Before I get started in telling you lovely readers about why we recommend Mam bottles I just want to say everyone's feeding journey with their baby is individual to them and their baby. To put it simply fed is best in my opinion be it breast, bottle or a combination. 

Unfortunately for us and our poor little Panda we've had an interesting feeding journey. 

 Whilst pregnant I was adamant and determined that I was going to breast feed. 

 Once born he was offered breast immediately and he latched quickly but as soon as he began to feed, he unlatched. At first, I thought it was because he had to learn how as for 37 weeks, he'd been provided with 24-hour womb service. This latching on and off on and off kept happening and I was encouraged to keep trying and spoon feed.

In the end I looked in his mouth and it looked like he had a top lip tie. 

I mentioned this to a few professionals and they all either said they didn't think so or they don't do anything for lip tie.

 Eventually we introduced a bottle because I was fearful, he would not gain weight and become dehydrated because of the weather. Also, how could tell he was hungry and could just never settle.  Having had a preemie before it's safe to say I was a bit anxious about caring for my new-born baby from the word go because with Mini the NICU team dealt with her care majority of the time and I also didn't see her for a few hours after birth. 

 To begin with we tried the supermarket branded bottles because they are suggested by midwives and NICU nurses to be the first bottles to try these were unsuccessful. Whilst I still preserved trying to feed him myself. We then tried Tommee Tippee as we had used them before, and I was a fan. These too were unsuccessful. Then we moved onto Nuk, as we'd be quite successful with this type of tear when topping Panda up with the little read made formula bottles. These at first were successful we could get some feed into him. In the meantime, I had bought shields to see if that would help him. He did seem to be to latch better but still he was on, off, on, off. 

It was a constant round of feeding, trying to feed and winding. 

 At almost 6 weeks when the Health Visitor came, we talked about his feeding and I mentioned his tongue again as all Mother's know Mother's instinct is alright right. Then right on cue Little Panda started to scream the Health Visitor looked in his mouth and said, "oh yes I think he does". She told us how to self-refer and we waited, and we waited eventually Andrew had to track the referral down and find out why we hadn't had an appointment.

Finally, we took Panda to his appointment and it was confirmed he was tongue tied. He had his tongue snipped, we tried to feed and had a chat and were sent on our way. Sadly, for Panda this was not his last trip to have his tongue looked like as he started to exhibit signs that perhaps his tongue had re-stuck. Panda's tongue had in fact re-stuck and tied more than the first time.

 Flash forward a week and I was at breaking point again from 6 a.m. onwards I would either be holding Panda, trying to get him to feed or seeing if he would nap for longer than 10 minutes. He would only nap if being pushed around in the pram or drive in the car well like I said to the Health visitor I couldn't do that for 2 plus hours a day so he could have a decent sleep. I have other children and things which also need my attention. However, I do consider myself lucky because Andrew would take over as soon as he was home either holding and sorting Panda or cooking and cleaning. One night Andrew suggested going back to Tommee Tippee but changing the flow I agreed as we thought maybe the flow had become too slow for Panda whilst out Andrew rang and said he was also bringing a Mam bottle home to as when we went to our very first tongue tie clinic the Midwife said they regularly suggest Nuk or Mam bottles.

 Once the bottle had be sterilised which turn out is self-sterilising and can be done in the microwave and the formula made up, we offered it to Panda. For the first time in his short tiny life he latched onto the bottle drank the whole feed down which he had never done and promptly fell asleep. At first, we thought maybe it was a fluke and he was just so hungry but no he began completing his feeds and having daytime naps that lasted longer than 10 minutes he also looked more content and relaxed when he was asleep. Poor Panda did end having to have his tongue clipped for the third time as I still felt there wasn’t something quite with his tongue but with using these bottles, he did begin to gain weight.

 Why do we recommend Mam?

 Apart from the fact baby boy could feed properly and was starting to gain weight is they are self-sterilising. You take the bottle apart wash is up put it back together as per the instructions and place in the microwave. This is so handy for when I’m at my Mum’s as the bottle can be just washed and sterilised as and when needed. Another thing I particularly like is the various flow teats you can have instead of just having a 0+, 3+ months and 6+ months teats they have some middle ones 2+ months and 4+ moths. Which we found beneficial for Panda as because he was still getting use to his tongue movement and then seemed to be getting frustrated with the flow we were able to move him up a size without him chocking on the milk because it was too fast. Therefore, with the above reasoning this why MAM has become a K and A Baby recommended product.

 Check out our web page https://www.kandababy.co.uk/collections/mam for the whole MAM range. Please if you have any questions regarding any of the able mentioned products or about tongue and feeding then please do drop us a comment, an email or a call us and we will do our best to answer and if we need to try and point in the right direction for some professional advice.