7 Must-Know Bottle Feeding Tips (Pediatrician's Guide!)

Why is bottle feeding a baby so hard sometimes? We are physician parents of three little ones and with every one of them there have been times during either Breastfeeding or bottle feeding where we said to ourselves. Why is this so hard? Yes Your baby eating is very much a natural thing But it still needs to be learned and can be especially Challenging to balance the skills a baby needs to feed from a bottle if they're also breastfeeding Which is why we are going to share with you this week the tips and tricks we use to paste Bottle feed our babies We will explain just what paste bottle feeding is and then the seven key things you should be thinking about when feeding your baby Yes, and if this is your first time meeting us, I'm Kurt. I'm a board-certified pediatrician. I'm Sarah. I'm a board-certified OBGYN And we are the doctors Bjorkman Welcome back again this week is all about paste bottle feeding Which is especially important for us right now as I have gone back to work and now need our newest baby Hank to be able To directly breastfeed when I'm home, but then also bottle feed when I'm away Yes There have been a little points where we've had to troubleshoot this process with each of our children now Which is why having a quick list of what to do and what not to do is so helpful Absolutely There is so much that goes into your baby being able to actually form a latch around a nipple and then effectively suck and swallow Yes And so before we dive in know that sometimes it takes a little time and a little patience to for babies to really get this Down if you're struggling and especially if there are problems with your baby gaining weight, please Please talk to your pediatrician and maybe also a pediatric occupational or speech therapist who can help you and your baby learn together For those of you who are also having struggles, please know that you aren't alone We will share some of our own challenges in our IRL segment at the end of this video So what is paste bottle feeding? Anyway, it is certainly not a term. I was familiar with before having kiddos So paste bottle feeding is a method of feeding your baby that mimics breastfeeding as the name suggests it involves Pacing or kind of slowing your baby a little bit Those feedings which help baby work like they do at the breast as well as help them recognize feelings of fullness Baby is gonna eat more slowly and work harder to get the milk like they would with breastfeeding as opposed to typical Bottle feeding. Yeah Now this process is not only important for those who are both direct breastfeeding and bottle feeding like we've done for our children But it's also really important for those who are exclusively bottle feeding in bottle fed babies Fast feeds from bottles with that have more milk in the bottle than baby needs in general It's a way that baby can pretty easily get more feed than they need to because you miss some of those I'm full cues in that situation Now like why is this important as it turns out? there's multiple studies that have shown that when infants are overweight in the first year of life and Especially when there's a rapid rate of weight gain in that first year of life. They have increased rates of childhood obesity Childhood obesity is of course a huge issue that is increasing rapidly worldwide for many reasons And it is so so important for the long-term health of your child Please understand. This is not saying that you should underfeed your baby as a as a way to avoid this It is just one of those things when you go for your babies Well visits every time you're gonna have a conversation about weight and weight gain. So talk to your pre pediatrician It's a great check-in on how your baby is doing And we've actually done a video all about how to know if your baby's getting enough To eat and how much they should be eating in general too, so you can check that out here Let's get into the actual do's and don'ts of paste bottle feeding and help make it simple We have seven P's that we're gonna share one to start three to do and three to avoid Starting out. The first P is to pause getting set up is key so take a moment to make sure that you have all of the things that you will need a Comfy and supportive chair or someplace to sit clean bottles with a slow flow Infant nipple to start and milk warm to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit or roughly body temperature Being calm is also an important part of this pause step your baby cues so much off of you and your mood So as best as you can in that moment, make sure you are calm for this, too And believe me I have been there with a fussy baby either in the middle of the night or in the evening at witching hour Before Sarah gets home from a late night in the operating room where the other kids are running around and being calm is anything But natural but you can do this deep breaths and calm thoughts Onto the three P's to do position paste and parallel Baby's position and position of whoever is feeding them is so important You know again your goal here is for it to take about as long as it normally takes for a breastfeeding session So 10 to 20 minutes, so get comfy with good posture Make sure baby is sitting upright or at least at an upright angle There's both can help make sure that milk naturally gets to where it needs to go But also helps them protect their airway from things like reflux or aspiration during that feeding Next is pace Again, the goal with bottle feeding is to mimic the rhythm of breastfeeding as much as possible with a new baby You want to have a slow flow infant nipple on the bottle so they aren't overwhelmed by a fast flow Take little breaks and even switch sides halfway through a feed Bottle feeding isn't never a race and keeping things steady and Relaxed can encourage baby from guzzling a bottle and also limit the risk of nipple confusion or preference Yeah Now as you're starting that feed allow baby to draw that nipple into their mouth rather than pushing that nipple into their mouth No Baby is controlling the beginning of the feed this way you can even try stroking baby's lips from top to bottom or at the corner of their mouth to help elicit a rooting response for Them to open their mouth and then allowing that baby to accept the nipple rather than actually poking it in The third P to do is parallel This is all about bottle position being parallel to the ground Hold the bottle in such a way that the nipple is just filled with milk This allows baby to do the work of pulling that milk out of the bottle But also be sure that the nipple remains filled with milk to keep them from sucking in air Which could lead them to extra burping gas and fussiness. And now the three P's to avoid pouring propping and pressure The first P to avoid is poor as we've already covered you don't want that milk to be pouring into baby's mouth So try to keep that bottle as close to level as possible. Also again keeping that nipple of the bottle just full Fast flow from milk pouring into baby's mouth keeps them from doing that little bit of natural work That it usually takes for them to breastfeed. They should be doing some work here This helps them keep their breastfeeding skills while also helping them set their own pace to avoid overfeeding Yeah The second P to avoid is propping don't prop bottle for feeding now There are definitely times where you will feel like it would be so great if the baby could just feed themselves from a prop