WHY THE NEED ARISES OF GIVING MILK THROUGH BOTTLE?  

• People believe that giving milk through bottle gives the child satisfaction.

 

• Belief prevails that the child’s stomach gets filled if milk is given through bottle and also the child will not remain hungry and will sleep well.

   

• Once the mother gets back to her work, the grandmother or any other relative or the nanny of the child gives milk through the bottle to the child. Because they feel it is convenient.

 

• How to feed the baby when he or she is sleeping? Thinking this many parents start giving milk to the child through bottle. But the habit is cultivated then, even if the child is fast asleep and child’s eyes are closed, he or she will learn to have milk through spoon and bowl.

   

• A false belief prevails in the society that less breast milk was coming out of the mother and also after the baby is 3 to 4 months old, the breast milk alone doesn’t fulfil the child’s requirements so we started giving outside milk through bottle.

 

• Some good or bad incident happened in the house so there was a need to start giving milk through bottle.

   

• Many parents have a wrong belief and say that we had given milk through bottle to our first child. Also our neighbours give bottle to their child and the child never had any problem so there is problem to give milk through the bottle.

 

• Myth prevails in the society that if at night the baby is given milk from the bottle, the child will sleep well. Some parents say we will be giving bottle just once or twice in a day.

   

• Parents also carry a thought process that we will give milk to the child through bottle only for 8 to 9 months and then will completely leave the bottle.

 

• We will use good quality bottle and nipple and after some time we will change the nipple. So that the child does not have to suffer from any infections. With such false myths many people start bottle.

   

• When we travel or when we are going out to a friend’s place then only we give bottle to the child.

  All of the above are merely excuses. In the medical field it is clearly stated that milk should not be given through bottle.   SIDE EFFECTS OF THE MILK GIVEN THROUGH BOTTLE.  

• Bottle means the breeding place and collection centre of germs.

 

• Bottle never gets 100 percent germ free by the method of washing it with boiling water at home.

   

• The germs start breeding when the cells of milk remain in the minute holes of the nipple. To make the bottle cent percent germ free, in the hospital there is AUTOCLAV. To clean the bottle completely, one should have this bottle steriliser which is relatively quite expensive.

 

• Babies who are drinking milk through the bottle are likely to get 4 to 5 times more coughing and diarrhoea than the child who are not having through the bottle.

   

• The babies who have the left over milk in the bottle after 2 to 3 hours tend to fall sick more often.

 

• More cases of infantile eczema are seen in the babies who drink milk through bottle.

   

• The babies who have twice or thrice milk through bottle and remaining time they have breast feeding, their quantity of breast milk reduces. The babies who have milk from the bottle find it easy to suck the nipple of the bottle. To suck the nipples of mother’s breast is slightly difficult. Hence gradually the child likes to have milk from the bottle and when the mother brings the baby close to the breast he or she tries to avoid sucking from the breast. That is also called nipple confusion. Only if the baby sucks the nipple, more milk is formed in the mother’s breast. The child that drinks milk from the bottle suck less nipple of the mother. So the child lacks the benefits of breast feeding because the child loves to have milk through bottle rather than do breast feeding.

 

• Currently good quality bottles are available in the market. In which the child doesn’t have to suck or pull more. The nipple gets pressed between the upper and lower palate and because that compression milk starts flowing out in the without any extra efforts. Because of this the baby forgets the methodology to pull and suck mother’s nipple.

   

• The weight of the babies having milk through bottle will definitely increase in the beginning but on long run they will have to suffer from various diseases and because they don’t eat by themselves their weight increase.

 

• Diseases like diarrhoea, vomiting, skin allergies, pnuemonia, infection in the ears, brain, fever etc. are common with the babies drinking milk from the bottle. Such kids have to be at times hospitalized also.

   

• Kids drinking milk from bottle and having the powdered food products don’t like to have daal-rice and vegetables made at home. They do not get fibrous food. Thus, they have the problem of constipation.
• The kids who drink milk from the bottle have less efficiency in chewing their food well. A mother of one and a half year old child often says that my child can have one and a half litre milk but if a piece of thick paratha is given, then he or she is unable to chew it. They can have semi-soft food items. They are efficient in having such food items only. There chewing ability remains weak for longer time.

 

• The babies who have milk from the bottle do not have patience. As the milk flows continuously and immediately, they become impatient when they are fed with spoon and bowl. Because of this the child becomes impatient, angry, cranky, bit violent and suffer from lack of self-confidence and inferiority complex.

   

• The babies who have milk from the bottle suffer many a times from ulcers in the mouth, infection in the teeth, infection in the urine etc.

 

• When the child has milk from the bottle, at that time air goes in its stomach [aerophagia]. The relatives many a times complaint that there seems to be gas and cramps in the child’s tummy. Gradually the child becomes cranky and has to take various gripe water.

