Growth of infants fed breast milk by bottle

Abstract

Breast milk expression and bottle feeding of breast milk have become common infant feeding practices in the USA. Breast pump sales suggest this trend may be occurring in European countries as well. Little is known about the benefits and drawbacks of this new feeding practice for the mother and child. Formula fed infants have an increased risk of becoming overweight, which may be due to caregivers encouraging infants to ‘finish the bottle’ and/or overfeed. No studies address whether parents engage in these behaviours when bottle feeding breast milk or whether removal of milk from the breast negatively affects growth and appetite regulating substances in the milk. Data from one pilot study presented here show that infants fed breast milk by bottle grow fairly similarly to their breast fed peers during the first year of life. No differences were observed between bottle fed and breast fed infants in standard medical measures of growth (mass, length, body mass index), indicators of rapid weight gain, or research-based techniques to assess regional and whole-body fat deposition. Additional studies are needed to document the growth and development of infants fed breast milk by bottle in more diverse samples.