Medela SpecialneedsTM Feeder 150ml

Sorry this is so long but I wish I knew these things in the beginning. My daughter was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate on her left side. We had no idea because we were never able to see her face on the ultrasounds due to positioning. The moment I found out my main concern was feeding my baby girl. I didn’t know if she would have feeding difficulties I didn’t know anything about it. I tried breast feeding but it made everything way more stressful at the time. The NICU nurses gave us these Medela bottles and they work amazing. It was hard at first. Its a difficult bottle to get the hang of and I had to try a few different things and angles and pressures to squeeze it. It took me a week to figure out how to even use it properly because the nurses in the hospital weren’t familiar with it. The moment it changed and got easier for me was when I researched this bottle. I found a video from the lady who created this bottle. She explains how and why it works and how to use it. I While your baby is learning to drink and suck and swallow it is more difficult at times and what worked best for me was just taking the time while I'm feeding my baby to focus on what she was doing with her mouth. I realized I can feel her movements and when she wanted to drink and wanted to stop. Its super important with this bottle to pay extra attention to when your baby is ready for a break to get a breath for a second in between swallows. The milk only comes out as you squeeze the nipple and you can see how much is coming out if you squeeze it in front of you first as a test. The cons is they only go to 5 ounces, theres no cap, and its probably ideal for just mom and dad to use since theres a lil bit of a learning curve compared to other bottles. We ended up getting some of the Dr.Brown Specialty Feeder Bottles thick and thin ones, the thin ones work perfectly for my baby girl and they hold 4 or 10-12 ounces I think. They just have a little blue insert that goes in the nipple and I think slows the milk flow for them. I wish I had all the bottles the say she was born just to try them because the Dr.Browns are easier to use and everyone else can help feed her if needed. However these Medela bottles dont leave her as gassy as the Dr.Brown bottles do. I still use these bottles and they are my personal favorite to use when I feed her but I mostly use them at night now because if I leave them and they tip over they dont leak. The Dr.Brown bottles leak everywhere if the fall over without a lid!! If you have a baby with a cleft I think you should try this bottle at least once. They may like it due to the fact that they dont have to work as hard to drink but I know practice makes perfect. Also no matter what bottle you use. I’ve found that the more often I burp her, the more content and happy she seems. She will burp 2 times from half an ounce sometimes. If you read this review thank you and I hope it helped you in any way and if your angel was born with any abnormalities just remember to be extra patient and extra loving. Thanks the support and help you are given by others and thank yourself because you are doing great and your baby is beautiful and so blessed to have an amazing parent doing the best they can do with what they have to work with.♥️

Most reviews are for cleft palate/lip newborns so I thought I would leave a review as we purchased for our newborn who has a weak suck, tight jaw, and an uncoordinated tongue *see update below*. As a result, he has been unable to get an effective latch or suck. A nipple guard helped some, but he still only pulled an eighth of my supply from a breast. After some research, we purchased this as a means to mimic the breast as much as possible and also for the awesome benefit of him having to work on strengthening his tongue and suck. It has been really excellent as we can also mimic the nipple towards his nose to get him to open for a latch before allowing him to take the "teat." We are very gentle and mindful when rinsing/cleaning as these are quite expensive and so far it has held up well. Also huge bonus it fits with all Medela bottles since I'm currently exclusively pumping. *update* still 5 stars just to share that I posted this review before my little guy was finally diagnosed with a deep posterior tongue tie. The speech therapist and ENT were not surprised that this was the only bottle effective for him and actually super impressed I even found it (kudos to the Baby Whisperer!). I am grateful we found it otherwise I fear he would've lost a harmful amount of weight by the time we could get in to see the right specialists and have his tongue tie released.

