Bottle-Feeding: What Every Mom Needs to Know

I am Amber gi, I-B-C-L-C, and empowering moms in their breastfeeding journey is what I do. Breastfeeding comes with a lot of opinions. Your doctor, your mother-in-law, that random lady at the park, and it can leave you feeling like you're constantly second guessing yourself. That's why I created the Latch Lounge Podcast, to cut through the noise and give you real judgment free, no BS advice that actually helps whether you're nursing, pumping, or combo feeding.

So let's jump right in with that. What is the ideal shape of a bottle if you have? And have been on the internet, you have likely been inundated with many different styles and types of bottle nipples, and you are probably feeling a bit confused and overwhelmed. They definitely make it a little bit tricky to navigate what is the best bottle for babies in general, but especially for what is the best bottle for a breastfed baby?

We want to think about the nipple shape. That is a big, big factor in terms of how a baby is going to interact with a bottle and what is going to be useful or problematic. When it comes to nipple shape on bottles, we do not want a bottle nipple to look like a breast. And that might sound a little bit confusing 'cause you're probably like, wait, don't we want it to be breast?

Like no, we don't. We want it to be a good bottle for a breastfed baby. Which are two totally different things. Bottles that are shaped like a breast typically are going to encourage baby to be very shallow on the nipple. When we're thinking of bottle nipples, we want bottled nipples that pass the triangle test.

Even if it's a flexible, nipple. Like if the, the texture of the material that the nipple is made out of, even if that is flexible and stretchy, most likely baby is not going to be able to latch onto that. So we want a nipple that looks something like the Dr. Brown's standard nipple, something like that.

Keeping in mind that triangle test, whatever brand is working good for your baby is totally fine. When I have moms ask me, what brand do I like? Dr. Brown's is an OG brand. It's working well. It's been working. Most babies do well with that one. That's a fail safe in most cases. It's not gonna work for every baby, but it's a brand that I really like.

I'll link in the, show notes below. I'll link to the one that I like. I really like the Dr. Browns that isn't a, that has a glass bottle to accompany it. That's my favorite. If anyone were to ask, that is my best, my best recommendation. There are several brands out there, which I'm definitely not going to, call out by their names, but many who want to look very much like a breast.

And when I use the Dr. Brown's bottle, then my baby is having a hard time and there's milk leaking outta the side and all this stuff. So what does that mean? Why is, why is the breast shaped bottle working well for baby and the other bottle's not Well, the short answer is in most cases, when we have the bottle that is very breast shaped.

And has a very wide base. A lot of times it's easier for us to push that squishy wide base up against baby's mouth and kind of make that seal for them. Where when we have a bottle that's more like the Dr. Brown's bottle, they have to really latch effectively and deeply onto the bottle in order to get the milk out.

Like I said, I do like Dr. Brown's, but that's not the, be all in end all. Keeping in mind that triangle, test. Go ahead and try out a few different bottles and see what works for you and your baby.

The next thing is flow rate. So I have a lot of moms come to me and they ask about the rate of flow for the nipple.

Should they be using a six month flow rate for a six month old baby, or should they be using a preemie one the whole time? And I just wanna say first and foremost, there is no like regulating body. There's no. Standard when it comes to the flow rate of a nipple and a zero to three month nipple from Brand A may be completely different.

If you look at its strip rate than a, zero to three month or whatever, a similar equivalent nipple from another brand. So we wanna be really sure that we are just evaluating how well our own child is doing with. The nipple flow rate that we have. We definitely don't need to be like using a specific nipple based on their age.

So it's. Really, really important to make sure that you've got a good care team when it comes to making decisions around the flow rate and nipple type and bottle type and all of that good stuff. I almost wanted to open with this next bit because.

It's such a important, such an important thing. But it's not talked about often and it's kind of a bit of a hot take, I would say. So I'm just gonna get right into that. And that is paste, bottle feeding is kind of a waste of time. So I know you're probably like, wait, everyone says to do that. All IB CLCs say pace bottle feeding is important.

