How do I know when its time to change teat size?

Hello lovely ladies,

I have a 5 month old DS, who is currently still on 2-hole teats (Avent). According to Avent he should be on 3-hole teats from 3 months onwards. I have tried him on the 3-hole teats a couple of times before and he ends up angry, crying with formula all over his face and on his chest. I am in the middle of trying the 3-holes yet again...he's been using them for a week and still no improvement.

Should I just go back to the 2-hole teats? There was nothing wrong with the 2-hole teats, but he had been v fussy during feeds, pulling off half way through and not going back on. So I thought perhaps he was getting frustrated with it not coming out fast enough. However, I do wonder if this might have had something to do with the teeth he has just cut, or that he was going through a Wonder Week.

He also has a very strong suck, so I also wonder if he prefers the 2-holes because he can suck harder??

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I'm torturing him every feed :(

We used avent bottles and teats and never changed on their schedule and were usually a couple of months behind the suggested age when we finally did change.

I was told that when a baby is sucking too hard on the bottle their puking will get worse... so we used that as a sign that it was time to change. The one and only time we changed according to the avent "schedule" we ended up with a very unhappy baby who wasn't able to swallow his milk fast enough.

I'd go back to the two hole teats and see if that helps.

BW

Hello i have had the exact same problem with my DS whenever it was teat change time he would cough splutter and choke so we went back to the old ones. Just keep going with the old ones i found that i tried again once a month and then all of a sudden he just took to the new teat when he was ready and could handle the flow. Try not to listen to the bossy packs telling u where ur little one should be up to they will only prove it wrong hehe.

Im having the same problem! I have just started full time bottlefeeding (before i was just topping up) when I was topping up she was just on the newborn teat (she was angry breastfeeding coz it wasnt fast enough for her so i wasnt going to make it any easier from a bottle!) Ive had her on the 2 hole teats (Avent btw) and she was okay for a bit but now she seems to get angry and frustrated, i got the 3 hole ones and she near on chokes! ive tried 3 times and it scares the crap outta me, i get so scared i start whaking her back she chokes hell bad! I dont know what to do keep at the 3 holes or just leave it a 2 holes...

Hi Jennie13,

We are finally onto the 3 hole teats after multiple attempts. What worked for us is that I tried several different teats with a faster flow than the Avent 2 holes, in the hope that one would be faster than 2 hole, but slower than 3 hole, just to get him used to the faster flow before moving permanently to the 3 hole. Anyhoo, ended up using a Pidgeon Y teat (which fits in the Avent bottles - most of the wide-neck teats did, I found) with a variable flow....this way he could control how much he was sucking out. We used it for maybe 1.5 weeks and then I tried him with the 3 hole Avent teat, and voila! He hasn't looked back!

Maybe give that a go?

Good Luck! :crossfingers:

Hello

Im glad you figured it out!! I will deffinatly give that ago, when did you get the teat from? :)

hi, i dont use avent but use tommee tippee and was told that if the baby is happy with the teats to leave them. with the amount of washing and steralising that they go thru the holes will have gotten bigger anyway,

no sure if this helps