Oklahoma City mom Lisa Blacknoll-Hyche might have made the perfect baby bottle. Last year, the mother of three launched her company, LUX, which distributes a bottle featuring a silicone nipple she designed and developed. Her company was developed out of necessity five months after she gave birth to her youngest child, Myles.
Though Blacknoll-Hyche was no stranger to baby products as a mother of three, she spent her days working in the aerospace industry and was a little worried about returning to work and breastfeeding after Myles was born.
I am a proposal manager, which means for the last 12 years, I have been all about airplanes, she said. I knew I was going to have to go back to work fairly quickly, and although Myles had latched immediately and was nursing fine, as a mom, I wanted him to continue to have the comfort of a mom even when using a bottle. I worried that he wouldnt take a bottle. If he wouldnt, then how would I run between his childcare and my office several times a day while I continued to breastfeed? Blacknoll-Hyche said.
Another important benefit of breastfeeding is that mom and baby experience skin-to-skin contact, which helps calm baby and mom but also aids in helping babys mental development and sleep habits and can even stabilize a premature babys heart rate and breathing, according to parenting website Todays Parent.
The LUX nipple is soft and has a wider base, or areola, which is very soft and feels like skin. Other nipples are narrow, straight and rigid, which means the baby cant latch and nurse naturally, Blacknoll-Hyche said. Our nipple is perfect; when a baby latches, the milk or formula shoots out without the child working, like a natural nipple works.
I looked at Meciah and I said, Lets make the perfect baby bottle, Blacknoll-Hyche said. And he said, Mom, you always have great ideas, but you never do them. I decided that day.
Now all of her kids are involved. Myles was the chief bottle tester and Meciah helps with marketing and brand management and helped come up with the companys name. Blacknoll-Hyches daughter London helps her mom deliver samples to shops and boutiques. Hyches husband helps foster the business by feeding Myles and, perhaps more importantly, washing bottles.
We made the bottle base and nipple nice and wide, so even a mans hand can fit inside them to wash them, Blacknoll-Hyche said.
After her initial conversation with Meciah, Blacknoll-Hyche called the manufacturer of the bottle bases she liked and got to work. She learned that she could customize the nipples to her hearts content and was elated.
We have shipped samples all across the United States, and we have filled orders from all over the country, as far away as Hawaii, New York, California and Florida, she said. I get letters and emails from parents who are thrilled to see their babies latch immediately and eat.
LUX plans to branch into other products in the future, but for now, the bottles and nipples, available in two sizes and several colors, are available on amazon.com and luxbabybottle.com.
Print headline: LUX idea; A local woman made a business out of baby bottles when faced with the difficulties of returning to work and continuing breastfeeding her baby.