Bottlefeeding
Bottle Nursing, Bottle Weaning, and More
Bottle Nursing
- Feeding is one of the primary ways a mother can initiate a secure attachment relationship with her baby.
- Familiarize yourself with breastfeeding behaviors, and model them when bottle feeding:
- Hold the baby when bottle feeding, positioning the bottle alongside the breast
- Maintain eye contact, talk softly and lovingly
- Switch positions from one side to another
- Feed on cue and avoid schedules
- Consider reserving feeding for the mother only
- Pacifiers satisfy a baby's sucking need. Hold the baby or child in the feeding position when he uses the pacifier
- Associate the bottle and pacifier with being held and having undivided attention, so that it doesn't become a transitional object
- Wean from the bottle as one would wean from the breast
Read More About Bottle Feeding via the Links Below
- Feed With Love and Respect - One of API's Eight Principles of Parenting
- Read Bottlefeeding: An Attachment Parenting Perspective, an excerpt from The Baby Book by William Sears & Marth Sears
- Read about Feeding With Love and Respect on API Speaks (blog)
- Learn about bottle nursing twins on the API Forums
- Discuss night weaning the bottle-nursed child on the API Forums
- Ask your own question on the API Feed With Love and Respect forum
Member Resources
One of the many benefits of API Membership is access to the members-only site, The Attached Family. The following articles on Adoption and Foster Care can be found in the password-protected section of The Attached Family website. Login instructions are available on the online magazine's homepage.
Members also receive a quarterly magazine, The Attached Family. This summer’s issue focuses on the API Principle of Feeding with Love and Respect, particularly overcoming feeding challenges.
