OUR STORY
One mom's journey from frustration to innovation
Hi! I’m Jennie, the inventor of Feeding Friendzies and the CMIC (Chief Mom-In-Charge)
When my daughter was a newborn, she was a champion eater…until she wasn’t. Suddenly, what was once easy and relaxing became frustrating and stressful for all of us. But babies have to eat, right?
Turns out they do…like, all the time.
In those early months, I was also dealing with postpartum anxiety and OCD — something I didn't really even have the words to describe accurately at the time. It showed up as obsessive worries about my daughter’s comfort and safety. I was consumed with constantly checking the temperature in her room, terrified she might be too cold or overheated even when I knew she was perfectly fine. When she began refusing her bottles at around 4 months old, it triggered a new wave of panic that she wasn’t getting enough to eat. That fear fueled my late-night research rabbit holes, desperate to find a solution that could help her (and me) feel calm again.
We tried everything we could to get her to focus and finish her bottles, but the only thing that ever worked was when my husband shook her favorite toy rattle in front of her face the entire mealtime. Helpful? Sure...but impractical, especially when you’re slinging bottles solo and don’t have any extra hands.
The Prototype Phase - 2021
My relentless research helped me realize this "distracted eating" phase was an very common stage of newborn development, so I assumed there would be dozens of products to help us get back on track. But, after countless frantic and fruitless internet searches left me shocked to find there wasn’t a single product to help frustrated families with distracted babies, I decided to go ahead and make one myself. The process gave me something I didn’t realize I needed — a sense of control, focus, and creativity that helped quiet my anxiety while solving the problem that caused it.
An unexpected bonus of the design became a wonderful discovery of enrichment. Since the toy attached directly to any baby bottle and on average sits between 8–10 inches away from the baby’s face (the perfect distance for infant vision), it ended up being an amazing tool for my daughter’s eye strength and tracking development. We also quickly saw how keen she was to grab, touch, and stretch the monster arms and head as well, turning my little invention into an excellent source of early fine motor skills development too.
Introducing the Friendzies - 2024
After almost 4 years of hard work, bootstrapping and determination, Feeding Friendzies has become that simple, affordable, and actually useful solution I would have done anything to have available to me when going through my daughter’s bottle refusal distracted phase.
We are the only product made specifically to help focus distracted babies and the only sensory development toy that attaches directly to baby’s bottle.
A one-of-a-kind newborn essential that is helping new parents everywhere enjoy calm, focused and actually fun feeding again.
Thank you for checking us out – I hope our little monsters bring some smiles back to bottle-feeding with your little monster.