Bottle Feeding Basics
When speaking to new Dads I always recommend a “just do it all” approach when it comes to connecting and bonding with Baby. Skin-to-skin, frequent holding and soothing, babywearing as much as possible – all the things. I remind them (and Mama!) that the more they establish themselves as Primary Caretaker as well, the easier things will be for everybody as days turn into weeks into months.
However, there remains on area in particular where “doing it all” runs into biological limitations – breastfeeding. As I covered my last blog, manning the “comfort cart” is really the best thing us guys can contribute to the actual breastfeeding efforts. However, once pumping and bottles come into the mix then it’s back to full team participation!
I cover a lot of this over on a recent episode of my Baby Talk Podcast, click here to check out that episode if you like. However, I want to make a few additional recommendations to more fully flesh out some of the details. Guys who step up their bottle feeding game can really strengthen their teamwork connections with Mama and deepen their caretaker bonding connections with Baby.
I’ll first touch briefly upon getting the milk in the first place via breast pump. There are many types and kinds to choose from out there, so I’ll simply recommend something strong enough to work easily for Mama yet small enough to easily take on the go. In my opinion, the much more important part of pumping is the part that catches the milk. My wife loved these Freemie style cups as they can slip right into her shirt or dress or whatever and are both comfortable and discrete. Relaxed and confident makes for easier pumping, and sometimes having huge bottles swinging off one’s chest don’t quite support that mindset!
Now that we have the milk, what’s the best way to get it to Baby? Two things we really liked were the Dr. Browns nipples and the Comotomo silicone bottle/nipple combos. We started with Dr. Browns for our first baby and loved the different flow rates that the different nipple levels allowed. Our second baby was super picky and hated ALL the bottles until we found the Comotomo bottles were sufficiently “boob-like” in size, shape, and texture to get her onboard. She’s 4 now, and just as particular about most things, so I wish Comotomo was in the business of making corn-dog like vegetables!
Finally, what’s the best way to contribute when in doubt? Do the dishes! Bottles can pile up quickly, and many of them disassemble into 4 or 5 pieces each. Therefore, it’s important to stay on top of this end of the task or your sink area can quickly become unusable. Many of these bottles and pieces do best being hand washed, so I recommend establishing a dedicated drying area to handle the post-wash depot. This cool Boon fake grass drying rack with elevated tree stems for the smaller parts worked great for us in that it didn’t take too much space and allowed me to sorta pile things up on it until I was ready to put them all back in the rotation.
Alright, that should be a good start on helping you get more involved in the bottle game. Good luck, and reach out directly if you need some more tips or support in your endeavors.
