OT: Week 18, More Nipples

On the way to OT this morning, the pediatrician called with the results from Averi’s allergy test. They tested for all possible food allergies and all of them came back normal so we were cleared to add the whole milk back into her diet as 25% of her feed. I’m a little skeptical about there being no reaction to the soy, since there definitely isn’t any in her system, but I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Since Francis suggested using a nipple with a wider base, I decided to try a few different nipples at home this week. I might have gone a little crazy.

I found a tri-flow nipple that I used with Kaili and thought the fast speed would be enough to let the thickened milk through. That didn’t go too well. Then I found a wide base nipple on a bottle that requires liner inserts. I didn’t want to waste a liner so I cut a slit in the nipple (for the thickened milk) and just filled the nipple. It kept collapsing since the back was open.

I decided to move on to a smaller nipple that my mom had sent me with “teething nodules” or bumps around the base. Averi seemed to like this one but it took quite a while for her to use since it didn’t have a slit opening.

Later I scavenged the bottle isle at the store. I found a really cool bottle with a feeding system that “grows with your baby.” It has three different nipples so I decided to try them all out. One was just like the bumpy one but with a wider base and worked pretty well. One was a soft spout sippy with two slits. I thought it might drown her but she seemed more interested in chewing on it than sucking. The last one was more like a straw and she wanted nothing to do with it.

I presented all my findings to Frances this morning at OT and she giggled at me – like I said, I might have gone a little crazy. She decided to go with the larger bumpy nipple and Averi drank the whole 30 ml bottle in about 30 minutes. She also cut a slit in the smaller bumpy nipple and Averi was able to drink a second bottle. Frances said that the bumps are great for providing extra oral stimulation. I think I will stick with those for this week.