Useful things to know if you bottle feed your 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.

Here’s an overview of useful things to know about bottle feeding your baby.

• Babies take the milk they need, but the amount can vary from feed to feed, sometimes very little, other times a lot! It’s important not to feel you have to empty the bottle when your baby feeds, even though that might mean wasting some expressed breast milk or formula.

• If your baby is fussing and back arching with the bottle, this is a sign that your baby needs to stop. It doesn’t mean your baby has tummy pain, gas, or a medical condition like reflux, allergy, or lactose problems. You can always try again later.

• Try offering the bottle frequently and flexibly to keep your baby dialled down, instead of spacing feeds out. Offering flexibly means at any time and place that works for you and your baby. This is a way to make the days manageable, regardless of whether the bottle contains expressed breast milk or formula.

Acknowledgements

This page on bottle feeding was co-written with Renee Keogh RN IBCLC, Founding NDC Educator.

I'm grateful to Professor Sophie Havighurst, Ros June, and Caroline Ma at Mindful, The University of Melbourne, for their feedback on the articles and videos in When baby cries a lot in the first few months of life. They helped me keep the language plain and the concepts as accessible as possible, for this brief and simple version of the Possums 5-domain approach to the crying baby.

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