Calma by Medela: The bottle nipple for breastfeeding moms

A New Innovation
In Bottle Feeding

Medela is known for its breast pumps, but the company has just introduced a new bottle nipple created for breastfeeding moms and babies. Keep reading for details.

Medela Calma nipple

For breastfeeding moms who want to continue to breastfeed, but who also wish to integrate bottle feeding (with breast milk) without creating nipple confusion, Medela has introduced the Calma nipple.

Calma isn't just another nipple. It was developed after research and is used in conjunction with a BPA-free breast milk bottle. Both were designed to help babies to maintain their natural feeding behavior so that they can transition from bottle back to breast with ease.

Medela based the design on research published in Early Human Development, which concluded that "babies create a vacuum when extracting milk from the breast, which is a method different than the wave-like movement that was previously understood."

The Calma nipple only allows babies to drink when they create a vacuum, mimicking breastfeeding. As a result, when babies switch from the breast to the bottle and back to the breast again, they feed in the same manner.

"Our research on how babies breastfeed showed that tongue movement is different than previously described and that vacuum is important for milk removal," said Dr. Geddes, the lead researcher on the development team. "These new research findings led Medela to incorporate unique features into a teat so that infants use vacuum and tongue action similar to breastfeeding to remove the expressed milk from a bottle."

While Calma is just now being introduced to breastfeeding mamas in the U.S., it has been available in Canada and Europe since 2010. If you're interested in trying out this new nipple, check out the Medela website to find a retailer.