Newborn Map
Paced bottle feeding
Paced bottles: more upright than flat, no propping, pause, switch sides, stop when they show fullness. Technique, not a brand.
We are not pediatricians. This is not medical advice. Your pediatrician knows this baby.
Paced feeding is a way to hold a bottle, not a product line. It is useful for formula, expressed milk, and combo so the bottle does not fire-hose a baby who would have paused at the breast.
The moves
- Sit the baby more upright than flat on their back.
- Keep the bottle closer to horizontal so the nipple stays full without a fire-hose drip.
- Slow-flow nipple unless your clinician said otherwise.
- Pause. Tip down. Let them breathe. Switch sides the way you would at the breast.
- Stop on fullness: turning away, dribbling, a hand that opens, falling asleep mid-ounce. You do not have to finish the bottle.
- No propping. A bottle propped on a blanket is a choking and ear-infection hobby, and you are not watching.
Volume bands, if you are using formula: how much formula. Prep (HOLD): formula prep.
What this is not
- Not a requirement that breastfeeding parents “pace or else”
- Not a diagnosis of oversupply or reflux
- Not a reason to buy a special “paced” bottle system. Two or three bottles on the registry is enough to start.
When to call
Choking that scares you and does not clear; 100.4°F under 3 months; bilious or persistent projectile vomit; will not wake.