Some babies easily accept the bottle when it is offered to them. Other babies need a little more time to accept this new way of feeding. You should always be patient, calm, positive and consistent when it comes to feeding your baby. Some babies may be more willing to take a bottle when they are sleepy or hungry. These are ideal times to introduce the bottle with expressed breast milk for the first time.
Don’t take long breaks from the bottle!
One of the biggest worries for mothers is the change in the way they feed their baby as the return-to-work date approaches. During this period, you may need to give your baby expressed milk from a bottle. It is important to note that once your baby drinks from a bottle, they haven’t acquired this skill indefinitely. This skill needs to be maintained, and the bottle should not be discontinued for long periods (e.g., no bottle feeding for 5-7 days).
Some babies accept the bottle easily every time, even if they rarely use it. However, other babies may refuse the bottle after a period of time, even if they initially accepted it. In these cases, it is necessary to remind them of the bottle. The flow-adjusted feeding technique for infant feeding is effective in maintaining this familiarity. Feeding the baby with a bottle about three to four times a week, one day at a time, should be enough to maintain this familiarity. If you do not need to bottle-feed your baby all the time, feeding your baby with 30 ml of milk is sufficient to keep the familiarity with the bottle alive.
In infant feeding, the fact that the milk flow can be controlled by the baby prevents the baby from overfeeding.
When bottle feeding begins, the mother should not be the one to introduce the baby to the bottle. The father, other family members and caregivers should start introducing the bottle to the baby by making close physical contact with the baby, changing position and communicating with the baby. If there is no problem with the mother breastfeeding her baby, the mother should breastfeed her baby when she is with her baby, and when she is away from her baby, expressed breast milk should be given to the baby with a bottle by someone else.
Remember, choosing the right products for baby feeding helps babies to breastfeed for longer. Care should be taken to choose bottles that support the natural sucking motion that babies practice at the mother’s breast, so that the baby can continue to suck when they come together with their mother.
You should learn and practice positions that are suitable for infant feeding, where you can control the flow of milk from the bottle. The flow-adjusted feeding technique is one of these techniques.
Flow regulated feeding technique;
- Your baby should be bottle-fed sitting slightly upright with his/her head up.
- The nipple of the bottle should be filled with milk and parallel to the floor.
- This allows your baby to control the flow better and prevents the mouth from filling up with too much milk and getting blocked.
- “In the standard bottle feeding position, where the baby is lying down and the bottle is perpendicular to the floor, the milk in the bottle will flow quickly and easily into your baby’s mouth due to the effect of gravity, and your baby will have to drink faster to adapt to this speed. Holding your baby more upright will help your baby control the flow of milk.
- If your baby stops to rest or take a deep breath, then you should take the bottle out of the baby’s mouth and talk to him or her or take a break from bottle feeding for a while.
This technique is critical for infant feeding. This way, your baby will not be overfed and you will minimize problems such as gas and vomiting.
If your baby is in a good mood about 5 minutes after you start feeding or after drinking an average of 30 ml of milk, there is no need to take the bottle away from him/her. Wait for a natural pause to take the bottle from him/her and make eye contact with him/her. Remind your caregiver or the person feeding the baby to never put the bottle upside down in the baby’s mouth. This can cause the baby to inhale or choke on the milk. You need to interact with your baby physically and socially when you feed him/her.