Useful things to know if you bottle feed your baby
If your baby cries a lot, it is important that you have your baby assessed by your local GP, to rule out a medical condition.
Here’s an overview of useful things to know about bottle feeding your baby.
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Babies take the milk they need, but the amount can vary from feed to feed, sometimes very little, other times a lot! It’s important not to feel you have to empty the bottle when your baby feeds, even though that might mean wasting some expressed breast milk or formula. This is part of the approach known as paced bottle feeding.
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If your baby is fussing and back arching with the bottle, this is a sign that your baby needs to stop. It doesn’t mean your baby has tummy pain, gas, or a medical condition like reflux, allergy, or lactose problems. You can always try again later.
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Try offering the bottle frequently and flexibly to keep your baby dialled down, instead of spacing feeds out. Offering flexibly means at any time and place that works for you and your baby. This is a way to make the days manageable, regardless of whether the bottle contains expressed breast milk or formula.
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The research shows that formula fed babies who are crying excessively cry for shorter durations on extensively hydrolysed formula. Please discuss this with your GP, as it's also best not to be changing the kind of formula you feed your baby, unless there is a good reason to do so.
Read more articles about how to do paced bottle feeding
Useful things to know if you bottle feed your baby
Your baby's position when bottle feeding
Following your baby's cues for bottle feeds
Building a positive relationship with food through paced bottle feeding
When does your baby have a conditioned dialling up with the bottle and what to do about it?
Other recommended resources
Is your baby unsettled or having trouble sleeping because of gut pain?
Is baby unsettled or having trouble sleeping because of reflux?
Is your baby unsettled or having trouble sleeping because of allergy?
Is your baby unsettled or having trouble sleeping because of lactose?
Acknowledgements
This page on bottle feeding was co-written with Renee Keogh RN IBCLC, Founding NDC Educator.
I'm grateful to Professor Sophie Havighurst, Ros June, and Caroline Ma at Mindful, The University of Melbourne, for their feedback on the articles and videos in When baby cries a lot in the first few months of life. They helped me keep the language plain and the concepts as accessible as possible, for this brief and simple version of the Possums 5-domain approach to the crying baby.
Selected references
Dodos K, Kalamara T, Xinias S. Effectiveness of the extensively hydrolyzed formulas in the management of infantile colic: A systematic review and meta-analysis. World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics. 2026;15(1):111066.