Burping releases any air that has been swallowed during feeding. It’s unlikely that gas causes your baby discomfort, and many babies are not noticeably happier or more contented for having been burped. Swallowing air is more common in bottlefed babies, but you can prevent it to some extent by tilting the bottle more as your baby empties it so that the nipple is full of milk and not air. Disposable bottles cut down on the air the baby swallows, because air cannot enter the bottle as the baby sucks the milk.
The good thing about burping, whether you breast or bottlefeed, is that it makes you pause, relax, slow down, hold your baby gently, and stroke or pat him, and this is good for both of you.
This is rare in bottlefed babies. Your baby should be fed on demand and not at set times; demands may vary from day to day. If your child consistently seems fretful after he drains each bottle, he may well e hungry. Offer him an extra 2 fluid ounces (60 milliliters) of formula. If he takes it, then he needs it.
If your baby demands frequent feedings but doesn’t take much, the nipple hole may be too small, so that he is having difficulty sucking the formula and is tired before he gets enough.
Chubby babies can be cute, but fat cells, once produced, can’t be removed, and a fat baby may grow into a fat adult, with all the attendant dangers to health. Unfortunately, it is easy to overfeed a bottlefed baby. The reasons for this are twofold; first, it is tempting to put extra formula into the bottle, but you should always follow the instructions precisely; otherwise, you’ll be giving the baby unwanted calories. Second, in your anxiety to feed him “properly” you may want to see your baby finish every last drop of his bottle, but you should always let him decide when he’s finished. Introducing solids too early and giving sweet, syrupy drinks also cause overfeeding.
At first your baby won’t be able to sleep for more than two or four hours at a time without waking with hunger. Once he reaches a weight about 11 pounds (5 kilograms), try to stretch the time between feedings until you are getting about six hours of undisturbed sleep at night. Although your baby will have his own routine, it’s sensible to try to time his last feeding to coincide with your own bedtime, which should be as late as possible. You may find that your baby will still wake up and demand the early morning feeding, no matter how hard you try. If this happens you’ll just have to be patient and look forward to when he drops it.
Your baby will need feeding at least once during the night, and this break in your sleep on top of all the other things that you have to do to take care of him may make you extremely tired and tense. The problem isn’t so much the number of hours of sleep that you lose, but more the way in which your sleep patterns are broken over long periods. For this reason it is important that you get adequate rest, day and night, and since you are doing most of the feeding, try to get your partner to take on some of the other jobs.