How long should a bottle take?

I see some of you posting that bottles go down in 15 minutes. My sons take 1/2 an hour to do 4 oz. Should I switch to a faster flow (medium) nipple?

 

My boys took FOREVER to drink their bottles. In the NICU they made us limit bottle times to 30 mins so it wouldn't screw up the schedule, but at home we'd go 45 min max. Around 3-4 months old it started to go a bit faster.

 

In the beginning mine took forever too. When they are that little they want to do very little beside sleep. I agree with meg, around 3 months they will start drinking faster and then you will be able to switch nipples.

 

Sometimes it took a really long time. You could try going up a nipple size & see how it works for them, if they can drink it faster with no problems with gas or spitting up. If the faster nipple seemed to be a problem, you could always switch back.

 

Definitely try a faster nipple. Erick was on a stage 3 by 8 weeks! He was a lazy sucker. He got to where he'd down 8oz in 10 min. Kayci had reflux so I was a little leary to try the stage 2 nipple with her but she did fine. She stayed on a stage 2 until they weaned while Erick would have gone for a stage 4 if they made them! Just experiment a little and see what works.

 

I think 1/2 hour is pretty normal for a one month old. You could try a faster one though!

 

My girls usually took 30 minutes each to take a bottle.

 

Bottles took forever for us in the beginning - an hour to feed both. Now it's fast because they're on the stage 3's and it's just easier. I gave my son a level 2 (and later a level 3) before my daughter because he would get bored and quit eating, so if I wanted him to take most of his bottle, I had to get it in him faster. My only thought might be if your babies are taking their bottles easily, but taking a while that's normal at this age. A faster flow too early might override their ability to decide when they're full. Not a terrible thing if they are small and need to gain weight I guess but might lead to over eating and bigger babies down the road if they're normal size. Good luck, it does go faster eventually.

 

it might be the type of bottles too. my boys' are 1 month also and take anywhere from 15-30 minutes but they are taking 4-5ounces at a time. we switched them to dr. brown's bottles and they seem to do much better.

i would be concerned with going to a faster nipple so young because even the lazy sucker that i've got, if he drinks to fast all of it comes right back up when you burp him. so i think slower nipples, or "natural flow" nipples are best until they have developed a bit more.

where your twins premature? that might have something to do with it too.

if you do switch to a fast flow nipple just be sure to pause every so often for a burp so they don't choke on it.