Are you bottle feeding with wide bottle nipples? Here is why you should..
As great parents, we seek the best in everything for our children, including infant bottles. When it comes to bottle feeding or if you are transitioning to dual feeding, choosing the right bottle and nipple shape is important not only for comfort but also for oral development.
Why should you consider a wide nipple when selecting a bottle?
Brands such as Pigeon, Lansinoh, Evenflo Balance Wide, and NUK condition the baby to open its mouth wide for feeding and allow the baby to use more oral muscles in comparison to bottle nipples that have a pointy shape. Using a wide bottle nipple seems simple; however, the impact on the baby's suck and swallow and oral development is profound.
What are the benefits?
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Better Oral Muscle Development
Latching wide to a bottle (similar to what happens at the breast) encourages the baby to use their oral muscles proactively. Oral muscles are essential for sucking and swallowing, which develops as your baby continues to grow, and they are critical for speech and feeding skills. It sets the stage for proper teeth growth.
2. Preventing Gas and Upset Stomach
Parents often complain of their babies being fussy, correlating their discomfort with gas or acid reflux. However, oftentimes, these stomach discomforts are due to the type of bottle the baby uses for feeding. Bottles with pointy nipples (such as Avent, Como Tomo, Tommie Tippee, and MAM) can cause a shallow latch resulting in sucking in air while feeding. Wide bottle nipples allow the baby to control the intake with its suckle, reducing less gas and upset stomach.
3. Avoiding Sucking Issues
Babies who struggle with pointy nipples may present signs of puckered lips when feeding, milk pouring from the side of their mouth, or difficulties finishing the bottle, resulting in weight gain issues. For parents who are direct-feeding, this can cause issues with latching after a bottle has been offered as the baby goes from a wide, deep latch to a pierce lip latch on a pointy bottle nipple. A wider bottle nipple can lead to a smooth dual-feeding transition.
4. Transition to Baby Lead Weaning
Feeding habits are connected to oral development and skills. Wide bottle nipples promote babies to use more oral muscles, which strengthens and improves tongue and jaw movement, useful for eating solids or baby-led weaning. Babies that are able to use more oral muscles when feeding are less likely to become picky eaters and give textured foods a chance.
How can you pick the right one?
Some babies do well with narrow, pointy bottle nipples, and that is ok; however, we recommend avoiding them if possible. Bottles like Avent, Tommie Tippee, MAM, and Como Tomo make it harder for babies to feed correctly, and for those that are dual feeding, it can also cause issues with latching onto the breast. Avent has been found controversial with their no-slow bottle nipple, which causes babies to reduce weight gain and have no weight gain as the no-slow flow causes too much stress on the oral muscles.
Dr. Brown slim bottles are the next best choice because Pigeon, Lansinoh, Evenflo Balance Wide, and NUK are either difficult to find or sold out. The shape of the Dr. Brown bottle allows the baby's lips to reach the end, placing their lips on the bottle cap, causing the baby to open their mouth more expansively than a puckered lip.
The Pumping Solution: Your Go-To for Baby Bottles
At The Pumping Solution, we understand the importance of choosing the right bottle for your baby's feeding needs. That's why we recommend bottles with wide nipples like Pigeon, Lansinoh, Evenflo Balance Wide, and NUK. These bottles offer the best of both worlds—comfort and functionality—helping to ensure that your baby can feed more naturally, avoid discomfort, and thrive as they grow.
Check out the collection of Pigeon Bottles, Lansinoh Bottles, and Evenflo Balance Wide Bottles by clicking on the affiliated links. These trusted brands provide wide, breast-like nipples that will support your baby's development and make feeding more manageable for both you and your little one. Fast shipping and reliable.