Is it possible to overfeed a bottle fed baby?

This page belongs to collection of short articles and videos in plain language, called When baby cries a lot in the first few months of life. Together, these articles and videos will give you a brief and simple summary of the Possums 5-domain approach to the crying baby. For comprehensive information on this topic, please consider reading The discontented little baby book.

What is meant by conditioned dialling up with the bottle?

Conditioned dialling up at the bottle is a common but distressing problem. By ‘conditioned’, this means a habit which has developed over time. By dialling up, I’m referring to the dial on the baby’s sympathetic nervous system.

A baby has a conditioned dialling up at the bottle when they repeatedly begin to fuss, or becomes agitated, either when starting to have a bottle or during the feed. The baby quickly signals...