Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennie Albano.
Jennie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
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. 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.
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.
After almost 4 years of hard work, bootstrapping and determination, I launched Feeding Friendzies in late 2024 and it 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 and distracted phase.
It is currently the only product made specifically to help focus distracted babies and the only sensory development toy that attaches directly to baby’s bottle.
I now run the business (by myself) out of my home in Austin and Feeding Friendzies are for sale on my own DTC site: feedingfriendzies.shop, on Amazon, TikTok Shop and in a few selective baby boutiques like Enlightened Baby downtown Austin.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I started this with my little invention that I hot glued together from plastic parts for my own daughter and decided to make it a reality after I was laid off from my job of 2 years at Indeed early last year. I didn’t know anything about silicone manufacturing or baby products, or website design or running a small business. But, I was a television producer for 22 years and had honed some really sharp skills doing that job that made me an expert at research, organization and problem solving. So, I approached this like I did every creative project in the past – with laser focus, intense determination and a desire to create something out of nothing that could entertain (and hopefully help) lots of other families.
It took almost a full year, but along the way I did become an expert in silicone, industrial design for silicone products, manufacturing of silicone baby products, e-commerce websites, DTC brand building, social media, logistics, digital marketing, small business finance, you name it! I now wear all the hats and while this is the hardest I have ever worked on something in my whole life, it is also the most rewarding.
There are many struggles when you bootstrap a small, single product business by yourself – but since it is all up to you whether it succeeds or fails, perseverance becomes another skill that you have to cultivate and embrace.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Feeding Friendzies?
I invented the first and only product made to directly address distracted feeding and bottle refusal in bottle-fed babies. It is also the only sensory toy that attaches directly to any size or brand of baby bottle that also helps strengthen newborn vision (tracking, depth perception) and fine motor skills (reaching, grasping, pulling).
I am most proud to be a mom-led brand with the sole mission to bring joyful, calm and fuss-free feedings that promote better bonding and sensory development to all families who bottle-feed (and the breastfeeding families who often need to supplement with bottles).
When we were struggling through my daughter’s bottle refusal phase, it was yet another anxiety-triggering daily stress on top of the myriad stresses that I was going through as a first time mom. But, once I had my little prototype that magically got us back on track and made every bottle-feeding session actually fun instead of exhausting and nerve-wracking, I realized something wonderful – if I could help reduce that same stress for other new parents while building a legacy for myself and my daughter, that would be such a worthwhile way to spend my time and energy.
I would love for your readers to learn my story and whether they have a baby or not, perhaps it might inspire others to believe in their own ideas and make their own solutions to problems they see in every day life. Taking that control back in my own life had a ripple effect of positive change that I think everyone can benefit from.
When you create something totally new, it comes with a lot of challenges and requires a high degree of customer education, so any amount of awareness is amazing for my company and my brand.
What are your plans for the future?
I just launched a completely revamped website (that I also built myself) which has a much better visual experience and customer flow, so I’m really excited for people to interact with it and discover my product through this new site. In the next couple of weeks I am also launching the fully redesigned packaging for my product which will really help with my new push to expand my retail presence. With the first real holiday season since I started my company approaching, I am working on a targeted PR campaign to be included in several high profile holiday gift guides along with some press mentions and features and working on growing my own organic social channels.
I have several other versions of the product (new colors and characters) in development that I hope to roll out next year too!
Pricing:
- $17.99 – single Feeding Friendzies
- $44.99 – discounted 3-pack bundle of all 3 colors
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.feedingfriendzies.shop
- Instagram: @feedingfriendzies_shop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/feedingfriendzies.shop/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/103199390/
- Other: @feedingfriendizes – TikTok
