Bottle+ Breastfeeding

The quick answer is YES! Of course you can breast and bottle feed! Remember, you’re calling the shots here! (Scary right?!) But, if we are planning to offer both breast and bottle there is a technique we need to use to avoid frustration, over feeding, under supply and the dreadful nipple confusion. 

Have you ever heard the term nipple confusion? It honestly has nothing to do with the nipple. When infants are feeding from a bottle, we typically hold them how we see on TV. I call this the As Seen on TV position. This can be used later when an infant is drinking cows milk or cows milk substitute but this is not an appropriate way to BOTTLE feed a breastfed infant. Here’s why!

When an infant feeds from a bottle in the ‘as seen on tv’ position, we are doing all the work FOR the infant. We are controlling the milk flow, breathing rhythms and the amount of milk consumed per feeding. In using this method we are also running the risk of overfeeding our infants. It could be the equivalent of eating a Thanksgiving meal at EVERY meal. YIKES! Overfeeding can also make our infants have increased gas, gastrointestinal stress, and vomiting ( to name a few).

To avoid this we need to slow things down, let our baby take control over their intake amounts use a method called paced bottle feeding. This method will require infants to sit upright while holding the bottle parallel to the ground, ensuring the nipple is half full of air and half full of milk. This is a great visual example of the paced bottle feeding method. We use this approach to bottle feed a breastfed baby because our infants are mimicking the same patterns in both places. There are many great visuals on this, and here is an awesome video that also walks you through positioning.

So when we bottle feed a breastfed baby let’s remember to use a paced method.