Feeding a baby with a flow rate that's too fast, feeding a baby in a weird position, all those things are gonna contribute to problems. In theory, they can definitely contribute to problems, but at face value paste, bottle feeding is not something that we necessarily need to do. If it's something that you like doing and you feel your baby responds well to, by all means do pace of feeding, but.

It's very important to me as a practitioner to share evidence-based information and there's just not the evidence there to compel me to tell clients to do pace feeding. Also, across time, I've been in I-B-C-L-C for well over five years. I've worked with moms and lactation space for almost a decade. I have seen time and time again, especially early on in my career, I.

I would tell a new mom, tell a new family, Hey, we wanna do paste feeding. We wanna do this. And we'd follow up on it. And they're like, yeah, that's fricking impossible. Like when grandma's feeding them, she does not understand to sit baby upright. She doesn't understand the up and down with the bottle, and it's just, it's not necessarily feasible for a lot of families.

And we definitely don't want a baby who's sitting with like a hunched back in our lap that we're trying to feed going up and down, up and down. That's just not gonna be optimal for their, digestive system. So rather than paced feeding, I definitely do not suggest that you just pop that bottle in there and let him go to town.

I am a big fan of what is called responsive bottle feeding. That is not the same as pace feeding. It can be used in tandem with pace feeding, but it's really just about that first five to 20 seconds of introducing the nipple of the bottle into baby's mouth. And when we're introducing that nipple into baby's mouth, we want to be doing so in a way that allows baby to just suckle, suckle, suckle on a nipple with no milk flowing.

So let's talk about when is the best time to introduce a bottle? Every mom that I talk with who is interested in using a bottle at some point.

Always has that question, when is the best time? Can I wait too long? Is there, a downside to starting it too soon? And there really is no clear cut answer to any of those questions. It's not a yes or a no to any of those questions because what really is going to determine when, how if to introduce a bottle is going to be what are your goals?

Like what are your specific breastfeeding goals? What are your goals with using a bottle? What are your goals with pumping? And then we're gonna work backward from there. So. Can you introduce a bottle too soon? The only way that there's a yes to that is if your goal is to not introduce a bottle and then you did, then that's a problem because you didn't want to do something that you ended up doing.

So if your goal is to have dad do bottles at night because you need some sleep or because you wanna do a dance class or whatever, you want dad to give a bottle once a day or however many times a day. That's completely fine and that can be conducive with your breastfeeding goals. I do wanna say just as like a general recommendation, if we are ever skipping a time, like if baby's getting a bottle, a bottle of pumped milk or formula, we wanna make sure that at that time that they were receiving that pumped milk or formula that we don't.

Skip that time of stimulation for a breast. So if we typically breastfe a baby, we'd wanna pump. If we are pumping, we'd wanna pump. We don't ever wanna like give baby a bottle and just assume that that puts our boobs off duty. Like they're, they're not, they need the stimulation If our goal is to be able to provide enough, milk for them that they need throughout a day.

I think a lot of IB TLCs, are just absolutely flabbergasted when a mom tells them that they want their dad, that they want the dad. The husband to feed, the baby a bottle, and they're like, oh no. There's so many other ways to bond with the baby. That's very true. There are plenty of other ways for your partner to bond with your baby without them feeding the baby a bottle.

But if for you, your husband, feeding your baby a bottle is an important goal, that's totally workable and doable within your breastfeeding journey. So. With all of that said, bottles can be a really useful part of a breastfeeding and feeding journey. Obviously for babies, there are, a lot of considerations when it comes to picking the brand, the style, the flow rate, all of these different pieces, when to use them, how to use them, what to do with baby is struggling with the bottle, when to try different one.

I hope you all have a great day.

That's it for today, mama. If this episode helped, don't stop here. Get even more support@thelatchlink.com. Need one-on-one help? Did you know your insurance covers free lactation care? If you have Aetna Anthem, Cigna, blue Cross Blue Shield, or UHC, you can get free virtual lactation care right from the comfort of your home.

Until next time, trust yourself, trust your baby, and know you are doing an amazing job.