Responsive bottle-feeding

There could be barriers to responsive feeding in bottle-fed babies – such as caregivers encouraging baby to finish the whole bottle and avoid wastage, rather than recognising the signs that baby has had enough and is full.

It should be noted that the feeding tables on packaging are based on average requirements and should only be treated as a rough guide. Responsive feeding helps determine how much milk baby needs and when they are full.

It has been shown that breastfed babies have a reduced risk of developing overweight or obesity in later life – and that infants fed breast milk from a bottle gain significantly more weight in the first year of life.⁶

The concept of responsive feeding has been integrated into UNICEF’s guidelines for bottle-feeding infants and is recognised by the NHS and World Health Organization (WHO).

Tips for bottle-feeding:

• Try and make sure only mum, her partner or another close family member feeds baby in the early weeks to help establish a strong emotional bond.
• Try to set a routine and expectations, but prepare to be flexible – baby will let the caregiver know when they’re hungry.
• Try to find a comfortable and regular environment for feeding, ensuring both caregiver and baby are comfortable and close in a slightly upright position with minimal distractions.
• When baby starts to show signs of hunger, the caregiver should offer a feed. The best way to offer baby a feed is to make sure both caregiver and baby are comfortable, make eye contact and the caregiver talks gently.
• The caregiver should gently rub the teat over baby’s top lip – this should encourage them to open their mouth. When baby is feeding, the caregiver should keep eye contact and look out for fullness cues.
• If there’s any feed left over, the caregiver should throw it away.