The Ultimate Guide to Paced Bottle Feeding: Tips for Healthy Feeding Habits

Breastfed and bottle-fed babies can be introduced to paced bottle feeding, and with the right technique, there are lots of benefits for your baby, too. Pace feeding with a bottle is a gentle and responsive feeding technique used to teach your baby how to feed efficiently from the bottle and when to tell you they are full.

Our paced bottle feeding guide will explore how to pace bottle feed, how to identify baby hunger cues, and recommended bottles to use for responsive bottle feeding.

What Is Paced Bottle Feeding?

In traditional bottle feeding, the baby is usually reclined in your arms with the bottle tilted into their mouth. This position causes the milk to flow continuously, and unless the baby pushes the bottle away, they have little control over the pace of feeding.

Paced bottle feeding however is different. It teaches your baby to feed themselves, to suck the milk from the bottle at a slower pace to help with their digestion and healthier long-term weight gain.

Unlike traditional bottle feeding, paced bottle feeding means your baby is sat more upright with the bottle horizontal to the floor meaning the teat is not tilted upright into their mouths.

In a nutshell:

• The upright position helps their digestion and they are less likely to spit up after their feed.

• By starting with the bottle teat half full, your baby can control the flow of milk which mimics breastfeeding and aids the transition from breast to bottle.

• By giving your baby 5-10 sucks of milk and then breaking for air, your baby will feel less gassy and more comfortable throughout the feed.

Paced bottle feeding is a valuable skill for breastfed babies to transition from the breast to a baby bottle because they still have control over the milk flow. They also have to work for their milk, similar to feeding at the breast, to extract milk from the bottle.

If your baby is pushing the bottle away but they’re still hungry, this could be a sign that the flow of milk coming from the bottle teat is too fast or they are learning to adjust their pace. Read your baby’s hunger cues and check your bottle positioning if this continues throughout a feed.

Why Paced Bottle Feeding Is Important

Paced bottle feeding is an important skill to learn with your baby so you can both reap the benefits and avoid common feeding issues that are linked to older bottle-feeding methods.

Holding the bottle upright so that the teat is full of milk will mean that gravity is in control of the milk flow, instead of your baby. With any form of bottle feeding you risk swallowing some air however with paced bottle feeding, this is dramatically reduced. If your baby consumes excess air through feeding it can leave them feeling gassy and more likely to spit up their milk.

Paced bottle feeding and responsive feeding go hand in hand. As a parent, you’re ensuring that your baby’s hunger cues are met which builds your bond with each other. Also, you’re preventing yourself from overfeeding your baby because they’re able to tell you when they have had enough (rather than having it tipped upright down their throat!). A sign of overfeeding is when your infant is crying during bottle feeding.

How to recognise baby hunger cues

When watching your baby feed, have you noticed what their feeding cues are?

Can you spot your baby’s hunger cues? Can you tell when they are full? Responsive feeding will help you to notice these and how to address them.

Your baby is telling you they are hungry if they:

• Rooting for milk (turning their head towards your breast)

• Cry

• Sucking their hands or fingers

• Licking their lips

• Clenching their fists over their tummy

• Flexing their arms and legs

Responsive feeding, also known as “on-demand feeding”, means that you feed your baby when they start to show hunger cues rather than following a feeding schedule. Breastfeeding mums will often feed on demand and this works for combi fed babies too when introducing expressed bottles of breast milk.

How to Practice Paced Bottle Feeding?

Pace bottle feeding is simple and doesn’t require any other equipment that you wouldn’t already have. In just four easy-to-follow steps, you’ll be a paced bottle-feeding pro.

1. Hold your baby as upright as you can in your arms, supporting their head (You can also try an elevated side-lying position if this works better for your baby).

2. Position the bottle horizontally, allowing the bottle teat to fill halfway with milk. Let them take a couple of sips before filling the bottle teat completely, keeping it horizontal at all times.

3. Follow your baby’s feeding cues to show when your baby is ready to feed or when they are full.

4. After 5-10 sips of milk, pull the teat away gently and allow them to have a break. Repeat this pattern until they are ready to stop and like with breastfeeding, allow them to take their time.

If your baby is pushing the bottle away but they’re still hungry, this is a common behaviour as they are learning paced feeding. As they get more practiced, your baby will learn how to control the pace of the milk and take a break as and when needed.

Signs Your Baby Is Full

It is far easier to spot feeding cues when your baby is hungry than if your baby is full. To help, these infant feeding cues may be a sign that your baby is ready to stop a feed:

• Infant crying during bottle feeding

• Pushing bottle away

• Turning their head away from the bottle

• Milk trickling out the sides of their mouth

• Falling asleep

• Slower feeding and sucking less

Reading your baby’s feeding cues and body language will help you to recognise when they are full and ready to stop.

As parents, we can often get caught up in the rush of getting out of the house or trying to quickly feed the baby before the next event of the day but it’s so important to allow yourselves to take as much time as you both need for feeding. Rushing leaves you and your baby stressed, resulting in an unsuccessful and inefficient feed.

Slow feeding means that you can successfully pace feed your baby, you are responsive to their feeding cues, and you can enjoy the bonding time together.

If they don’t finish the whole feed, that’s ok! Forcing your baby to finish a feed will be more distressing and leave them feeling uncomfortable from being overfed. It also won’t be very enjoyable for you as you battle to get them to finish it!

Best Baby Bottles for Paced Bottle Feeding

Recommended bottles for paced bottle feeding have clever design features that make paced feeding and responsive feeding easier for you and your baby. The key features you will find in recommended bottles are:

• Bottle teat is shaped like a mother’s nipple

• Bottle teat is available in slow flow size (newborn)

• The baby bottle is easy for the parent and baby to hold

• Varied milk capacity for different stages of feeding

• Anti-colic design features to reduce excess air being consumed

When we asked parents to share their recommended bottles for paced bottle feeding, Arantxa said Lola&Lykke’s Natural Flow Baby Bottle is a “great product” and Eeva noted how she was able “to give extra milk from the bottle as undisturbed as possible!” when her son was young and navigating combi feeding as a newborn. It's also worth noting that the Lola&Lykke Smart Electric Breast Pump allows you to pump milk directly into the bottle!

For further baby bottle recommendations, read our guide to The Best Baby Bottles for Breastfed Babies.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Bottle Feeding

Paced bottle feeding is easy to grasp and when it’s done correctly, you and your baby will benefit. When practicing paced feeding for the first few attempts, be sure to avoid poor technique.

• Using a fast-flow bottle teat (these are usually labeled by age, always opt for a bottle teat with the smallest hole at the tip)

• Holding the baby bottle vertically with your baby reclined. This position can be uncomfortable and discourage any control your baby has over the pace of the feed.

• “Forcing” your baby to finish a feed or not recognising their hunger cues to say they have finished.

Paced bottle feeding is a calm, controlled, and encouraging feeding method that promotes healthier feeding habits and prevents uncomfortable tummies.

Conclusion

With all of these paced bottle feeding tips in mind, you will now be well-equipped to give it a go and see the benefits for yourself. Over time your baby will learn to control their feeds and build their independence as they get older to tell you what they need. Parents who use paced bottle feeding find it helps them be more responsive and attuned to their baby’s needs.