Comprehensive Guide to Bottle Feeding

There is a wide range of feeding equipment’s from different brands in market stores but the most popular are baby bottles and teats. Although there are different brands, no brand has been proven to be better than the other and the best thing to do is to try every brand until you get one that suits your baby.

There items are made from food-grade materials and you’ll find them in various shapes and patterns. The idea is to get a bottle with a simple design because it’s easy to clean.

Bottle feeding is typically used when you want to express breast milk in the milk bottles or when you want to feed your baby with infant formula.

How to Feed Your Baby

Support your baby’s head and seat them in an upright posture. This allow your baby to feed easily and swallow comfortably.  The teat must be full of milk, otherwise your baby will swallow air that lead to spit up.

Give your baby some brakes and burp your baby occasionally as this expels the swallowed air that leads to spit up and acid reflux. Your baby may cough while feeding and that’s why you should never leave your baby alone while feeding.

When your baby portrays signs of signs of satisfaction, rub or pat their back while in the sit-up position to rid-off the swallowed air.

For the first week, your baby may require little amount of formula. This may change after one week to between 150 and 200 milliliters which is the standard amount of feed a baby should take per day based on the baby’s weight.

However, newborns tend to feed little but quite often. The good thing is to feed them when they show signs of it. You will know if your angel is hungry if:

1. The baby begins to suck the fingers or anything around

2. The baby starts to move around after waking up

3. The baby starts to move the mouth and head around. They are probably looking for something to suck.

To know if your baby is having sufficient formula, check if your baby is gaining weight. The amount of wet and dirty diapers should change positively per day if your baby is getting sufficient formula.

Your baby may develop a habit of sleeping with the feeding bottle but do not allow that because:

1. Flowing milk may cause tooth decay: Once your baby sleeps, the flowing milk may soak the teeth manifesting as tooth decay.

2. Chocking hazard: if you can be choked by saliva while asleep, imagine what milk would do to your sleeping baby. Because a baby is not alert as you to wake up and counter the sleeping discomfort, reduce the risk by keeping the bottle away.

3. problems: the bottle’s milk may flow into your baby cavity when they sleep on a flat position causing infections to the ear.

Sterilize the Feeding Equipment’s After Feeding

Before sterilizing, clean all the feeding items immediately after a feed with hot and soapy water using a clean bottle brush. After this, rinse them in cold running water then sterilize.

There are three ways to do that:

1.      By use of boiling water: the first thing you’ll need to consider is if the item is safe to boil or not. That’s because items like teat are vulnerable to damage when immersed in hot water.

If the item is safe to boil, immerse in water and boil for up to 10 minutes. Be careful as this method can lead to burns and scalds. Also, make sure the children are not close to the boiling water and hot pans.

By use of steam: with this method, you can use a microwave or electric sterilizer. Place the items to be sterilized with the internal openings facing the sterilizer.

Because there are different ways to sterilize feeding equipment’s like bottles, it is always a good idea to follow manufacturers instructions with regard to how often to sterilize unused items and after how long they should be resterilised.

By use of cold water: immerse the feeding items in the sterilizing solution for up to 30 minutes. The bottles and teats should contain no air when placing them in the solution.

Do not use the same sterilizing solution after 24 hours. Prepare another solution and immerse the items. You can use a floating cover to maintain the items at the bottom of the solution.

The best thing is to follow instructions on the manufacturers label as most brands have a label containing a step-by-step guide on how to sterilize and wash the feeding equipment’s.