Giving a bottle-feed - birth to 1 year

The first feed

There is no artificial equivalent to colostrum. Even if you're not going to continue to breast-feed you will be giving your baby a great head-start if you put him to the breast in the first days. Don't worry if your baby doesn't gulp down all that's in the bottle. It's perfectly normal for all babies, breast- or bottle-fed, not to take very much in their first 48 hours and they take a while to get into the swing of feeding. Like a breast-fed baby, yours will let you know with a cry when he wants to be fed. Follow your baby's lead and develop the supply and demand system explained in Bottle-feeding patterns, just as for a breast-fed baby.

Giving a bottle-feed

Make sure that you have a quiet, comfortable place to sit and that your arms are well supported with cushions or pillows if necessary (see Breast-feeding positions). Lay your baby in your lap with his head in the crook of your elbow and his back supported along your forearm. Make sure that your baby is not lying horizontally. He should be half-sitting so that breathing and swallowing are safe and easy and there's no risk of choking. Just before you start feeding, test the heat of the milk by letting a couple of drops fall on to the inside of your wrist. The milk should feel neither too hot nor too cold. You should already have tested the flow of milk. Loosen the cap of the bottle very slightly so that air can enter to take the place of the milk that your baby sucks out. If you don't do this quite a lot of negative pressure can build up inside the bottle that will flatten the teat and make sucking very hard work. Your baby will become bad-tempered and angry and refuse the rest of the feed. If this happens, gently pull the bottle out of your baby's mouth so that the air can get in and then continue feeding, as before. To elicit your baby's sucking reflex, so that he takes the bottle, gently stroke the cheek nearest to you. As your baby turns to your touch you can gently insert the teat into his mouth. He should latch on to a fair amount of teat so that the tip is far back into his mouth, like a nipple would be. You should, however, be careful not to push it so far back that he gags on it. Let your baby set the pace of feeding. He might want to pause mid-feed to look around or play with the bottle and he should be allowed this pleasure. From the very beginning make feeding times as pleasant as possible. Face your baby and make eye contact. Don't sit in silence: talk, sing to him, make any kind of sound you like. Just make sure that your voice sounds pleasant, happy and responsive. This is the first conversation that your baby will enjoy, so he will react to your movements, gestures and smiles. Half-way through the feed, change your baby on to the other arm. This will give your baby a new view to look at and your arm a rest; you may also want to wind him at this point.

Dr Miriam Stoppard

New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard

Posted 30.06.2010

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