Bottle versus breastfeeding interactions

Removing limitations

Previous research had been done comparing formula-fed babies with those who are breastfed, which revealed more sensitivity to baby's cues among the breastfed babies, among other results.  

However, the researchers from the Center for Health Research at California Polytechnic State University felt it was important to remove any possible limitations, to see if they could gain new insights. They didn't want yet another study comparing groups of formula fed babies with groups of breastfed babies, as this oversimplifies a more complex reality - including parents alternating between bottle and breast, and formula and human milk.  

Sensitive to baby's cues

In this study, the same mothers switched between separate sessions of breastfeeding and bottle feeding (using their own expressed breast milk). Because the milk babies received was the same during both feedings, the researchers felt they could purely focus on interactions and feeding practices and outcomes.  

They found that mothers are more or less equally sensitive to their baby's cues and distress - whether they are breastfeeding or bottle feeding. The infants also gave the same, clear cues to mom, and were equally responsive to mom when she engaged baby by playing games (socioemotional growth fostering) or interacted by talking (cognitive growth fostering). 

The babies also showed little difference between the amounts of milk drunk by bottle or breast, and maintained the more or less the same feeding rate. Though the babies did take longer to breastfeed than bottle feed the expressed milk.

Experience matters

The researchers also wondered if the amount the baby drinks by breast or bottle would differ, depending on their feeding history. As it turned out, babies with more experience with bottle feeding tended to drink more milk during a bottle feed, compared with breastfeeding.

On the other hand, babies who were not often bottle fed tended to drink more during a feed when breastfeeding. And experienced mothers with older children fed their infant more milk than first-time parents. 

For many parents, the results of this study can be quite reassuring. Alternating between expressed milk fed by bottle and feeding straight from the mother's breast does not appear to influence interactions between mother and child. And baby continues to take in a healthy amount of mother's milk - perhaps a bit more, depending on their experience, but well within healthy norms. 

Reference
1. Ventura A, Hupp M, Lavond J. Mother-infant interactions and infant intake during breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding expressed breast milk. Matern Child Nutr. 2021 Oct;17(4):e13185.