When to Stop Using Vent on Dr Brown’s Bottles?

You tend to be extra careful with everything when it comes to your newborn baby. And that’s understandable as infants have very little ability to show their discomforts. So, you observe every sign it’s showing, like burping, fussing, or others, to get an idea of how your baby is feeling.

Most parents happen to struggle with feeding a newborn, not understanding whether it has colic or not. As infants can’t expel the gas in their bellies, Dr. Brown bottles include a unique vent system to prevent air ingestion.

But when to stop using vent on Dr Brown’s bottles? Yes, as the babies grow, they don’t need the vent system as they develop abilities to clear out belly gasses. And we will be discussing that elaborately in this article.

Benefits of Using Dr. Browns Bottles

Dr. Brown bottles have been designed with an internal vent system so that newborns can suck the milk with ease. Apart from preventing air ingestion, the bottle’s venting system provides some other benefits. Let’s have a look at them.

Comfortable Feeding

The Dr. Brown bottles make sure no air is mixed with the milk, so as your baby sucks the breastmilk from the bottle, it gets a very similar experience of when you breastfeed.

And as vacuum-free feeding is somewhat close to breastfeeding, it’s very comfortable for your child as well. Also, watching your baby feeding without any discomfort must be a delight.

Nutrient Preservation

The presence of air inside the bottle can cause bubble formation while feeding your baby. And the more bubbles formed, the higher the chances of oxidation.

Breast milk contains all the essential nutrients for a baby’s growth, and it is found that some vital vitamins like A, E, and C declines due to the presence of air inside the bottle. Now, these elements are very crucial for your baby’s development, growth, and immunity.

So, the Dr Brown vent inserts are designed to allow no air mixing with the liquid. And bypassing air reduces oxidation, meaning your baby will get all the nutrients it needs.

Prevention of Burping, Gas, and Spit-Up

Ingesting air with milk causes a series of discomforts, and your baby expresses those by burping, spit-up, crying, and fussing. And the signs shouldn’t be taken lightly as they can indicate colic. 

The patented vent system of the bottles can be a solution to all these as your baby won’t be sucking any air.

How Does Dr Brown Vent System Work?

You might see a significant reduction in your baby burping with these bottles. Burping is how a baby releases the gas inside its belly, and it’s essential. However, more burping means your infant might be ingesting too much air leading to higher gas accumulation inside the belly.

Dr Brown bottles come with a unique yet simple vent system that bypasses the air entered inside when your baby is sucking the milk. Now, the vent doesn’t obstruct the air rather it directs the air entered through the bottle collar towards the bottle end, bypassing the milk.

The air enters inside and gets routed through the vent tubes to the bottle’s end. In this way, there is no mixing of air and milk, let alone aeration of milk.

And no air mixing translates into no air ingestion, fewer gas problems, burping, bloating, fussiness, and spit-ups. So the vent system works in a way to preserve the quality of the milk while giving your baby the natural feeding experience.

And without the vents, the special bottles act just like the normal ones. So, if you have been wondering how to use Dr Brown’s without vent, well, just remove the vents and continue feeding your baby.

When to Stop Using Vent on Dr Brown’s Bottles?

Parents tend to worry beyond necessary when their infant faces any feeding or digestion problems. And the specially designed vents in Dr Brown’s bottles help the infants or newborns to feed at their own pace. So, you can feed your baby more naturally.

As your baby grows up, the burping, gas, and other issues decrease, eliminating the need to use the vents anymore.

However, most parents don’t know exactly when to stop using vent on Dr Brown’s bottles. Below is a brief guideline to help you know when your baby doesn’t need the vents anymore.

When You Start Giving Solid Food to Your Baby

As the baby grows, the digestive system becomes more efficient. And gradually it attains the ability to take solid food. Your baby is less likely to experience gas problems at this stage, meaning ingesting gas bubbles won’t cause discomfort anymore.

So, you can remove the vents once you see the baby is taking solid food easily.

When Your Baby Is Able to Move and Sit Up

As it spends almost all day laying down, an infant can’t burp on its own, and usually, parents adopt several techniques to help their infant burp.

But as the baby grows to learn to sit up and move, it can get rid of the belly gases by burping. Also, moving can help the baby let loose of the belly gas easily.

Therefore, even if the baby is ingesting much air, it doesn’t seem to get uncomfortable as moving around helps to push out the bubbles. So, you can stop using the vents as your baby doesn’t seem to need them anymore.

When You See No Signs of Fussiness, Colic, or Reflux

The specially designed bottles surely help your baby overcome various discomfort caused by air ingestion. You can remove the vents to check if the baby fusses or shows other signs of discomfort.

If you don’t see any, maybe it’s time to remove the vents.

Does Dr. Brown Bottles Leak?

Without the vents, the Dr Brown bottles function like regular ones. However, some natural flow bottles can leak if used without the vents. These bottles provide 100% vacuum-free feeding, and you cannot use them without the vents unless you want to risk leaks.

And if you somehow impaired the bottle’s vent, you won’t have to buy another bottle. Instead, you can find the Dr Brown vent replacement separately.

There is another bottle kind, Dr Brown’s option+ bottle, that lets you remove the vents easily. These serve as terrific options as you can still use the bottles when your baby grows and don’t need the vent.

They also ensure no leakage with vents removed. Nevertheless, you will always experience some kind of leakage if you overfill, overtighten, or under-tighten the bottle.

Overtightening can cause a pressure build-up inside, and under-tightening can leak milk through the open spaces. So, whichever option you are using, you can experience the Dr Brown bottles leaking without vent.

Conclusion

The specially designed bottles are fantastic in eliminating various feeding discomfort of your infant. But as the baby grows, it doesn’t seem to experience digestive issues anymore.

So, when to stop using vent on Dr Brown’s bottles? Well, when you see the signs of your baby not having any discomfort while feeding when it learns to move, sit up, and have solid food. To lean in elaborate, give it a thorough read.