Best Bottles for Babies with Oral Ties —
Best Feeding Bottles for Babies with Oral Ties
So many babies…so many bottles. I started looking for bottles before my baby was even born. I remember coming across so much information in TikTok videos. Particularly, I remember there being much conversation around glass bottles being better than plastic ones. Honestly, there were so many options and I just felt overwhelmed.
I eventually decided on the Natural Philips AVENT Glass Bottles
On my registry, I added the Philips AVENT glass bottles. To be honest, I hadn’t done much research on them. The one thing I did know was that I wanted to make sure the nipples were breast-like nipple shape to encourage a good latch from baby. Too, these were all over TikTok and moms were raving about how much they loved them. It didn’t hurt that they were aesthetically pleasing as well.
I chose the 4oz and 8oz bottles. Once baby girl arrived, I used the 4oz bottles with her and they came with slow flow (flow #2) nipples which was too fast for her. I then bought the extra slow flow (flow #1) nipples and she still struggled. She began to deal with extreme gas and experience acid reflux.
I wanted to love them, but I moved on from those.
Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow Anti-Colic Glass Bottles came next
She was about a month old by this time. Dr. Brown’s bottles were also popular amongst moms on social media. These bottles came with more parts to clean; however, I was desperate to find a bottle to help my little one.
Now, I’d done my research on these. They were 5oz wide-neck glass bottles and came with an internal vent system to help reduce gas and spit-up. The nipples were also breast-like nipples and were slow flow (level 1). Again, the flow was too fast! I then ordered the preemie flow nipples and my baby still struggled with the gas and acid reflux.
Two to three weeks later, I purchased Dr. Brown’s 8oz narrow glass bottles. Of course, I ordered the preemie flow narrow nipples because slow flow (level 1) was too fast. The thought process behind this bottle is that maybe the breast-like nipples are too wide for her to latch on properly. I figured the narrow nipple would allow for a better latch and less air would be swallowed.
I was hoping baby girl would gain some relief, but the severe gas and acid reflux remained.
Pediatrician’s Feedback
At our very first pediatric appointment, I was told that my daughter had a slight upper lip tie. It was nothing major at the time. They said that if she had no problem latching, then nothing further needed to happen.
Then, at her two-month appointment, I expressed more concern about her gas and acid reflux. I was recommended to a tongue tie specialist. At the oral function exam, it was confirmed that baby girl had an upper lip tie, a tongue tie, and cheek ties.
Before deciding on surgery, we were connected with a licensed massage therapist who was also a lactation consultant (I will share a more detailed experience in a later blog post). If you didn’t know, we all have something called fascia. Fascia is connective tissue that runs throughout the body from the tongue down to the toes. The massage therapist would provide bodywork to help release any tension she had to possibly avoid surgery or help with post-surgical recovery.
With her also being a lactation consultant, she was able to provide other bottle-feeding brands. These bottles had the most reliable slow drip with a more oral function-friendly nipple shape than the bottles I’d been using.
The Lansinoh Plastic Bottle paired with the Pigeon Nipple worked
I must say that I wasn’t happy about the bottle being plastic, but I worked my way around that aspect. The two most important factors were the shape and softness of the bottle nipple. These two present would encourage a deep latch, provide a soft/neutral lip suction, and create a sealed vacuum-like suction from a proper oral function. Unlike the previous nipples, these gradually changed in width from tip to base. The previous ones used had dips around the tip of the nipple which wasn’t ideal for her current latch.
Pairing the Pigeon nipple with the Lansinah bottle was about, again, the flow. The 5oz plastic bottles came with slow flow (size S/level 2) nipples. These were extremely fast and were the slowest nipple they provided. The Pigeon brand provided newborn (size SS/level 1) nipples that eventually my daughter was able to use effortlessly.
In the end, I spent so much time, money, and effort on trying to find the best feeding bottle for my daughter’s situation. I cried many times in the process. I believe that with the help of the specialist and my God-given mother’s intuition, she was able to thrive.
Thankfully, around 4 months, her digestive system began to mature and she began to really escape acid reflux and gas pain.