Bottles Come in Stages, and Other Things That Make Me Realize I Really Don't Know What I'm Doing

I've been trying to give Drew a bottle since he's decided to start biting me during his bedtime nursing session. I know he's teething, and with my daughter, the biting never happened until at the tail end of a session, and then rarely at all. But with Drew, he's been chewing on my nipples for the last three nights about two minutes into his bedtime nursing session.

And I'm not liking it. At all.

So, I bought some different kinds of formula and decided to try to give him a bottle. It's helpful for a variety of reasons -- not only because if he'll take it, that means I won't be stuck doing bedtime until he's 2 years old (like I had to do with Quinlan), but then I won't have a series of very cute, but still very annoying bite marks on my boob.

And so, there he was, totally taking the bottle. Sucking heartily on the formula and I was extremely excited until I looked at the bottle and realized he had only taken maybe two ounces, which, for all his sucking, should have been the whole bottle.

Brilliant mother that I am, I realized that perhaps bottles come in different flows, or as my friend pointed out, different "stages." Oh yeah. Right. Stages.

Duh.

Poor kid was probably extremely thirsty drinking from a droplet. Heck. Even a droplet probably flowed faster.

Anyway, I think I'm just going to stick with a sippy cup since he takes one and I don't feel the need to start him on a bottle. Might as well stick with a sippy cup, right?

Any thoughts on this one? And seriously, the biting MUST stop. Have any of your weaned because your kid wouldn't stop using your boob as a chew toy? It was at every feeding session last night and I'm not so sure what to do.

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Comments

[Kikarose]

A lactation consultant once told me to keep a nursling on the stage one nipples for the bottle. If not, bottle feeding becomes much easier than nursing and they get lazy.
Though I agree... if he's already taking the sippy then stick with it and forget the bottle. Why teach him something you are going to want to wean him from in just a few months?
The biting? Sorry, I got nuttin...

[Jessica]

Heck, yes! Go for the sippy cup! It saves you another episode of weaning/transition. My daughter went straight from breast to sippy and I'm hoping New Baby will do the same thing when the time comes.

[jaelithe]

Hey! The unplanned breaking down in pathetic sobs thing worked to stop my son from biting during nursing right when I was on the edge of weaning due to extreme frustration (read: terror of losing a nipple), too! What do you know. Heh.

I vote sippy cup, IF Drew doesn't seem to need the sucking to help him sleep. Sippy cups are better for teeth, according to my dentist. I know that Gerber makes a sippy cup with a soft-ish spout-- they carry it on Amazon.

[ImpostorMom]

We went through the biting a few weeks ago. It was awful and after 5 days of being bitten and laughed at I really considered weaning him.

I tried all sorts of different advice from people. Pressing his face into my breast so he'd pop off. Taking him off with my finger and telling him NO! (he laughed :|). Screaming (more laughing). What finally worked was completely unintentional. I was so upset about the whole thing and the possibility of weaning him early that I broke down and balled in front of him. I'm talking chest-heaving, ugly-cry sobs. He hasn't bitten me since.

[Jill]

I just thought my son was a slow eater, b/c I never knew about the stages until his brother came along. He used "slow flow" the whole time.

[Jennifer]

Yeah, I didn't know about flows and hole sizes (that sounded dirty, oops) with my son. Poor little guy about drowned the first time we attempted a bottle.

[Karly]

My daughter was bottle fed, but when she outgrew the bottle, but still needed her milk before bed we switched to a sippy cup with a soft spot. Its a lot like a bottle, but more for big kids, ya know? The brand we use is from Wal-Mart (thats the only place I've seen that sells them) and they are called Nubu, I think. They are only like 2 bucks a pop, which is pretty darn cheap for a sippy, and they are perfect! She does bite through the spout sometimes, but they are cheap enough to replace. I LOVE those.

[Kendra]

My mom said that whenever we would bite during breast feeding, she would flick a cheek. Not hard, just more of a little annoyance. She claims it didn't take us long to stop.