Newborn babies tend to follow the same pattern when breastfeeding as they do while bottle-feeding. We recommend watching your baby’s cues to find the best nipple flow rate.
The Natural Response nipples are designed to respond to the way your baby drinks. Yet you might not know yet how does your baby drink from the bottle.
In general, we recommend to start with the nipple that comes with the bottle and adjust from there. If you have no success after a few feeding attempts, change to a nipple with a different flow rate.
Use a nipple with a higher flow rate if:
- Your baby is not getting enough milk from the bottle or
- The duration of the feed is too long (for example, longer than 30 minutes) or
- Your baby falls asleep during feeding, gets frustrated, or plays with the nipple instead of drinking.
Use a nipple with a lower flow rate if:
- Your baby is gulping the milk down or
- Milk leaks out of its mouth during feeding.
Let your baby’s drinking style guide you, not their age. Babies who have an enthusiastic drinking style often use strong suction and compression while drinking, resulting in greater milk flow. Therefore, they usually need a lower nipple flow, such as nipple number 1 or 2, to avoid overflow. Slow and steady drinking babies are likely to prefer a higher nipple flow (such as nipple number 4 or 5/6) to ensure enough milk flows, regardless of the baby's age.
If you used the previous Philips Avent Natural nipple, your baby will need a higher flow rate in the Natural Response nipple because they are used to more milk flowing quickly with less effort.
