Why bottles are evil (not really)
Mar 15, 2015 14:51:40 GMT -5
Post by billyhorrible on Mar 15, 2015 14:51:40 GMT -5
This is not a "breast is best" propaganda because this has nothing to do with the contents of the bottles. I had a lot of time off during my last maternity leave and found the whole subject of infant nutrition fascinating. If I didn't have crippling student loan debt I would definitely go back to school and get a degree in this. So this is a compilation of research from studies regarding the correlation between bottles and childhood obesity, unofficial studies based on my friends, BMB, and daycare information, and articles/studies regarding the history of infant nutrition.
I'm also not anti-bottle. I'm a working mom. I think bottles are fantastic at allowing women to not be tied to the home, be able to work, and to allow babies to thrive no matter what the contents. I do think (based on the above paragraph) that there's really poor information out there for moms regarding breastfeeding and bottle feeding though and it's one of the reasons why some mothers who want to breastfeed are unable to do so for the time period they would like. And I'm an advocate for helping anyone meet whatever goals they have regarding that.
So here's our basic premise which is what they taught us at my breastfeeding class and which you'll find on most breastfeeding informational guides: A breastfed baby never needs more than 4oz of milk at a time.
Which led me to the "Why is this?" and "How come some women claim their breastfed babies need 6-7 oz?" and "How can this be true if they also say you can never overfeed a breastfed baby?" And was the impetus for me looking into the premise to begin with. So let's talk about those issues.
- Why is this?
So from a physiological standpoint, an infant's stomach is not designed to hold more than 4oz. Doesn't matter how big or small your child is, the same way their size doesn't have an influence on the size of their hearts, kidneys, or bladders. In theory, our stomachs as adults aren't really "designed" to hold more than 4 oz at a time (but obviously they do which leads us to:)
- How come some women claim their breastfed babies need more than 4 oz? (And how come you and I can store an entire pizza in there?)
The stomach is not made of reinforced concrete, it can grow and stretch (and shrink - if you've ever been on a diet you might notice that if you continue to eat less at a sitting, you stop being as hungry for at much at a sitting). This phenomenon is fantastic for formula-fed babies, because (and this is no dig against formula which, seriously I credit with so much of the decrease in infant fatality) it takes more formula to equal the nutrition in breastmilk. (This is also why larger bottles exist. They're really for formula feeding.) So if you continually feed your baby, say 5oz, the stomach will stretch/grow to accommodate 5oz. In doing so, you have created a 5oz stomach. Which means your baby now requires 5 oz to feel full. (And I'm just using the number 5- you can sub in whatever number you like here).
Herein lies problem #1. Your supply is built by baby's time at breast. They teach your breast how much to produce at any given time based on how much they eat at any given time. This is why women are cautioned not to pump too early, which doesn't build supply as well as a baby does. So if for....2, 3, 4 months your baby is at the breast and teaches your breast to produce 4 oz at each session, once you introduce the bottle and start feeding 5oz, your breast is going to have trouble keeping up with that amount on a regular basis and you develop "supply problems" which is the number 1 reason women aren't able to meet whatever goals they set for themselves re: breastfeeding.
- How is this related to bottle feeding?
You may have heard that breastfeeding is hard. This is not just true for us moms, it's true for babies too! Breastfeeding is a lot of work for those little guys. It's why many babies fall asleep at the breast. It's why breastfeeding can be very time consuming. It's why it is so much harder to feed a really hungry baby. And it's why some babies develop nipple confusion/preference. Because bottle? Bottles are EASY! Basically you're pouring food down their throat. No work on their part. Quick and easy. In fact, while a baby can stop and start the flow from your nipple, they can't do that with bottles. Which means some babies are forced to drink more than they even want from a bottle because they can't stop it. Which leads to problem #2. For all of us, babies and adults, it takes time for our stomachs to let our brains know "Okay, all full down here!" When a baby is nursing/at the breast, because it takes longer for them to eat, the stomach is able to send that message to the brain and the baby unlatches. (This answers the question as to why you can't overfeed a breastfed baby - it only refers to "at the breast.") But with a bottle, because it takes so much less time, the message doesn't hit the brain before the baby is crying for "More! More! More!" The brain doesn't know the baby is full yet, so keeps sending the "I'm still hungry" message. So despite the fact your baby's stomach actually is full, your baby is crying, and of course you don't want to be a terrible mother who doesn't feed their child, so you decide the baby must need more milk. So you feed more - consistently- stretch the stomach - and then need more than 4oz of milk at a feeding, which starts the cycle.
- So what's the solution to this?
As I said, I'm not anti-bottle feeding. I'm a huge proponent of babies eating and mamas doing what they need to in order to have babies eat. The solution is in how you bottle feed. There are 2 tricks to this, both of which help to mimic nursing at the breast in that they make eating from a bottle more work.
1) Bottle feeding should take as long as nursing. So if your baby spends 20 minutes at the breast, s/he should spend 20 minutes at the bottle. This means switching sides, using trick number 2, taking burp breaks, etc. This gives the stomach time to send that all important message.
2) Horizontal bottles. When you feed the baby, most of us have the reference to tilt the bottle, which helps the flow, and makes it easier for the baby to eat. But to make the baby work, you want the bottle to be parallel to the floor and the baby to be perpendicular to the bottle. This means the baby has to actively suck to get the milk to come out. Gravity is not going to help.