bottle But this also leads and often leads to overfeeding feeding too fast and can be an easy setup for choking or gagging And the final P to avoid is pressure as we kind of started this out talking about that pause Ideally feeding times are relaxing times for you with your baby for you guys to bond and enjoy This most certainly won't always be the case every time especially as everyone is learning and so sometimes you need to troubleshoot is the milk warm enough is Just baby have a wet diaper. It's baby fussy because they're tired Sometimes you just need to Walk away take a break for you and baby and come back and try again No pressure. Absolutely kind of some of the worst things you can do in like learning these skills is to force a feeding so Give a little break Try to relax and don't pressure baby So as I mentioned we've done this with three babies now and each one of them has given us their own little curveball or challenge When it's come to bottle feeding and the challenges of something that seems like it should be so natural Totally and it's been different every time these I mean we started her on a bottle very early It was like week one even breastfeeding was tough not going well And so what we'd share was pumping and I'd be feeding a really fussy hungry grumpy Angry, baby in the middle of the night getting like extra feeds in for the total day Well, you were still working on building that breastfeeding relationship and there was so much thought that went to like, hey How do we avoid nipple confusion? How do we help encourage breastfeeding rather than have the bottle take away from it? There was like lots of like just even think about that much. Yeah Absolutely, oh and like even thinking about the nipple choice of the One thing just like well, I'm thinking about like the question like what's the best involved but usually we've been through we've got some examples The bottle is so important actually if if you are breastfeeding as well So as we kind of talked about Pace bottle feedings a great idea if you are giving your baby formula or if you are giving your baby breast milk it's really critical for breastfed babies who you want to continue that direct breastfeeding relationship though because Nipple shape really matters like the thing lactation consultants love are these nipple shapes that are kind of like a triangle That's the cork bottle. This is a cork. This is a pig and that's what we're using now This is what we use for C's you can see one doesn't quite Look like a nipple. She loved it. She did totally fine We use this with Bo too, and he really developed The bottle preference I ended up pumping a lot for him. Um, Hank has been his own flavor of having issues with the bottle It turns out he you just pick here like he's got he's got a higher refined taste It's so funny that the first two like we're pretty quickly like fine with cold fridge temperature No, yeah, you don't actually have to warm bottles Unless they're super small and they're like cold milk might lower their core body temperature Which they have to be a pretty little baby for that to be an issue Most of them is just like a preference thing like does the cold shock them? So I pretty quickly was like, you know Let's slowly make each bottle a little bit colder until they're happy with it straight on the fridge Hank is not made that process yet. He's like very much like no, I would like my milk to be 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, please Yeah, the first one with a little milk warmer for the baby sitter Yeah, so it's like we hadn't done for our first two But now again the little things that like when you're getting feedback from your baby, they're like hey I'm not enjoying this experience Think through it like is it something about the nipple even like the the flow rate of like? Hey, is it that you've got too slow of a nipple? Yeah, you've got a preemie nipple on it It's just like so much work for them to get out and they're angry with that Yeah, or is it that it's so fast and they're like they're choking on it. You can like tell they're like, oh I don't want this yeah, like if your baby's doing tongue thrusting or like other like Motions like they're trying to get away from it. Have it be a big Q of a K There's something about this experience in this moment. That baby's not thrilled with how we're feeding. Yep Other things old milk pink didn't like old milk I have really high lipase milk and it turns pretty quick There's nothing wrong with it. It is fine milk to give It just changes the flavor a little bit it changes the flavor a little bit and so Hanks like I need Fresh warm milk if it's from the tap, that is his favorite But if it is not that stuff better be fresh and warm So yeah, and so like these are little things like if you're working through this to like, you know He's had some frozen milk already to like hey, how do we get him used to it? And some of it is just like a little process like hey If it's a shock to the system something totally different than what they're used to Of course, they're gonna be like, hey, what are you doing? This is not my regular order. Yeah, Bo also like Bo did weekly occupational therapy like myofunctional therapy for his tongue and like tethered oral tissues and To help him get better at a bottle and better breastfeeding. He was just kind of He had lots of little issues. And so I think like let's be like kind of lazy And so he'd eat just enough till his tummy was full, but then he was never Whereas like cease was like I will eat and tell The cows come home like just like would never stop feeding you better And so some of this is no matter what issue you're going through like, you know You're in the right spot to hopefully get some information with this video But also talk to your pediatrician say hey, is there a speech therapist an occupational therapist that can help me work through some of these issues? Sometimes early just an experienced mom or someone else is like, oh like I see what you're doing I try this little thing having someone to watch how you feed can sometimes be a huge help Yeah, so that's the key things to know about paste bottle feeding and really some great points of this in bottle feeding in this manner It gives some real true benefits Yeah Your infant will consume a volume that is appropriate to their size and age rather than over or under eating This can support the working and pumping mom who then has an increased likelihood of pumping a daily volume Equivalent to baby's demand. Yep It can also help minimize colic like symptoms in those babies whose stomach is Distended and overfed or like if they're getting a much air from feeds to it also supports the breastfeeding relationship Hopefully leading to longer durations and increased success At breastfeeding particularly for moms who are separated from their little babes either intermittently or recurrently Yeah, so whether you're breastfeeding or exclusively bottle feeding we hope this episode is really helpful to you We've got a bunch of episodes about like milk storage guides and how to feed your newborn and how much they need to eat check Those out as well. Make sure you subscribe and see us back next week for more content about Pregnancy newborn care and parenting in general. See you next week. Bye guys We're doctors, but not your doctors anything. We've said in this video is for education or entertainment purposes It is not medical advice any specific medical questions. You have should be directed to your provider