Bottle Feeding Baby

Night feedings: Your baby will need a feeding at least once during the night, and this break in your sleep on top of all the other things that you have to do to take care of him may make you extremely tired and tense.

The problem isn't so much the number of hours of sleep that you lose, but more the way in which your sleep patterns are broken over long periods. For this reason it is important that you get adequate rest, day and night, and since you are doing most of the feeding, try to get your partner to take on some of the other jobs.

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Reducing night feedings: At first your baby won't be able to sleep for more than two to four hours at a time without waking with hunger. Once he reaches a weight of about 11 pounds (5 kilograms), try to stretch the time between feedings until you are getting about six hours of undisturbed sleep at night.

Although your baby will have his own routine, it's sensible to try to time his last feeding to coincide with your own bedtime, which should be as late as possible. You may find that your baby will still wake up and demand the early morning feeding, no matter how hard you try. If this happens you'll just have to be patient and look forward to when he drops it.

Overfeeding: Chubby babies can be cute, but fat cells, once produced, can't be removed, and a fat baby may grow into a fat adult, with all the attendant dangers to health. Unfortunately, it is easy to overfeed a bottle-fed baby.

The reasons for this are twofold; first, it is tempting to put extra formula into the bottle, but you should always follow the instructions precisely; otherwise, you'll be giving the baby unwanted calories. Second, in your anxiety to feed him "properly" you may want to see your baby finish every last drop of his bottle, but you should always let him decide when he's finished. Introducing solids too early and giving sweet, syrupy drinks also cause overfeeding.

Underfeeding: This is rare in bottle-fed babies. Your baby should be fed on demand and not at set times; demands may vary from day to day. If your child consistently seems fretful after he drains each bottle, he may well be hungry. Offer him an extra 2 fluid ounces (60 milliliters) of formula. If he takes it, then he needs it.

If your baby demands frequent feedings but doesn't take much, the nipple hole may be too small, so that he is having difficulty sucking the formula and is tired before he gets enough.

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Spitting up: If your baby tends to bring food right back up - some babies never do - you may wonder if he's keeping enough down. Babies usually spit up because of a normal gastroesophageal reflex, which is more pronounced in some babies than in others.

Overfeeding can also cause spitting up, which is another reason to avoid insisting that your bottle-fed baby finish his bottle. Forcible or projectile vomiting, especially if it occurs after several meals, should be reported immediately to your doctor; vomiting is very serious in a small baby because it can quickly lead to dehydration.