problems of bottle feeding

Mothers who bottle-feed often tend to be ignorant about important information on how to feed their infants safely, which could lead to overfeeding and heavy children.

Researchers from UK reviewed 23 studies involving 13,263 participants in studies of bottle-feeding. What they found was that many mothers who used formula felt guilt, anger, worry, uncertainty and a sense of failure. The mothers also said that they got little information on proper formula feeding, and many made mistakes in formula preparation. For example, many put powder in the bottle first, rather than water, which could overconcentrate the formula by 10 to 15 percent leading to extra calories.

Also, some parents reported packing scoops tightly when measuring formula, rather than loosely as recommended. And while water used to make the feed should be boiled and used within 30 minutes, it was found that a third of mothers were using warm tap water.

Due to the heavy focus on breastfeeding, many health care providers don't bother giving new parents information on formula feeding. One of the studies the researchers looked at found that just 21 percent of mothers were instructed on bottle-feeding by the time their babies were two months old. Most babies, even breast-fed kids, tend to get some bottlefeeds before they move on to solid food. If a mother makes the decision to bottle-feed then she should be given the information to do it correctly.

It was also found that parents frequently switched formula brands because their infants were spitting up, and they feared intolerance of the formula. But because pretty much all formulas are based on cow's milk - aside from soya-based products - the regurgitation may have been due to overfeeding rather than intolerance.

Overfeeding is indeed more of a risk with bottle-feeding because parents have more control than babies do in how much milk the infant gets, which isn't the case with breastfeeding. Parents can avoid overfeeding by paying attention to an infant's cues, not giving the child more than the recommended amount of formula, and not assuming that every time the baby cries he needs a bottle.