At Emulait, we are dedicated to enhancing the bottle-feeding experience by bridging the gap between breast and bottle. For families who choose or need to bottle-feed, or wish to combine both breast and bottle-feeding, Emulait has created a world-first biomimetic feeding system to truly mimic the breastfeeding experience. Our latest innovation, the Responsive Flow Valve, takes the Emulait feeding system to the next level by giving babies even greater control over the feeding process.
What is the Responsive Flow Valve?
The Responsive Flow Valve is a single-valve system that has been engineered to dynamically adapt to a baby's suckling intensity. The valve intuitively adjusts milk flow: faster for vigorous suckling, slower for gentler moments, and closed when not in use, ensuring a naturally paced feeding experience. This breakthrough innovation means that bottle-feeding is baby-led – allowing babies to extract milk at their own pace and preserve the oral skills they would use at the breast.
The new Responsive Flow Valve now available in all bottles
Why Did We Create the Responsive Flow Valve?
With conventional bottles, parents typically upgrade bottle teats to a faster flow as their baby grows and shows signs of frustration with milk flow. Previously, Emulait offered a three-valve system too. However, as we refined our biomimetic design thinking, it became clear that a single structurally-enhanced valve would generate a more efficient feeding mechanism. With conventional bottles, babies use a piston–like action to drink, like a straw. With Emulait, babies engage their oral muscles actively – this gives them full control of the milk flow in a way that a gravity-sensitive bottle never will.
The new Responsive Flow Valve achieved another goal - some families whose babies were accustomed to rigid conventional bottle teats reported challenges with the three-valve system. These babies found the Emulait teat, designed with thin premium silicone to mimic the natural breast, frustrating. By providing extra structural support beneath the nipple, the Responsive Flow Valve helps all babies enjoy the Emulait feeding experience without the need for a graduated system. Mom’s nipples don’t need upgrades, after all!
Benefits of the Responsive Flow Valve
Recreating the Comforting Rhythm of Breastfeeding
The Emulait bottle supports the suck-swallow-breathe pattern, enabling babies to coordinate the actions needed for a healthy and well-paced feed. The Responsive Flow Valve allows babies to control the milk flow as they would at the breast. Together with the soft pliable silicone, babies engage their entire oral cavity in the act of feeding, supporting the development of strong oral muscles and exercising the vagal nerve responsible for self-regulation.
Supporting Responsive Feeding
Emulait's bottle is designed to evoke the familiar bond of breastfeeding by supporting responsive feeding. This approach allows babies to communicate their hunger and fullness cues to their caregiver through eye contact and prompt responses. The Responsive Flow Valve helps this communication process by allowing babies to pace themselves and take breaks, unlike the free flow of conventional baby bottles.
Nurturing Healthy Feeding Habits
Conventional baby bottles are gravity-dependent which means that baby guzzles, rather than extracts, the milk. This often leads to overfeeding and gastrointestinal discomfort for babies. While paced feeding can be achieved with conventional bottles, it relies on parental control and unnatural positioning (seated or side-lying position). When babies lead the feeding session, they consume healthier-sized portions and learn to self-regulate based on their internal feeding cues. Emulait’s Responsive Flow Valve is the only mechanism on the market designed to nurture healthy feeding habits.
Simplifying the Feeding Process for Parents
The Responsive Flow Valve eliminates the need for multiple components, such as graded nipples, by accommodating a growing baby’s naturally evolving feeding skills. As their suckling skills strengthen and feeding sizes increase, they become more competent and communicative feeders using the Emulait bottle. For most babies, this also supports smoother transitions between bottle and breast as they preserve their milk extraction skills.
Presenting a Seamless and Innovative Feeding System
The Responsive Flow Valve’s seamless adaptability offers unprecedented benefits aligned with best practices in infant feeding. With the Responsive Flow Valve, Emulait reaffirms its commitment to transforming feeding time into a cherished opportunity for connection and growth, bringing the benefits of innovation to all families. We’re excited to be on this journey together!
