Help 8 Week Old Struggles with Bottles and Pacifiers

my boy chokes on all of them except the playtex drop in nursers, and nuby's. with the nuby they pretty much control the flow, and that helps alot.he will not take the soother at all. some babies just dont like them.

J.,
Be very careful about trying too many different artificial nipples (bottle and paci). Give her a chance to get used to one. It's not uncommon for babies to gag when something foreign is in their mouths. They have a strong tongue-thrush (push out) tendency. I would make sure that the nipple is over the tongue (often, when they open their mouths, they lift their tongue up). Personally, I think the nuk is the most unnatural-looking nipple, but both of my children preferred these. I started with the smallest and just had some patience. How does she sooth herself when the pacifier isn't around? She may prefer her hand or her thumb - and it's hard to change that once it's been established. As for bottles - I'd try to find one that looks most like your breast. Try the munchkin nipple - they fit on the avent bottles or the adiri bottles - they look most like a natural breast (thus far). Have patience, however; just know that no artificial nipple mimics the human breast. The milk comes out very quickly with the artificial ones versus the human ones. Your baby controls the flow of milk coming from your breast, but can't do the same with the artifical one - so the milk tends to come out too quickly (even with the slow-flow) and they gag.
Good luck.
J.

Well, regarding the pacifiers.... I wouldn't force a pacifier on my child, when my daughter was 8 weeks she just didn't like them she would suck for a little bit and that was it, I talk to her doctor and he told me if she doesn't want it, then it's actually a good thing. for the bottles there is a bottle called breastflow, the nipple is shaped like the female breast, you can pull it up on line, and you may want to try them. good luck

First, congratulations on your new daughter! What a wonderful, puzzling, exciting journey you've started.

My son is almost 9 months and never had any interest in a pacifier. He'd spit it out as soon as I gave it to him. I tried two different types and finally called it a day. My son always preferred my finger or one of his toys. Don't force it on her if she isn't interested.

As far as the bottle is concerned, it may not be a nipple problem; how are you introducing it to her? If you are giving her the bottle or nearby, she probably smells you and is rejecting the bottle because she prefers you. When we did it, around 3 months, my husband gave it to my son and I went to the farthest part of the house. My son fought it at first, then eventually gave way. It took 2 or 3 times before my son took the bottle without any resistance. My husband continued to feed him with the bottle until we were sure that he was comfortable with it. I also had his grandmother give him a bottle several times to make sure he would take it from her. Finally, I gave him the bottle. Now he takes a bottle from any of us without any problems and his interest in breastfeeding hasn't diminished one iota. I've also changed him from Dr. Brown bottles to Born Free and he never blinked. One other thing, don't try this when your daughter is already hungry and agitated. Try giving her the bottle a little bit earlier than her normal nursing time. This way she'll be more relaxed. Finally,. you need to relax. If she senses that you are tense, then she'll tense up too. Babies have great radar for what is happening with you and they'll reflect it back. Good luck!