Every baby is different from the rest, making his or her attitude toward bottle feeding a whole new experience for parents. While most mothers would consider feeding baby a breezy activity, some find it the only solution to keep the little one quiet and relaxed.
There are parents, however, who prolong use of baby bottles as they dread the weightier responsibility of training them to eat and drink from cups. True, using spoon and fork and numerous messy hours with drinking cups can be taunting. But ultimately, parents have to make feeding baby a firm decision as to when and how to train the little one. This allows for the baby’s development to take place at the right time and manner.
Extending the way of feeding baby using a bottle will most likely render unhappier episodes later on. For the little one, she will have difficulty parting with the bottle and milk formula, and be more attached emotionally to sucking from the plastic nipples. Like breastfed babies, they would find comfort and ease with the activity, aside from instinctively knowing they get full when they suckle from the bottles.
Here are the most common problems about bottle feeding:
- Preparing milk formula in bottles is an activity that needs proper care and attention. Unlike breast milk where the baby simply finds comfort in the mother, the bottle-fed baby’s demand for a bottle after another will prove to be very taxing – and expensive! So make sure you know when the baby demands for milk due to hunger, or when she cries simply because she needs comfort. That way, you provide other means of giving her affection and attention, not just the milk;
- Feeding baby too often with the bottle lessens their appetite for other food, and limits their other motor skills development. Also, it decreases time for the baby to learn to talk and communicate. So make sure there is a balance for other activities for the little one that will sure develop their growth, as well as allow them a good taste of other healthy food;
- Most babies who are used to suckling milk from bottle to sleep have worse teeth formation. Apart from that, doing so poses choking incidents as the milk flows uncontrolled and blocks the air passage. Instead of using bottled milk to help babies achieve sleep easily and fast, feed before sleeping time and provide a relaxing atmosphere that will induce sound sleep;
- During weaning, many babies who were refused milk in bottles ended up refusing milk altogether. So instead of immediately pulling off the bottle, schedule feeding baby with cups and with bottles, and help them appreciate the change feeding methods. This way, both you and the little one will find weaning easy and effective.
Read Best tips for bottle feeding for more useful information about bottle feeding your baby,
