how to bottle-feed your baby
A quick guide on how to bottle-feed your baby well by choosing the right bottle, offering appropriate
Paced Bottle-Feeding
Coughing and choking during bottle-feeding can be managed using paced bottle-feeding. Help your baby develop better feeding skills using this technique.
3 Tips to Help Your Breastfed Baby Take a Bottle
Advice from feeding experts on how to take the stress out of transitioning your breastfed baby to a bottle. Whether you are returning to work or just looking to have others feed your baby while you are out, learn why some babies struggle and how to manage the process using a responsive feeding approach.
Top 10 Holiday Gift Ideas for Baby
Make shopping for the baby in your life easy with these recommended products from the feeding experts at Help with Feeding. Choose products for introducing purees, baby led weaning, or cup drinking.
Tongue Ties: A Speech Pathologist's Perspective
There are many reasons that newborns have difficulty with feeding in the first several weeks and months of life. Feeding is a complicated process that involves 26 muscles and 6 cranial nerves. Infants begin sucking between the 18-24th weeks in utero and swallowing is observed consistently by 22-24 weeks. What does this mean? Their feeding pattern is developed and engrained months before they are born.
Straw Drinking 101
Infants can typically learn to drink from a straw between the ages of 8-9 months old, sometimes earlier. The trick is to find the right type of straw cup and/or activity that will help them learn this oral motor skill. Moving on to a straw cup can be helpful for older infants who have refused a bottle. We have had good success teaching this skill using the Rubbermaid Litterless Juice Box (for those of you who live locally, you can find them at Wegmans in the Tupperware aisle).
Introducing the Bottle to Your Breastfed Baby
There are many reasons to introduce the bottle to your breastfed baby and supporting flexibility around feeding is one of them. Whether you will be returning to work full-time or are just looking to make sure your baby can be fed if you are apart for a few hours, we have some tips to help this introduction go smoothly as well as ideas on how to move forward if it does not. Most importantly, do not wait until you are unavailable to introduce the bottle!
Combining "Old" and "New" Foods to Encourage Acceptance
This strategy can help during the transition to purees as well as table foods. For the baby working on spoon-feeding, add a teaspoon of a new food to a serving of a familiar purée. This can be helpful with green vegetables as well as meats if your baby is having difficulty tolerating certain flavors or textures. After she accepts the new "mixture", increase to two teaspoons of new food and continue to slowly increase the amount.
Let Your Baby Get Messy!
During many initial consultations with families, I ask the question, "What does she do when you give her the spoon?"..
listen to your instincts
Crying, not sleeping, screaming during feedings, pushing away, spitting up... sound familiar? It's hard to know what is normal, especially if this is your first baby. Many parents tell us that they have voiced concerns about feeding during appointments with their pediatrician, but they do not feel "heard". What do you do when you feel like something is just not right? Go with your gut. Whether you think there is something going on like reflux, some type of food intolerance, or even an issue
Welcome to Motherhood
I have been reminded several times in the past few weeks how HARD being a new mom is. Watching friends and clients go through the ups and downs of the newborn period, I cannot help but wonder how any of us make it through and especially those whose babies struggle. I realize the following pieces of advice and information are not all original to me and many of us have heard them before, but I think it's important to say them again. Let other moms help you. Whether it's your sister, mother-in-law
There Is No "Force" In Feeding
Respecting your baby's cues is one of the most important pieces of advice I give all parents who come in for therapy. If your 6-month-old infant closes her mouth when you present the spoon, she's telling you she's not ready, she's not hungry, or she can't manage the food you are presenting. Babies and toddlers are very smart and we need to listen to them. It is important to figure out why they are refusing as the first step in turning things around.
Responsive Feeding: An Appropriate Approach for ALL Infants and Toddlers
There are so many reasons why feeding can get off track in the first few years of life. Concerns with weight gain and growth, oral motor incoordination, medical complications such as reflux, and even parent anxiety and/or depression will influence the feeding dynamic. No matter what leads to the path of stressful mealtimes, there is one way back, and that is to learn to be a responsive feeder. In our daily practice, this is the approach we use and model for parents. Whether it is a newborn who
