Why paced bottle feeding matters
by Cordelia Uys, Breastfeeding Counsellor
August 2025
Whether your baby is exclusively bottle fed or mostly breastfed with the occasional bottle of expressed milk, how you offer the bottle can make a real difference.
Paced bottle feeding is a gentle technique that allows your baby to be more in control of their feed, much like they would be at the breast.
When babies are held in the traditional reclined bottle feeding position, a combination of gravity and their natural sucking reflex means the milk tends to be delivered fast.
By holding the bottle horizontally and pausing regularly - pulling the bottle down to interrupt the flow, but not taking the bottle out of your baby’s mouth - you give them time to listen to their body and recognise when they've had enough.
Some benefits include:
Helping to prevent overfeeding.
Helping to protect babies’ ability to self-regulate.
Supporting babies to develop their own natural feeding rhythm.
Reducing the risk of tummy discomfort and vomiting.
Reducing the risk of babies developing a preference for a faster flow and consequently…
protecting against breast refusal.
Things that can help:
Use a slow-flow, newborn teat.
Use a bottle that has a smaller diameter and doesn’t have a ‘waist’. When a bottle has a large diameter, parents need to tilt the bottle sooner, meaning the teat fills with milk.
Gently rub the bottle teat over your baby’s lips to instigate a gape, rather than pushing the teat into your baby’s mouth.
For breastfed babies: for a few seconds at the start of a feed, hold the bottle down so the baby sucks on the teat before there’s any milk in it. On the breast, babies need to stimulate milk flow.
Make sure your baby is taking the teat deeply into their mouth - you can pull their chin down a bit to help them open wider.
Support their body so they aren’t slouched and their head can tilt back a bit.
Hold the bottle horizontal with the floor and ensure the teat is only half full of milk. (Contrary to popular belief this doesn’t make babies swallow air. In fact, paced feeding helps prevent this, see:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNnzwp9ttb9/?igsh=MWtsMHVuaHFhMDBqNg== )
Feeding isn't just about nutrition - it's also about connection and learning to read your baby's cues. Slowing things down can help make bottle feeding more comfortable and responsive, as well as protecting breastfeeding.