Intuitive Bottle Feeding for Breastfed Babies

Summary

Yvonne explains that “nipple confusion” may be better understood as a baby developing a bottle-flow preference. Milk can flow more quickly and with less effort from a bottle—especially when the bottle is held upside down while the baby is lying flat—than from the breast. A baby may then prefer the bottle because it takes less work, which can make breastfeeding more difficult.

She introduces intuitive bottle feeding as a responsive approach that follows a baby’s hunger and fullness cues and may help reduce the chance of developing a bottle-flow preference. The approach can be used whether or not a baby is also breastfed. The subtitles do not capture the spoken details of the demonstration.

Key strategies and points

• Be aware that a fast-flowing bottle can require less effort than breastfeeding.
• Avoid interpreting a baby’s bottle preference as laziness; Yvonne describes it as being “energy efficient.”
• Use a responsive, baby-centered approach that respects the baby’s hunger and fullness cues.
• Intuitive bottle feeding is presented as a way to help protect the breastfeeding relationship, but it can also be used for babies who are not breastfed.

Presenter: Yvonne, newborn care specialist and lactation consultant.