As a word of warning, this becomes a big challenge if your child is in childcare. Especially number 1, because most of them are not going to have time to devote that kind of time to each child they are watching. I went through this, so I can empathize with those of you dealing with it. One of the things we did with this was to have them feed less, but more often. So at home between 8am and 5pm he might nurse 3 times, but during that time at daycare he took 4 bottles.
I'm also not anti-bottle. I'm a working mom. I think bottles are fantastic at allowing women to not be tied to the home, be able to work, and to allow babies to thrive no matter what the contents. I do think (based on the above paragraph) that there's really poor information out there for moms regarding breastfeeding and bottle feeding though and it's one of the reasons why some mothers who want to breastfeed are unable to do so for the time period they would like. And I'm an advocate for helping anyone meet whatever goals they have regarding that.
So here's our basic premise which is what they taught us at my breastfeeding class and which you'll find on most breastfeeding informational guides: A breastfed baby never needs more than 4oz of milk at a time.
Which led me to the "Why is this?" and "How come some women claim their breastfed babies need 6-7 oz?" and "How can this be true if they also say you can never overfeed a breastfed baby?" And was the impetus for me looking into the premise to begin with. So let's talk about those issues.
- Why is this?
So from a physiological standpoint, an infant's stomach is not designed to hold more than 4oz. Doesn't matter how big or small your child is, the same way their size doesn't have an influence on the size of their hearts, kidneys, or bladders. In theory, our stomachs as adults aren't really "designed" to hold more than 4 oz at a time (but obviously they do which leads us to:)
- How come some women claim their breastfed babies need more than 4 oz? (And how come you and I can store an entire pizza in there?)
The stomach is not made of reinforced concrete, it can grow and stretch (and shrink - if you've ever been on a diet you might notice that if you continue to eat less at a sitting, you stop being as hungry for at much at a sitting). This phenomenon is fantastic for formula-fed babies, because (and this is no dig against formula which, seriously I credit with so much of the decrease in infant fatality) it takes more formula to equal the nutrition in breastmilk. (This is also why larger bottles exist. They're really for formula feeding.) So if you continually feed your baby, say 5oz, the stomach will stretch/grow to accommodate 5oz. In doing so, you have created a 5oz stomach. Which means your baby now requires 5 oz to feel full. (And I'm just using the number 5- you can sub in whatever number you like here).
Herein lies problem #1. Your supply is built by baby's time at breast. They teach your breast how much to produce at any given time based on how much they eat at any given time. This is why women are cautioned not to pump too early, which doesn't build supply as well as a baby does. So if for....2, 3, 4 months your baby is at the breast and teaches your breast to produce 4 oz at each session, once you introduce the bottle and start feeding 5oz, your breast is going to have trouble keeping up with that amount on a regular basis and you develop "supply problems" which is the number 1 reason women aren't able to meet whatever goals they set for themselves re: breastfeeding.
- How is this related to bottle feeding?
You may have heard that breastfeeding is hard. This is not just true for us moms, it's true for babies too! Breastfeeding is a lot of work for those little guys. It's why many babies fall asleep at the breast. It's why breastfeeding can be very time consuming. It's why it is so much harder to feed a really hungry baby. And it's why some babies develop nipple confusion/preference. Because bottle? Bottles are EASY! Basically you're pouring food down their throat. No work on their part. Quick and easy. In fact, while a baby can stop and start the flow from your nipple, they can't do that with bottles. Which means some babies are forced to drink more than they even want from a bottle because they can't stop it. Which leads to problem #2. For all of us, babies and adults, it takes time for our stomachs to let our brains know "Okay, all full down here!" When a baby is nursing/at the breast, because it takes longer for them to eat, the stomach is able to send that message to the brain and the baby unlatches. (This answers the question as to why you can't overfeed a breastfed baby - it only refers to "at the breast.") But with a bottle, because it takes so much less time, the message doesn't hit the brain before the baby is crying for "More! More! More!" The brain doesn't know the baby is full yet, so keeps sending the "I'm still hungry" message. So despite the fact your baby's stomach actually is full, your baby is crying, and of course you don't want to be a terrible mother who doesn't feed their child, so you decide the baby must need more milk. So you feed more - consistently- stretch the stomach - and then need more than 4oz of milk at a feeding, which starts the cycle.
- So what's the solution to this?
As I said, I'm not anti-bottle feeding. I'm a huge proponent of babies eating and mamas doing what they need to in order to have babies eat. The solution is in how you bottle feed. There are 2 tricks to this, both of which help to mimic nursing at the breast in that they make eating from a bottle more work.
1) Bottle feeding should take as long as nursing. So if your baby spends 20 minutes at the breast, s/he should spend 20 minutes at the bottle. This means switching sides, using trick number 2, taking burp breaks, etc. This gives the stomach time to send that all important message.
2) Horizontal bottles. When you feed the baby, most of us have the reference to tilt the bottle, which helps the flow, and makes it easier for the baby to eat. But to make the baby work, you want the bottle to be parallel to the floor and the baby to be perpendicular to the bottle. This means the baby has to actively suck to get the milk to come out. Gravity is not going to help.
As a word of warning, this becomes a big challenge if your child is in childcare. Especially number 1, because most of them are not going to have time to devote that kind of time to each child they are watching. I went through this, so I can empathize with those of you dealing with it. One of the things we did with this was to have them feed less, but more often. So at home between 8am and 5pm he might nurse 3 times, but during that time at daycare he took 4 bottles.
