Methods of Feeding Your Child Expressed Breastmilk

Training an infant to accept expressed breastmilk should be initiated at an age not less than 4 weeks.
Training an infant to accept expressed breastmilk should be initiated when baby is calm & not too hungry.

Expressed Breastmilk can be fed to Infants Using:

(1) Syringe

(2) Spoon

(3) Cup Feeding

How to Cup Feed your Baby?
1. Position: Baby has to be Upright (90 degrees) or Semi-Upright (45 degrees);
on caregiver's lap, supported at the back, head, neck & buttocks.
2. Hold the feeding cup and let it come into contact with baby's lower lip with the edge of cup's surface touching baby's upper lip.
3. When baby is alert, he/she will respond by opening his eyes or mouth. Slant the cup slightly & let baby taste the milk slightly. Baby will then initiate to lick and swallow the milk slowly.
4. When baby is full, baby will automatically stop feeding.
5. NEVER ATTEMPT TO POUR MILK INTO BABY'S MOUTH BY YOURSELF.
6. Practice Makes Perfect. This method might be clumsy for a start, but it's worthwhile :-)

Why are Bottle Feedings not encouraged?

Because Bottle Feedings may lead to a scenario called "Nipple Confusion".

Nipple confusion is used to describe those times when a baby is reluctant to breastfeed, and seems to find it easier to bottle-feed expressed milk.

Bottle teats are fairly rigid, with a constant reservoir of milk, so your baby won't have to work hard to get at the milk he wants. But to feed from your breast, your baby must first open his mouth wide to latch on. Then he'll need to use about 40 facial muscles, which he'll work constantly to get his tummy full of milk.

To avoid that scenario, cup feeding is a suggested better option :-)


How to Introduce Expressed Breastmilk to Toddlers?
Sippy Cups are an option to introduce expressed breastmilk to toddlers :-)

For babies with Special Needs, there are other various methods to feed EBM which will be blogged about in another topic. Hope this was helpful :-)