Paced Feeding
Hello hello! This is a video all about paced bottle feeding. This is a super helpful way of feeding a baby when they’re exclusively bottle-fed, and a SUPER important concept for those who are planning on bodyfeeding because in the case you need to give a bottle, paced bottle feeding is key!
So, the idea behind pacing a feeding is that we often feed babies way too fast when it comes from a bottle. We tip the bottle all the way back and let them chug. Now, I do love a good chug every now and then, however being an adult in charge of the bottle, I can always put the bottle down and take a breather whenever I need to, and unfortunately babies don’t really have that choice. Other than sputtering and coughing and choking, they can’t do too much to let us know how it’s going, and sometimes we forget what it feels like to chug an entire litre bottle of smirnoff ice because it’s been a while. Oh, that’s just me. Anyway.
So slowing down a bottle feed just makes sense, and you can find the paced video down below. I’ve included some screenshots here however to get over some important points.
Before I get into that, I know this definitely makes sense for bottle-fed babies because chugging 8L of smirnoff ice a day can obviously lead to some serious spit-ups and tummy issues, but this is also really important for bodyfed babies. If your goal is to bodyfeed, sometimes using bottles happens. Sometimes the pain and discomfort is too much so we use bottles while we heal, sometimes we have to be physically separated from the baby and of course they need to eat, and sometimes we’re recommended to give top-ups because baby’s weight gain isn’t where our care providers want it to be. And for sure there are other scenarios where a bottle comes into play before bodyfeeding is well-established, but whatever the scenario, the goal is to make a bottle less desirable than a body. I see a lot of nipple preference, not nipple confusion, in the sense that if a baby can feed fast, warm milk with zero effort from a bottle all snuggly, why go back to the body where maybe it’s more challenging, less flow, slower, etc. Paced feeding makes it so that bottle feeding is not an easy, desirable experience with the hope that baby will go back to the body to feed full-time as soon as possible. And maybe you’d still like to give a bottle once a day, that’s all fine, but this is specifically for babies who aren’t on the body, can’t be on the body, have difficulty on the body, or aren’t getting all they need from the body.
So, here is a photo of a baby being waterboarded. And here is a photo of paced feeding. First thing I want you to notice is how being baby is being held. Our non-paced baby is lying reclined, bottle full force downwards and paced feeding baby is upright. The second thing I want you to notice is how much milk is in the nipple. Our non-paced baby has a full nipple of milk, and our paced baby has zero milk in the nipple, absolutely none. Nothing. The baby is sucking on air. They suck suck get nothing, and then now in the next picture, both babies are getting a big glug. So with the non-paced baby, they are glug glug glug glugging and the paced-baby is suck suck suck sucking drinking drinking suck suck suck sucking drinking drinking suck suck suck sucking. This gives the baby tons of time to drink and let what they’ve already had settle and is a very good practice like at the breast where they have to suck to stimulate a letdown.
I also personally like to have the baby in a diaper with no skin-to-skin so they’re super awake, and again bodyfeeding becomes more desirable because they get to be warm and snuggly and skin-to-skin, and I also do cold milk, again because warm milk is sooo nice and it’s great that it comes from the body.
Check out the full video of paced feeding below, and of course, let me know if you have any questions!
Hello hello! This is a video all about paced bottle feeding. This is a super helpful way of feeding a baby when they’re exclusively bottle-fed, and a SUPER important concept for those who are planning on bodyfeeding because in the case you need to give a bottle, paced bottle feeding is key!
So, the idea behind pacing a feeding is that we often feed babies way too fast when it comes from a bottle. We tip the bottle all the way back and let them chug. Now, I do love a good chug every now and then, however being an adult in charge of the bottle, I can always put the bottle down and take a breather whenever I need to, and unfortunately babies don’t really have that choice. Other than sputtering and coughing and choking, they can’t do too much to let us know how it’s going, and sometimes we forget what it feels like to chug an entire litre bottle of smirnoff ice because it’s been a while. Oh, that’s just me. Anyway.
So slowing down a bottle feed just makes sense, and you can find the paced video down below. I’ve included some screenshots here however to get over some important points.
Before I get into that, I know this definitely makes sense for bottle-fed babies because chugging 8L of smirnoff ice a day can obviously lead to some serious spit-ups and tummy issues, but this is also really important for bodyfed babies. If your goal is to bodyfeed, sometimes using bottles happens. Sometimes the pain and discomfort is too much so we use bottles while we heal, sometimes we have to be physically separated from the baby and of course they need to eat, and sometimes we’re recommended to give top-ups because baby’s weight gain isn’t where our care providers want it to be. And for sure there are other scenarios where a bottle comes into play before bodyfeeding is well-established, but whatever the scenario, the goal is to make a bottle less desirable than a body. I see a lot of nipple preference, not nipple confusion, in the sense that if a baby can feed fast, warm milk with zero effort from a bottle all snuggly, why go back to the body where maybe it’s more challenging, less flow, slower, etc. Paced feeding makes it so that bottle feeding is not an easy, desirable experience with the hope that baby will go back to the body to feed full-time as soon as possible. And maybe you’d still like to give a bottle once a day, that’s all fine, but this is specifically for babies who aren’t on the body, can’t be on the body, have difficulty on the body, or aren’t getting all they need from the body.
So, here is a photo of a baby being waterboarded. And here is a photo of paced feeding. First thing I want you to notice is how being baby is being held. Our non-paced baby is lying reclined, bottle full force downwards and paced feeding baby is upright. The second thing I want you to notice is how much milk is in the nipple. Our non-paced baby has a full nipple of milk, and our paced baby has zero milk in the nipple, absolutely none. Nothing. The baby is sucking on air. They suck suck get nothing, and then now in the next picture, both babies are getting a big glug. So with the non-paced baby, they are glug glug glug glugging and the paced-baby is suck suck suck sucking drinking drinking suck suck suck sucking drinking drinking suck suck suck sucking. This gives the baby tons of time to drink and let what they’ve already had settle and is a very good practice like at the breast where they have to suck to stimulate a letdown.
I also personally like to have the baby in a diaper with no skin-to-skin so they’re super awake, and again bodyfeeding becomes more desirable because they get to be warm and snuggly and skin-to-skin, and I also do cold milk, again because warm milk is sooo nice and it’s great that it comes from the body.
Check out the full video of paced feeding below, and of course, let me know if you have any questions!