Bottle Feeding
Paced Bottle Feeding
Benefits of Paced Bottle Feeding
☆ Supports your baby to lead their bottle feeding based on their hunger, instincts and energy - important skills for all babies, but especially babies still learning to breastfeed effectively
☆ Slows down bottle feeding - 10-20 minutes is a good goal depending on the age/stage of your baby. If it’s consistently taking much longer than this, we may need to assess why.
☆ Helps prevent overfeeding and reflux/spit-up
☆ Support their oral motor development by having them latch & pull milk as they would from the breast
Demonstration of Paced Bottle Feeding
Other demos you may find helpful:
Latching to the bottle - How to encourage good “latching” on the bottle; also demonstrates alternative positions.
Upright paced bottle feeding - this is usually a better option for babies dealing with reflux, but also good to try if side-lying feels too tricky
You may also want to check out my post on Bottle Skills + Bottle Refusal.
Bottle Volume
Once your baby is about 6-8 weeks, I recommend sticking to 3-5oz and then following baby's lead to understand what they need on average. These volumes also may be different mid-day compared to first AM or last PM feed (sometimes but not always).
Breastfed babies typically take 3-5oz with each feeding for as long as they breastfeed because breastmilk changes nutrition/calorie content over time to meet their needs so the volume doesn't necessarilly need to change. Formula, on the other hand, is static in it's nutritional content so if an older babies requires more calories, then we need to give more. Combo feeders may require a bit of trial and error depending on the proportion of breastmilk to formula.
When we get to talking about giving 6-8+oz we're usually talking about formula, though it must be said that plenty of people get their baby used to taking bottles of 6+ oz of breastmilk but it doesn't mean that is what's ideal for most babies. That said - if that’s where your feeding journey goes, and your baby does well with it - awesome! Considering giving fewer bottles in the day may be the answer to avoid overfeeding, but you’re the expert on your own baby. Consult with your pediatrician to find the sweet spot that supports their healthy growth!
Cheek & Chin Support
If your baby is having trouble staying latched on the bottle - for example, leaking milk from the corners of their mouth, shaking their head trying to latch/re-latch to the bottle, tongue tie, low oral muscle tone, premature birth - this technique can help “brace” their oral structures.
Consider FF to 04:06 for the chin/cheek & pacing demo