I wish the Minbie Teats had been around when I was trying to breastfeed and express at work. It would have made those initial weeks of preparation and transition so much easier.
It wasn’t that long ago that I was breastfeeding and had little babies but from the changes that are being made to teats and bottles it feels like it was eons ago.
The Minbie Teats and Bottles are a completely revolutionary change to the teats and bottles we were using. And I’m still sure that back in the day those were the best that were available. If I’d had this choice now, I would not have gone with the bottles, teats and dummies that I did.
I’m clearly not the only person who thinks this product is worth looking into, Minbie has over 9000 5-Star Reviews from Aussie mums.
Minbie reached out to me to have a look through their products and sponsored this post. I’m really glad I did because I would not have known that this was on the market otherwise.
Minbie Teats and Feeding System
You know that I’ve written extensively about what to buy in preparation for baby. I created a whole series based around what you need and DON’T need based on my own experience of utter confusion.
The “What to Buy when you’re Expecting” baby series includes posts on:
- What babies actually wear.
- What babies need in order to sleep.
- All the dirty things involving nappies and the like.
- Bathing babies and what you need.
- Whether you actually need toys.
This post looks at the new Minbie Range which relates to Feeding Babies. It also highlights an important issue that moms struggle with often when trying to transition from breast to bottle.
The Minbie range includes:
- Their amazing teats. I’m going to go into a whole lot of detail about this later because this is what got me interested in their range.
- Bottles.
- Breast pumps.
- Steriliser.
I have to start with the Minbie Teats because they’re so well designed that it may solve any problems you have with a baby that doesn’t want to take a bottle.
Minbie Teats
There are a few good aspects to the teats but from them all I think the most interesting to me are:
- angle and shape of the tip of the teat
- the change in size of the neck of the teat
- the vent at the base of the teat
- availability of paced teats.
All of the above means that there is support for breastfeeding because your baby should be latching to the teat as they latch to you.
Nipple Confusion
Good old Nipple Confusion. If you don’t know what this is and you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you NEED to know.
“The term nipple confusion or nipple preference has been used to describe an infant’s fussiness at breast or frustration when they are having problems switching from a bottle nipple and breast, before breastfeeding is well established. A baby uses a totally different technique to remove milk from the breast than he uses to drink from a bottle.”
La Leche League International
If I had $1 for every time I heard or read about Nipple Confusion when I was pregnant and breastfeeding I would have been a millionaire.
Now, I don’t know if the concept is still as popular and widely used but I’ve seen and continue to see and hear of babies who struggle with taking a bottle or transitioning between breast and bottle.
For mums, it can be so frustrating. Whether its because you are dying to sleep and babe won’t take a bottle or because you have to go back to work and you’re worried baby will never eat!
Now bear that in mind when we focus on the aspects of the Minbie Teats and why they are so good.
Minbie says that it strives to protect a baby’s natural instinctive breastfeeding technique and to avoid the harm of nipple-confusion.
So why are they so good?
Why are the Minbie Teats Better
1. The angle of the tip of teat and the contours.
If you look at ordinary teats you will see that they sit in the centre of the bottle. Straight up. This is fine for an older child who is accustomed to drinking from a bottle or a cup or sucking a dummy but what about a little baby that is only ever presented with the breast. You’ll see that the angle is more natural and should sit in their mouths easier.
Baby Center Australia says that your child should latch to a bottle as they latch to the breast.
Your baby should gape his mouth wide open to the bottle teat, with his tongue down and forward. He should do this for every feed
Baby Center Australia
The angle of the Minibie Teats coupled with the contours and softness of the teat I would think makes it far easier for your baby to manipulate with their tongues.
2. The widening and narrowing of the teat
You’ll see that the teat width differs across the teat reaching a narrow angle at the tip.
The widening and narrowing means that the milk is flowing but only at the insistence of your baby. Your baby has to suck as if they would while breastfeeding.
