that they're labeled on packages, we'll move on to our next point, which is why you shouldn't switch around the bottle nipples frequently. So many moms get a variety of bottles and bottle nipples and bottle sizes at their baby shower to try out and save some money and see what their baby likes. Well, this is helpful in theory, but when you have a newborn who's trying to learn to eat, it could be like switching a bike around on them when they're trying to learn to ride a bike. So if you were trying to learn to ride a new bike, and every time you got on to practice; I gave you training wheels, oh, now it's an adult size bike. Let's try a balance bike, then big wheels. Oh, you know what, a beach cruiser, etc. you get the idea. It would really be difficult to get your groove and work into a system where you had that motor memory and felt really confident with the skill, and feeding is a learned skill. Babies are born with a lot of helpful reflexes, but it still is a learned skill. My advice to you is to pick a system that you like. Start with the slowest flow option within that system, and after a bit of practice, if baby's still having trouble, find a system with a slower flow option. My favorite right now is the Doctor Brown's bottle, four ounce size and the transition nipple. Those bottles don't come with the transition nipple. They have to be ordered online. So some families just start with the level one nipple that it comes with. Okay, so to recap, bottle nipples with the same flow rate label like fast, slow, natural, newborn, zero plus months, etc. are not necessarily the same flow rate and feeding is a learned skill. Please start slow and don't switch out the learning tool aka the bottle nipple frequently. Since you're going to know your baby better than anybody else, you'll be able to keep an eye on them and see if any adjustments need to be made.
Pados, B. F., Park, J., & Dodrill, P. (2019). Know the Flow: Milk Flow Rates From Bottle Nipples Used in the Hospital and After Discharge. Advances in neonatal care : official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses, 19(1), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1097/ANC.0000000000000538