Breastfeeding is the best for the baby as mother’s milk not only provides nourishment but also helps in building up immunities, protecting baby against infections. But sometimes parents have to bottle-feed baby either due to less formation of mother’s milk or due to some other reason. So, they must follow some advice while bottle-feeding baby.
While you are bottle-feeding baby, hold your baby close to yourself just like you would have held her or him while breastfeeding.
- Get the baby in contact with yourself physically, as this is the time when you will be able to make a new relationship and bond with her or him. In fact, hold the child close to your bare skin.
- Try to keep the head of the baby higher than the rest of the body in upright position as sideways or backward position may make swallowing difficult. Some babies are in the habit of moving their head sideways while feeding. Take note of that and bring them back to position.
- Always check the temperature of the milk before feeding baby. You can check it by letting few drops of milk fall on your inner wrist. You can warm or cool the milk accordingly before feeding the baby.
- When the baby has taken half the feed, give a pause and make him/her burp. You can switch your arms after each feed.
- If your baby is making noisy sucking sounds it means he or she is taking too much of air. You can minimize swallowing of air by tilting the bottle so that nipple is full of milk.
- Before bottle feeding always check the nipple hole. If milk is flowing instead of dripping then the hole is too big and if it’s not dropping and baby is trying too hard to suck then the hole is too small. You can pierce the nipple with the red hot needle.
- Don’t make baby finish whole bottle, never force them. They know when they are full.
- Never touch the nipple with your hands. This leads to germs moving from the hand to the nipple and then to the baby.
- If during the feed you have to put aside bottle then cover it with the lid provided along with bottle. Don’t leave bottle uncovered.
