Anyone know where to buy preemie/neonatal nipples?

[Escoville01]

My baby is been on a feeding tube for about 18 months now and she has been doing good on baby foods. We are going to try and start feeding her formula by bottle and our new GIs PA suggested starting with a preemie/neonatal nipple for the slower flowrate and we can;t find them anywhere. They sell them on the Similac website but you can only buy a case of 250 nipples. I don;t know what I would with that many nipples. LOL. Anyone know where I could purchase some? Please let meknow. Any ideas/suggestions are welcome. Thanks

[KCMichigan]

Does she have an OT you work with or a speech/feeding therapist? That is where we got ours ( we had 4 per baby-twin-) She also helped us adapt them to our DDs.

I would contact the hospital and/or local medical care store ( where ever you get your feeding tube supplies). You could even call the local NICU and see if they had some for free or sale. (we got some from there too...but different brand). We got preemie pacifiers from NICU.

Hope you find them soon!

[RiverandJulie]

You can get the Dr browns slow flow (preemie) online.  Try Amazon-they come in packs of 3.

[KCMichigan]

Originally Posted by RiverandJulie 

You can get the Dr browns slow flow (preemie) online.  Try Amazon-they come in packs of 3.

The hospital grade preemie ones are even slower than Dr. Browns (we used those after they outgrew the NICU ones).

[RiverTam]

Ask your doctor or your hospital for some. They would probably be happy to give you some, if they have them. 

[maryeliz]

Our doctors also recommended the Dr. Browns preemie nipples and we found them at a Babies r Us store.

[beenmum]

We use the Haberman preemie feeder. Its for cleft kids, however it has a good vent in it so the flow rate is very slow.

We ended up using a push bottom bottle with thickened fluids to get our daughter off her feeding tube.

[momtoalexsarah]

I would try the Haberman Feeders, and you can easily get preemie nipples for them (my DD started on a Haberman) also if you can get a preeme nipple that fits on a "baged" bottle the kind that uses the Drop Ins liners they work really really well when there is poor suck/flow regulation.  My DD was born with a submucus Cleft palate and had really weak suck untill she was 3 month old and this is what we used to feed her her BM in a bottle.

[gsmom]

In our NICU we use the Dr. Brown preemie nipples (you can get them at Babies R Us or on-line).  We find that these are slower than the yellow ringed Similac? nipples that are often used.  There is no research supporting the labeling of nipples as slow flow, fast flow, etc, but the nipples are named based upon the size/number/shape of the hole that the fluid comes out.   Does she suck on a pacifier?  Can you try some liquids from a spoon, this is often how I will introduce cup feeding?  Why do you want to use a bottle rather than trying a sippy cup or regular cup?  (not trying to be disrespectful, just asking ;-) )

One con for the haberman is that they are expensive and most insurance companies will not cover them. 

I would recommend working with a speech therapist or occupational therapist that specializes in feeding.  Starting to work on thinner liquids can be scary for kids because they go fast.       

[Phoenix~Mama]

The slowest flow my NICU had was the green ringed similac... and I know for DS he has done MUCH better with the Dr. Brown preemie nipples than those.  He's been doing really awesome on them, actually.  I recently tried to bump him up to the newborn nipples, and he seemed like he was drowning again, so he's staying on preemie.  Good Luck!