When Do Babies Start Holding Bottle?

Some babies have fine motor skills to hold the bottle and deliver it to their target at the beginning of 6 months. For others, it will be closer to 10 months. The only way to know if your child can hold his bottle is to help him out and see what happens. If you have the motor skills to put the bottle in your mouth and take it out when it’s full, you can offer it every time.

No matter how old your baby is, don’t be tempted to use a bottle in your mouth to speed up the feeding process. A broken bottle can force your baby to eat or even cause injury.

And if your baby falls asleep with a bottle in his mouth, formula or breast milk may build up around the teeth and cause the tooth to come out. Therefore, to avoid tooth decay, do not move your child’s bottle or bottle and place it on the bed.

When Do Babies Start Holding Bottle

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, propellant bottles can also increase your child’s risk of ear infections. If your baby is lying down while weaning, fluid can flow from his mouth to the Eustachian tubes in his ears, where it can rotate and cause infection.

Another important reason is not to hold a bottle or to always hold it alone – it can deprive your child of significant time to curl up. Holding and stroking your baby during feeding gives her a sense of security and protection and helps promote bonding.

Bottle feeding is a great bonding experience. But honestly, it would be nice to free your hands at any time. While it is ultimately up to your child to decide when he is ready to serve himself, there are a few things you can do to help him prepare. After all, a child holding a bottle is an important milestone. It is a sign of her brain and muscle development: it is perfect and a little reminder to the mother that it is easier to care for the baby. So when children hold their bottle, how can they help them? Read for the answer.

When do children hold their own bottles?

“Most children begin to maintain their bottles for 6 to 10 months, as their fine motor skills develop,” says Sandeep Rajyaksh, Associate Medical Director of the Children’s Health Pediatrics Group in Dallas.

But as with many things, each child is different, and the child-specific window that holds the bottle may be too wide. Some learn to hold the bottle early, others take their time, and both are fine. “Be patient,” says Rajyakshaksha.

Baby signs to hold the bottle

Curious to see a child holding a bottle, but unsure if it’s ready? If you watch carefully, the baby will give you clues to prepare to join the meal. Here are some signs to watch out for:

• The child can sit alone for 10 minutes. Melanie Potock, a Denver-based pediatric feeding specialist and co-founder of Baby Self-Feeding, says, “Holding a bottle is a fine motor skill, and as with all fine motor skills, it is essential for the child to stabilize. Being able of. “

• Baby can hold a toy and a gun while sitting. She is multitasking! Someone who has to hold a bottle while drinking.

• When you feed it, the baby reaches for the bottle. This reflects the interest and cognitive development, and that child is beginning to associate the bottle with food.

What Food Should Be Given To 6 Months Baby

How to make a baby hold a bottle?

So how can you help a child hold the bottle? In a word: practice. You will not give a one-year-old big fat crayon and expect to be attracted to it, so you should not bottle-feed your baby and expect him to know how to use it properly. “Holding a bottle doesn’t happen overnight. It happens in stages,” says Potock. Here is what you can do to encourage the baby to hold the bottle:

• Bring toys and teeth to your mouth while sitting. “This helps the child use the same neck and facial muscles, which he has to hold and drink from the bottle.”

• There is a lot of tummy time. Core strength increases. “Babies need to develop trunk support in the first six months of life to hold relatively good objects in front of their mouths with both hands,” says Pottock. “Add coordinated sucking, swallowing, and breathing to the task of keeping a bottle free, and it’s not that easy!”

• When you are feeding, guide your hands. Start by placing her in your arms as if you were going to feed her (never lie flat while feeding the baby), then guide your hands around the bottle. “Once you have mastered the ability to hold the bottle to see if you hook it with your mouth,” says Razhyaksha. “If not, you can help guide him there.”

• Choose the correct feeding equipment. Potock says that using a cylindrical nipple (“breast-shaped” or “orthodontic”) can help correct the position of the tongue. “You can also add a BPA-free silicone bottle band so the child knows where the grip is and to minimize slippage,” she says.

Why should you avoid the bottle?

Sometimes he lifts the bottle, so to speak, with a cushion, and his son has to “sit” in the corner of the sofa and carry it. Do not do. If you find that you need to hold the bottle, which essentially means that you need to support the baby, the child is not ready to put his bottle away. Also, “it’s dangerous,” says Pottock, because the child can roll over and fall.

Bottle-feeding can also contribute to more food and possibly suffocation, as babies may not be able to regulate how much it takes for milk to flow freely, Rajyaksha says. “If the child falls asleep with a bottle in his mouth or continues to suck it, there is also a risk of ear infection and tooth decay.”

As Pottock points out, you can never hit a child who is eating solid food on a plate full of food and walk away. The same goes for a bottle of milk.

In addition, Rajadhiksha says: “Children feel a warm and secure feeling when holding them during meals. Even when your baby is able to drink freely, you must hold and clean him so that he can bond with him.”