How to Feed Baby Through Bottle Perfectly

How to feed baby through bottle perfectly especially newborns has always been a concern to parents especially new parents. The essence of bottle feeding cannot be overemphasized because of your baby’s health and sometimes the relief it gives to mothers.

We need you to understand that if bottle feeding is not handled properly, it could lead to colic, diarrhea or other harmful infections that could affects your baby’s health negatively. Which is why we are bringing this epistle to further educate parents on the do’s and don’t of bottle feeding.

Welcome to today’s epistle, we’re so sorry that we haven’t posted any epistle for a while now given that we recently welcomed the newest member of our family. Trust me, during my postpartum break I was busy taking care of baby and gathering new ideas for our next stage.

please, stay tune as we will be dipping down into how to bottle feed your baby properly to avoid early hospitalization. In this epistle bottle feeding means feeding your baby through the bottle which includes formula and breastmilk.

2.0 How to choose a good feeding bottle for your baby

1. Go for a bottle whose nipple is soft and close to the natural breast nipple (in terms of tenderness)
2. Choose a feeding bottle that has a good nipple that is anti-colic to prevent your baby from sucking in excess air into he/her stomach
3. Choose a bottle that is transparent and easy to clean

Read also: Baby puree butternut squash recipe

3.0 When to introduce bottle feeding to your baby

New parents as well as some old ones are often concerned about the right time to introduce bottle feeding to their newborns.

For parents that aren’t interested in breast feeding directing at any point in time, they could start bottle feeding immediately but if you are breast feeding your baby directly and wants to introduce bottle to him/her, it is recommended to wait between two to four (2-4) weeks to establish your milk supply.

Also, have it in mind that waiting for a longer time frame before introducing bottle to your baby might end up making your baby to be straggly in accepting bottle feeding because he/she is already used to breast feeding directly from the breast.

As a mother of two and an experienced person who have dealt with many nursing mothers, I know that situations might varies especially in cases were the mother’s breast milk isn’t flowing well during the first couple of days, if  she doesn’t wants to feed the baby directly from her breast  or she doesn’t want to feed the baby with breast milk except formula in either cases, bottle feeding could be stared immediately which I believe wouldn’t pose any negativity to the baby if done properly.

When I had my first baby, I started bottle feeding him at two weeks while I started bottle feeding my second baby 2 days given that my milk supply wasn’t flowing so well but I ensured that I pumped it using breast pump or put her on my nipples for about 5 to 10mins before bottle feeding her which I believed helped in boosting my milk supply and also make her to know the difference between natural and artificial nipple.

However, before deciding on what to choose for your baby always speak with your baby’s pediatrician or nutritionist before introducing bottle feeding or any new thing to your baby.

Read also: Banana recipe

4.0 Best bottle-feeding positions to try with your baby        :

Always remember to support your baby’s head and hold her in a semi-upright position as if you are breast feeding her.

These feeding positions could be used irrespective of whether you are feeding your baby with formula or bottle breast milk.

• Lean the bottle: Ensure to lean the bottle so that the milk covers the nipple of the bottle to limit the quantity of air that goes into the baby’s stomach. That would serve your baby’s stomach from blurting with gas which might cause colic.
• Sit her/him up: sit your baby in an upright position on your lap and let her/her head be on your arm or chest
• Use a pillow: instead of using your arm to support your baby’s head, you could as well put her head on a pillow to give her that elevated support while feeding but never leave your baby unattended to while eating.
• Lapping: the good thing about this position is that it allows you and your baby to face one another. This works well either when you are lying and your back is on the bed or coach, with your legs propping up

5.0 Ways to know that your baby is hungry

As a rule of thumb, it’s good to attain to your baby immediately she shows signs of hunger and not wait for her to cry out her eyes. This would help her to suck comfortably and not be jerking as a result of a long cry. The way she communicates her hunger could include:

1. Sucking on her tongue or lips
2. Might cry with a familiar tune
3. Opening her mouth
4. Smacking her lips
5. Sucking her fingers, feet’s or your clothes
6. Putting her mouth against your breast
7. Turning her head around with mouth open

Read also: Toddler Breakfast Ideas: 5 Easy and Simple

6.0 Ways to burp your baby after bottle feeding

Burping your baby is something you do not want to overlook because babies unlike adults needs to be burp in-between and after feeding to help relieve some gas that they might have swallow during the process of feeding. Always do well to cup your hand while patting your baby’s back

Ways to burp your baby include:

1. Place baby on your lap: Ensure that your baby is sited on an upright position, use one of your hands to support her neck and the other one to rub or pat her back gently.
2. On your shoulder: this is my favorite burping position. All you need to do here is to place your baby’s face over your shoulder and carefully rub or pat her back.
3. Lying down: oh yes, you could still do a great job of burping your tiny little one while her tummy is on your lap. For this method, put her face down and tummy down on your lab and rub or pat her back nicely.

7.0 What if my baby refuses bottle feeding?

It’s common for breast fed babies too reject artificial nipples either occasionally, when they see their mum, the nipple is hard or when mum isn’t the one feeding.

1. Some babies are already used and prefer the natural nipple to the artificial
2.  Some only eats from the bottle if their mum isn’t around because they know that mum’s breast is sweet and tender compare to the artificial bottle
3. some babies see their mum to be the only food giver, so they do not take any food from anyone else aside their mums.

Here are some suggestions if you find yourself in any of the above seneros:

In general, it requires patience, continuous practice to encourage the baby to cooperate.

1. In senero 1, reduce the way you breast feed directly, and try someone else to bottle feed the baby while you leave the room and try getting an artificial nipple that is soft and tender as breast nipple
2. In senero 2, try leaving the room couple of times when baby is about to be bottle fed and observe her reaction
3. While in senero 3, try introducing love ones or caregivers to gradually join in feeding baby so he/she would get use to others too

 Read also: Stage 3 Baby Food: Best and Easy

9.0 Pros of bottle feeding your baby

1. It allows you to comfortably share the responsibility of feeding your baby with a trusted person to enable you take some rest or work effectively if you are a working-class mum.
2. It exposes your baby into different ways of feeding especially if you are also breast feeding directly
3. Bottle feeding helps you to comfortably feed your baby outside especially if you find yourself in a public place that do not have nursery.
4. If you are breast feeding, it allows you to empty your breastmilk to give your body the liberty to produce more even when your baby is asleep or not yet ready to feed
5. If you’re breastfeeding, it relieves you of the pains of engrossed milk in the breast when the baby isn’t ready to feed or if you are producing more milk
6. Also, for breast feeding mothers, expressing your breast milk keeps you away from milk stain
7. It helps to keep account of the amount of milk that the baby takes in

10.0 Cons of bottle feeding your baby

1. Your baby could easily be expose to germs if the bottles aren’t sterilized properly
2. Your baby could easily take in air which might cause colic if you do not use the right feeding bottle
3. When heating the baby’s milk, it could easily be overheated, underheated or unevenly heated which might affect the baby if not properly checked before offering it to the baby
4. It can be expensive getting a good bottle and natural nipple

11.0 conclusion

Bottle feeding is a great option for different categories of parents like working class mothers, women who do not like breastfeeding in public, women who do not want to breastfeed either directly or not at all, abducted babies, etc. whatsoever be your case.

The most important thing is ensuring that your precious one is well fed at every point in time. Unlike the breast that does not need serious clean up, but the bottle does to avoid getting bacteria into the baby’s body.