Is it Reflux?

Overfeeding

If your infant is spitting up after every bottle feeding or is extremely gassy after bottles this could be a sign of an overfeeding. Overfeeding infant’s with a bottle is very common but it can lead to a slew of issues including (but not limited to); gastrointestinal distress, reflux, vomiting, increased fussiness, and gas. If you’re like me, in the beginning of my parenthood journey, I didn’t know the potential harms of overfeeding. I just assumed infants ate at the bottle the same way they do at the breast. But, wow was I wrong. Through my years of breast and bottle feeding, I learned differently and later in my studies I really came to understand the importance of properly bottle feeding babies.

When we bottle feed we tend to control the rate of the feeding which often times leads to an overfeeding. In my time as a hospital based consultant I would hear Mother’s say, “He sucked that bottle down in seconds! He must not be getting much at the breast because he was starving!” But, this is rarely the case.

When we offer a bottle in this way we;

• Control our infant’s feedings which does not allow them to participate in the rate of flow.

• We don’t allow them to pause for breaths, but instead they often gasp for air or breaths between swallows (here is where the increased gas comes in).

• And, we don’t allow them to take breaks throughout the feed and without pauses they are unable to regulate their intake.

Lastly, one of the most common issues we see with overfeeding infants is that we think we cannot produce enough milk to keep up but this is often not true. Since we are controlling the amounts they consume per feed they can get used to a higher volume. Think of it as eating a Thanksgiving meal at EVERY meal. If we can slow the rate of flow, we’ll see a lower intake per feeding also which will lead to pumping a more appropriate amount for our infants.

*In this article I have referred to pumping breast milk but all of the above also applies to formula bottles as well.