Fussing with Bottles

Approaching the pastime of feeding your baby with an awareness of the neuro-developmental considerations at play, gives her the added rich dimension of enjoying his feeds.
This is where the Possum's breastfeeding and bottle-feeding approaches are invaluable.

When a baby feels forced to drink, they will cry, twist up their faces, push the teat out with their tongue, turn their head, spill their milk from the corners of their mouth, gag, stretch out their backs, legs and arms and splay their hands and fingers. It's easy to see that this is not the type of experience that lends itself to laying down healthy brain circuitry in relation to food.

Parents are well intentioned in trying to get their baby to drink their milk, particularly if the baby has a feeding or weight management problem. But this concern can inadvertently set up a situation where feeding becomes a negative experience because of a whole range of controlling feeding practices parents try, that their baby will neither enjoy nor respond well to. We sometimes see these practices being modelled to parents by health care workers and relatives. The teat is forced into the mouth against the baby's will and when they don't suck, the baby is stimulated, tickled under the chin and the teat pushed in and out on the jaw in a rocking motion.

We can show you how to feed your baby using a cue-based approach, to ensure he associates pleasure with feeding. Our techniques support your baby's sensory needs and help to prune back the neuro-circuitry of any unpleasant earlier feeding experiences.

Always keep in mind that if a baby is fussing with a bottle, he is trying to tell you something. He is not being naughty. He may not even be indicating that he is not hungry. He could well be very hungry but refusing to drink because of the negative associations around feeding that have been experienced.