Mom invents a solution for baby bottle refusal

A Chester County mom has birthed a business called Bottmals after having a hard time bottlefeeding one of her own babies. This is a cute solution to a serious problem many new moms face. >> My hair was soaking wet and he calls me. I can hear the baby screaming in the background and he says, "You have to come home. He won't take the bottle." >> That's what happened with Julianne Gardner's baby Blake. and Julianne soon realized bottle refusal was common, forcing some moms to even quit their jobs. >> That really creates a a vicious cycle of stress for a family. >> So, she started to search for a solution. >> I worked in research for 13 years. I have a degree in biology. >> Julianne says research shows the scent of a mom elicits the sucking reflex in babies. And that was the basis for bottomless, a bottle combined with an animal lovey that has a heart-shaped pad. Mom wears it in her bra to actually absorb the scent of her memorary glands. >> When another caregiver feeds the baby, a piece of mom is there. >> You put the pad with mom's scent in the pocket of the lovey and then it just slides onto the bottle to keep mom's scent close to the baby. >> Baby also has a cute stuffed animal for company. >> They can touch it. They can feel it. Babies love sensory objects. >> Julianne launched Bottomals this past June. She has a website and sells the product for $29.99 in 15 plus stores. She says as she was building her biz, she reached out to other baby product entrepreneurs on LinkedIn and Instagram. >> And I can't tell you how many people I actually heard back from who were willing to talk to me for 15 minutes, 30 minutes just to help me get to that next step. She's also grateful for strangers like Maddie Tomford, who tested the product after seeing Julianne's post on Facebook. Maddie tried it with her daughter Charlotte the first time she left her then six-month-old with a bottle and grandma. The >> combination of, you know, having that scent, I think, of me and knowing like, okay, this is someone I'm comfortable with. She did great. >> This woman needs to have an empire and be a multi-gajillionaire. What a great idea. >> All right. Well, Julianne says bottle molds can also be great for a baby who just gets distracted while drinking a bottle or just doesn't want to seem to finish for some reason. Right now, she has just the bunny bottom, but she is working on other animals in the near future, and she has other products in the pipeline, so stay tuned.