Never Substitute Your Baby’s Bottle
Parents of babies need labels wherever they are. After all, parents really need to eat, sleep, or urinate without putting their child in serious danger.
But writer Wendy Wisner of Scary Mommy reminds us that propping up a bottle baby for hands-free feeding isn’t worth choosing.
It can be very tempting and many of us have done it at one time or another. But please DO. NO. NEVER prop up your baby’s bottle. This may seem like an innocent enough habit, but it not only has general health consequences – it can be extremely unsafe. In some cases, babies even die from this practice.
It’s tempting to create a soft pillow of blankets on your baby’s chest to hold the bottle while you step away for a moment, but the American Academy of Pediatrics cautions against doing this for a number of reasons:
Never prop up the bottle or let your baby feed alone; Not only will you miss the opportunity to bond with her while feeding, but there is also a danger that she will suffocate or the bottle will slip out of position. Propping up the bottle also increases the risk of ear infections. We do not recommend devices for holding the bottle in the baby’s mouth – they can be dangerous.
Choking is the biggest and most immediate risk, but support can also keep the baby to keep up with the flow of milk even if he is full, leading to overeating. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it can also lead to tooth decay due to milk buildup around the teeth, a problem that can also be caused by putting a baby in bed with a bottle.
If you’ve propped up a bottle in the past, don’t worry. But now it’s better to keep the bottle on your own.