If your baby tends to bring food right back up – some babies never do – you may wonder if he’s keeping enough down. My youngest son was a child who had a tendency to spit up, and I worried that he wasn’t getting enough to eat. I simply followed my own instinct, which was to offer him more food. If he didn’t take it, I assumed that he had spat up an excess that he didn’t require. Babies usually spit up because of a normal gastroesophageal reflex, which is more pronounced in some babies than in others. Overfeeding can also cause spitting up, which is another reason to avoid insisting that your bottlefed baby finish his bottle.
Forcible or projectile vomiting, especially if it occurs after several meals, should be reported immediately to your doctor; vomiting is very serious in a small baby because it can quickly lead to dehydration.
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.
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.