Baby Centre Australia has said that one of the aspects of bottle and breastfeeding that may cause confusion to babies is that the baby doesn’t have to do much to feed from a bottle whereas they have to “work” to get milk from mom.
“Bottle teats are fairly rigid, with a constant reservoir of milk, so your baby won’t have to work hard to get at the milk he wants.”
Baby Centre Australia
3. The vent at the base of the teat
Whenever I looked at teats and bottles for my kids I looked at the vents in the teats. For me, dealing with a baby that is winded because it has sucked too much air in with a bottle feed is a nightmare. It’s horrible when they’ve been so hungry, sucked too hard on a normal bottle and there was air in it. It causes them pain and you so much frustration while you struggle to get it out.
With the minbie teats, one of the features is that it has a vent at the bottom of the teat so when the teat is angled up, the air will flow away from the milk. Exactly what you want!!
4. Paced Teats
Minbie offers what they call Paced Teats.
The paced teat is a good start if you are just introducing the bottle because it has a slit near the tip instead of a hole in the tip. This helps a baby to pace the feed rate, controlling the quantity, while learning to feed from a bottle.
You can find the Minbie Teats HERE.
What about other bottles and teats?
If you’re not sold on the Mibie, I understand, you have to have your own preference. Just think about some of the problems that exist with bottles and make sure what you choose takes that into consideration.
The problem with other bottles include:
- Nipple-confusion and bottle preference has been seen by other mums.
- As Baby Center Australia has said babies don’t have to “work” for their milk so other bottles can cause lazy feeding and inability to breastfeed.
- Can harm a newborn’s ability to latch correctly when breastfeeding.
- May cause a weak latch.
What “size” do the Minbie Teats Come in
There are 7 teats in the Minbie range.
- 0+ Months Extra Slow (I completely support breastfeeding and advocate for it but you can’t discount that there are some mums who are unable to breastfeed from birth and those babies need to be feed too!!).
- 1+ Months Slow
- 3P Paced Feeding
- 3 Months+ Medium
- 6+ Fast Flow
- 6P Paced Feed
- 9 Months + Advanced
The teats can fit with other bottles
It is recommend that the Minbie teats be used with the Minbie bottles: 210ml, 270ml BPA-free PP (polypropylene) bottle.
However, the Minbie is compatible with a number of standard wide-neck baby bottles (49.5 – 50.5mm outer neck diameter).
The Minbie does not fit narrow-neck bottles or very wide bottles. We cannot guarantee a fit with other brands.
You can find the Minbie Teats HERE.
The Minbie Steriliser
The Minbie steriliser – sterilises thoroughly over 10 minutes. I remember having to wait forever for our steriliser to be ready. But I suppose a lot has changed in 4 years.
The steriliser then dries thoroughly with the dryer setting.
The items are left sterile and can be stored in the unit with the lid on for 24 hours. This is great considering it has a large capacity so you can get loads of bottles done altogether and then leave them to be used.
Hospital Grade Double Breast Pump
Minbie offers a very smart looking double breast pump.
I like the look of it for six reasons:
- It’s portable. For me, I needed to be able to move around with my pump, from home to work and everywhere around the two.
- Silicon cups instead of hard plastic. I used to have impressions left on my chest for hours after.
- Adjustable cycle and vacuum. This is so so important, you definitely need to be able to regulate the suction according to what’s going on in your body
- Hospital Grade power means it gets the job done!
- It’s simple. You don’t have a million different parts you have to wash.
- Night light and backlight display. You know when you just need to pump but you can’t find the buttoms and you don’t know what you’re pushing… this solves that problem so you don’t have to wake up your partner or the baby trying to fiddle with the pump!
More about Minbie
Minbie’s mission is to empower new mums by giving them greater flexibility to introduce a bottle with the ease of mind knowing that their baby’s precious breastfeeding ability will be nurtured and protected.
Minbie reckons it has helped over 200,000 parents with their breast and bottle feeding journey but their goal is to reach 1 million new parents.
