What have you found to be the best bottles for reducing gas, fussiness, and spit up? I've tried play tex ventaire and playtex drop ins. We also switched formula to enfamil gentle ease which helped a lot but still throws up every couple days and he still gets a little fussy and gassy, so just looking if there are bottles that might work better.
Also, if anyone uses the drop ins, any tips? Do you squueze air out of it first? I like these for the convenience but he doesn't seem to like the nipples. They're the wider ones.
All of my kids preferred the Playtex with liners. They now have clear silicon nipples and the brown latex. My last 2 hated those silicon nipples. For all of them, I did squeeze the air out for the first several months but once they started holding the bottle themselves correctly, I didn't have to.
And I did wash the liners for the drop-ins. I was able to use a liner 3 or 4 times before tossing. It is convenient but can get expensive.
I have to second the Drop-Ins! I tried the others, but the continuous flow are just that: continuous! So, the baby doesn't ever get a chance to catch his/her breath. I also have to say that the LATEX nipples make a huge difference. Both of my kiddos would only every use them. I could only find them at Kmart and online. But, craigslist is a good place to get them. People order extra and sell them still in the package.
If the spit up is only very few days I don't know that it matters much, but you might need to try a different formula. Both of mine had to use the Alimentum, but they were allergic to dairy and soy. My friends' little guy had to have the fussiness formula because the Alimentum made him sick. So, try different things, but if there is any extreme crying, like major tummy upset, then don't wait a few days, just change. Also, you can give a little one Mylanta which helps the acid in the tummy. Give it 1cc or ml at a time and see if that helps. It did for mine.
I hope this helps but a little fussy isn't too bad, a lot is.
Dr. Browns bottles worked really well for my 2nd child. The others all used playtex. I wish now that we had done Dr. Brown's with the youngest, but he drank really well with the playtex nipples.
With my littlest one (he just turned a year) we had issues with gas and fussiness from the beginning with him. He started out on the Gerber (orange label) because that is what worked for all 3 of the others, and then because he was so gassy and fussy at 1 month we switched him to the Gerber Soothe (purple label). After about a 2 months of that we noticed that he was spitting up more and more (would spit up hours after feedings, sometimes right before a feeding) and we ended up putting him on Similac for Spit Up (green container) and that did wonders! He rarely spit up after that, and when he was about 10 months old we started putting him on the Similac Senstive (for fussiness and gas) to prepare his stomach for switching to milk at a year.
You might just try a nipple with a larger hole. It could be that the hole you have makes your baby work so hard to suck that he gulps air, and that gives him gas. If he didn't have to work so hard, maybe there would be less air going into his tummy.
I didn't have your problem with my babies, but one of mine had a structural problem with his palate that I didn't know about. Sucking so hard was exhausting for him and he didn't nurse/bottle feed very well. My husband accidently bought a nipple with a bigger hole (I think that it might have been a juice nipple, LOL!) and low and behold, he did so much better. Once we figured it out, we only used those nipples and the problem was solved.
I used the playtex drop ins and did squeeze the air out when my boys were younger, but after about 7 months, I stopped. Mainly because they would have a complete meltdown if they saw the bottle and didn't get it right away.
My boys did better on a gentle or sensitive formula and I also included the gas drops. I always used Target brand drops because it had the same ingredients and was almost half the price in our area.
Also, try feeding your baby when he is more upright. A lot of times I would sit down and have my baby sitting on my lap facing out leaning on my chest. I always felt they did better that way and had less problems.
Ditto the Dr. Brown's glass bottles and nipples. We've used them since our son was born and they're great.
How long do you burp him? We've found that even after my husband gives our son a bottle and burps him, he can carry him around upright 15 min later and still get some small burps while gently patting his back. It's made a difference as well.
dr brown's worked best for us, and put a few drops of mylicon in every bottle.
We're big fans of Dr. Brown's bottles. It's not really that much more work to clean the extra pieces, and they worked great with our 2 girls. I'm partial to the glass ones...
Some babies are spitters. Every couple of days is not a problem. Keep h on one formula. Babies get fussy and sometimes gassy. It is the way they are. Babies are not perfect so accept that they spit up and can be cranky just because. Switching bottles, nipples and formulas will make him crazy!
Avent for my first- after finding out that the playtex ones were causing him gassyness ( I breast fed, so it took a little longer to realize it)
and my youngest we used Breast Flow. She did not like breast feeding, bottles anything.. it took her forever.
Talk to the doc..
1. your bottles are not agreeing
2. the formula using, is not agreeing
3. Just how the kiddo is.
this is really just an immature gi tract. my baby was breast fed and she was a horrible spitter.. she puked all the time... nothing was wrong with my milk and she was exclusively breast fed..
if she was on formula... I probably would have switched formula several times and bought different bottles too.. but in time her tummy grew up.. and she didn't puke so much.. and scream so much...
Soothie bottles I can't remember the brand name but they are a short wide mouth bottle with a wide mouth nipple that are the same has the binkies most hospital use. The hard silicone green ones same nipple.
I know you said that you had already tried these, but we found that the ventaire bottles worked the best with our first. He still spit up a little bit after every meal, but that was just his "normal" and he grew out of it at around 6 months.
Maybe this is just something your kiddo has to grow out of too?
I used Avent with both my babies, and loved them. I always put a couple drops of Mylicon in the bottle after mixing in the formula to get the air out before giving it to the baby.
Hope this helps.
Dr. Browns work well and my children could not use the powder formula, it was too bubbly......so we did the concentrate that you have to mix (not the ready made). But some babies are just "spitters" compared to others!