Thank goodness for this bottle. I work in the NICU and know this is typically for babies with a cleft palate. Well my baby had tongue and lip ties and a very high palate and would never latch on a bottle. Even after revision he was so uncoordinated and could not latch and refused all bottles. Would just scream at any bottle. I spent hundreds on different bottles and different flow nipples. The stress of going back to work with a baby who won't take a bottle is awful. I was panicked. Finally as a last ditch effort I bought this after returning to work and having the baby just scream all night at home (I work night shift) for me bc he wouldn't eat anything without me and my boobs there. It was traumatizing for everyone. We went through 3 screaming shifts and then this bottle came. The first night trying this he managed to take 3 whole ounces which was incredible!!!!! My second shift with my husband using this bottle our bottle-refusing baby drank 9 ounces. I cried. It's not always true a baby will eat when they're hungry. Sometimes you have to spend $30 on a special needs bottle. But it's worth it.

Fue el único biberón al que mi bebé con Secuencia de Pierre Robin se ajustó. Es ideal para cuando tienen succión débil y seguro para evitar que se atore.

Long story short, my daughter has both tongue and lip ties and wouldn't latch on to a bottle no matter what I tried. She went to daycare for two days and didn't eat for 7- 8hours while she was gone. She's been nursing fine but just wouldn't take a bottle because she COULDN'T. I read a previous review for this bottle of someone who said their baby had ties as well so we figured we'd try one last bottle ( we've tried 9 already). This one worked!! She was able to latch onto it immediately and didn't fight it or scream at it as she usually does with a bottle. I have such a weight lifted off of me knowing she won't be starving all day. Highly recommend!!

If your baby has a narrow high arched palate, try this feeder! My breastfed baby struggled for months to feed from a bottle. We tried Dr. Browns, regular Medela, NUK, Comotomo, Mimijumi, and First Years Breastflow. She has no visible tongue tie but she gagged on regular length nipples, struggled to latch on shorter nipples, and was never able to achieve a good latch with suction on any of them regardless of flow. The milk would pour out of her mouth instead of getting swallowed. If we flattened the Breastflow nipple and took all the air out, she could drink a few ounces over several hours. It was miserable, frustrating, and exhausting for her and us. At our wits end, this feeder was recommended to us by our pediatrician and changed EVERYTHING. From the first time we used it, my baby was able to take a full feeding from it with ease. No more struggles! No more tears! No more hungry baby! I would like to hug Mandy Haberman and Medela for this feeder.

This bottle was indeed created with lots of love and hope, my daughter was born with the birth defect of a cleft in her soft palate. She was unable to breastfeed or suck any other bottle. After researching online about her problem I came across this bottle and decided to give a try, after all I did not have much options available having exhausted everything I heard about her condition, etc. This bottle is beyond perfect, easy to use and best of all my baby gets nourished. The first time we used it i was brought to tears after seeing her finally being able to suck to milk. I never knew about her condition until 2days after I gave birth, the doctors at the hospital never checked her properly when she was born. She ended up back in the A&E 2 days after she was born for not being able to nurse and one head doctor detected her problem. So it was very very hard and stressful to have to research and learn about it since my country does not have a local support group or anything. THis miracle bottle sure helped us, I bought like 3more after, you will not be disappointed. THank God for this invention!

worst value for money, worst bottle ever, but unfortunately i had no other solution for my baby with cleft palate. the tits silicon is so week and gets ruptured in no time, and u have to replace the teats too often, and another failure is that the bottle has no cap!! iam wondering what would have it costs medela to make it with a cap to protect the teats? sadly im so disappointed and wasting my money for no value.

Excellent bottle

Good

Due to cleft palate my baby was unable to feed, thanks to this, my baby now sleep with full stomach. Grateful!

I used this for cleft palate and the baby is able to drink with bit less effort. Strongly recommended for the special baby, in case if you are blessed with.

The bottle leaks. It passes air in between when we squeeze it for the milk to pass. It is very expensive and not fit for purpose. Would recommend Dr Brown speciality bottles instead which I am using currently for my 2months baby with Cleft palate.