   

• Once the child has milk from bottle for 1 to 1.5 years then its like the smoking. The side effects of a bad habit always comes even though the child has left the habit of bottle. After too much of illness and too many visits of the hospital, the parents and doctor develop friendship also.

 

• 70 % of the children who stammer and pronounce certain words little late must have had milk through the bottle. This has been proved by certain researches.

   

• The child lacks the warmth, affection, touch and closeness of mother’s breast and body if he or she drinks milk from the bottle.

 

• It is been observed that kids tend to start thumb sucking if they have had the milk from the bottle.
• The problems of urinating in the bed at night and having no control over urine are the problems that can be seen in the kids who drink milk from bottle more. After all these observations, we can conclude that milk bottle is the biggest enemy of the child and parents are committing an offence by giving them the milk bottle.

 

• The relatives of the child who is having milk from the bottle has to get into in the fuss of cleaning the bottle and when the child falls sick has to spend time, effort and money in the hospital.

   

• The arrival of bottle and problems takes place in the house at the same time.

  HOW TO GET RID OF THE BOTTLE?  

• Don’t wait for any specific time or muharat to get rid from the nuisance of the bottle. When the thought comes that the bottle has to be stopped, take the bottle and just throw it in the dustbin. This is the best method to get rid of the bottle.

 

• The parents who decide to get red of the bottle should be mentally prepared that the child will cry for 6 to 7 days, might not eat any other food, at times there is fall of 200 to 300 grams of weight. But there is no issue at all. Do not worry. These problems are only for sometime. After few days the child will also start having other food items. Weight also increases and the crankiness of the child also reduces.

   

• The habit of bottle will never go away gradually. If the child is taking bottle 3 to 4 times and the parents think that we will reduce it twice and then once and later will stop completely. Then this method won’t work. When ever you wish to get rid of the bottle, just throw it away from the house. When there will be no bottle in the house, even if the child cries in the middle of the night you won’t be able to give the bottle as there will be no bottle in the house. For 2 to 3 days the child might cry but after few days the child will not like the bottle at all. The parents who have got rid of the bottle of their kids share their experiences with us. They tell we had fear that the child will cry a lot and will harass a lot when we will not give bottle but the child cried only for a day. After second day the child himself had forgotten the bottle. Kids are ready to leave the bottle. Its just that parents have to gather strength.

 

• Don’t think that when the child grows we will make the child leave the bottle or powdered food. Because by that time the child will develop the thought process that through this bottle I am easily getting my food and also my tummy is also getting filled then why should I take more efforts to cut and chew food. He or she will not like daal, rice, roti and vegetable less.

   

• The kids whose bottle is stopped might find difficulty in sleeping at night. They leave the milk completely for a month or their quantity reduces to a great extent.

 

• After you leave the bottle, don’t keep the bottle in the house. If you keep it in the house, if you give it even once then the habit will restart.

   

• If the child is three to four years and if he sees that my parents have thrown my bottle in the dustbin then he or she accepts the fact that now I will not get to drink the milk through the bottle.

 

• The organisations that deal with the children like INDIAN ACADEMY OF PAEDIATRICS AND BREAST FEEDING NETWORK OF INDIA have also recommended not to give milk through bottle.

    OTHER INFORMATION  

• If the child is given bottle, teether or pacifier then the child develops a habit of opening less mouth. So never give such kind of things to the child.

 

• The child’s weight might increase gradually if he or she is fed only mother’s milk. And the child who is having outside milk might seem healthy. But later on the breast fed child develops constantly and is disease free. Where as the child having milk with bottle or having powdered products may become over-healthy and may remain frequently ill.

   

• The child develops various types of allergies when the child is having powered milk through bottle.

 

• Even if the baby is given milk through bottle only once in a day, it is harmful.

   

• With the help of bottle the child will learn to drink milk within two days. With the spoon and bowl the child may learn to drink milk approximately in 10 days. Initially the milk might fall off but if the support of family members is there and mother keeps patience then, definitely mother can save her child from bottle. The mother who feeds the child with spoon and bowl will always be able to understand her child’s needs and wants easily.

 

• If the child is highly underweight or has hole in the palate, then under the guidance of the doctor the child can be fed with bottle. If there is a hole in the palate, then for such kids special long tube nipples are also available.

   

• In 1992 in one poster competition organized by INDIAN ACADEMY OF PAEDIATRICS a beautiful message on the poster that won the first prize was written. It was “ the real mother of the child feeds her child with only breast milk for six months. But a step mother gives outside milk with spoon. And a witch uses a bottle to give milk”.

    [DIVYA BHASKAR 01/09/2009 AND 16/04/2013]