It is another of my Personal Picks Day! Today I’m going to share with you my choice of nipple for bottle feeding.

different brands of nipples and bottles

I take the night shift with my baby. He wakes up about 3 times from 10pm-6am and I breastfeed him, change his nappy, and sometimes even play with him if he is super awake. From 6-9am I try to catch on sleep. I leave my baby with the yaya, and she feeds him breast milk via sippy cup.

As my son grew, the sippy cup became too small for his mouth. It made it harder to control the flow of the milk into his mouth. So, my milk often spilled and Josh is underfed or chokes with the way we administer the sippy cup. It was time to move him to the bottle. But I was concerned of nipple confusion so I needed to test which nipple would be the best.

I tested Breastflow, Medela CALMA, Medela slow flow and Dr. Brown natural flow. I did not realize I could be this OC (obsessive compulsive) over nipples!

Breastflow has a nice large nipple with a center control that only allows milk to flow upon squeezing or sucking. The flow from this nipple is a strong, straight squirt once it is sucked. The Medela slow flow and the Dr. Brown natural flow both drips naturally even if it isn’t squeezed. The Dr. Brown has a a straw-like middle attached to the nipple that works to control the air inside the bottle to prevent babies from gas and even colic. Lastly, Medela Calma is a specialized nipple designed with a long tip to imitate a stretched nipple when sucked. It took about 4 strong squeezes before a soft drip is released.

Other mommies including my twin sister uses the Medela Calma nipple. The Lactation Counsultant told us that it is important for baby to exclusively breastfeed from the breast for the first 6 weeks to allow both baby and mom to get used to the latch. If there is a need to drink breastmilk from the bottle, the nipple should still encourage the baby to suck so that they would not get lazy and would prefer mother’s breast and direct feeding rather than bottle feeding. The basics on breastfeeding is more latching and sucking on the breasts means more milk. Less sucking on breasts means less milk. Bottle feeding in my opinion is only a temporary substitute to the breast which means the primary source of feeding should be mommy’s boobs. 🙂

Let me be clear, Josh is feeding once a day breast milk using sippy cup and we are now moving to use a bottle once a day… I introduced the Calma nipple to Joshua on his 7th week. At first I got worried because he might get frustrated because he has to suck hard so the milk would flow. But to my surprise he was totally fine! He finished 2oz in about 10 mins… And he latches well with me on direct feed 🙂 … In later days though, the calma nipple was just too long for my young babe. He looked like choking so he would let go of the nipple and cry.

We moved to using Breastflow. Again I was worried that he would not take it because he was lazy to suck the nipple (and I was around watching him). Later, without me around, he finished his milk in about 10 minutes. I guess he was hungry and he had no choice.

The other bottles I will reserve when he is bigger. Yey! No more spilled milk and so far no nipple confusion using BREASTFLOW! I can take my 3 hour sleep without worrying because my baby is satisfied and well fed!