Clogged Bottles from Rice Cereal

We have Dr. Brown's bottles. The twins both have reflux and we have to thicken their formula with rice cereal. Now with the switch to Alimentum it seems to be clogging the bottles more. It's not the nipple. We are already using Y cuts. The formula seems to get easily caught by the air flow piece and we have to pull the bottle out of the baby's mouth and shake it down several times during a feed. This leads to VERY cranky babies.

Any advice?

 

What kind of Rice Cereal are you using? I would recommend Beechnut Rice Cereal, as it dissolves MUCH better than the Gerber or any other brand does. I used Dr. Browns/2tsp per oz Beechnut Rice/size 3 nipples.

 

One of mine was on the Alimentum (still is) with 2 tsp/ounce of cereal. I used the Gerber cereal with no issue with the Y cuts on Dr. Brown. I did find that the ready made formula was easier to use with all the cereal. But once they got a bit older I could do the powder and the cereal better.

 

I am using Beechnut Rice Cereal, 1 tsp. per ounce of RTF Alimentum. I let it sit in the formula pitcher for several hours after mixing before shaking again and pouring (or plopping it) into the bottles. It all seemed to work fine when the twins were on Similac Advance with Iron powder but when we switched to the Alimentum RTF it just seems to be clogging at the air vent piece. I also have been mixing Beechnut Oatmeal with the rice on occasion to help with constipation and have the same problem whether it's oatmeal/rice mix or just plain rice. I don't know if it's because maybe my bottles are too old and perhaps they have been redesigned a little in the past few years. They were used by my 4 year old and we haven't bought new ones for the twins. I'm going to keep playing with it. Thanks for the advice!

 

QUOTE
I let it sit in the formula pitcher for several hours after mixing before shaking again and pouring (or plopping it) into the bottles.


That is the problem. It gets thicker and thicker the longer that it sits. I mixed mine and gave it to them right away.

 

Yeah, letting it sit probably is making it worse. FWIW, we use avent bottles and gerber cereal. Our grocery doesn't sell any other brand W had to increase to 1 tbsp per oz to make it so they could drink it without it running out all over the place. Good luck-- that was a battle we hated!

 

OK! Now I have a direction. I'll try mixing it fresh tomorrow morning when they get up. The Y nipples won't clog like the others so maybe it will work. We started mixing it ahead of time and letting it sit when we had issues with the nipples clogging when they were on regular Similac. It seemed to let the rice soften more so it wouldn't clog. This feeding thing is just so nuts this time around. My older daughter just sucked down regular formula with no problem.