Bottle-fed babies may eat more

Babies who are bottle-fed early on are more likely to consume more calories later in infancy than babies who are exclusively breastfed.

There have hardly been any studies looking into the association between bottle feeding and calorie intake by infants. Most studies have focused on the components of breast milk, like breast milk hormones including leptin and adiponectin, which could help regulate infants' appetite and metabolism. The researchers hypothesised that breastfeeding encourages greater appetite self-regulation in the long term. To determine a correlation between infants' milk intake and feeding mode (bottle versus breastfeeding), researchers followed 1,250 babies at the age of 7, 9, 10 and 12 months. The infants' mothers were asked how often their babies drank an entire bottle or cup of milk (formula or pumped breast milk).

It was found that among infants who had been exclusively breastfed during their first six months, 27 percent always or usually finished their cup or bottle as compared to 54 percent of babies who had been both breast-fed and bottle-fed, and 68 percent of those who had been bottle-fed only. Babies who had had more than two-thirds of their feedings via bottle in early childhood were twice as likely to routinely empty their milk cups as babies who'd had less than one-third of their feedings via bottle.

The findings remained unchanged even when factors like mothers' weight and education; family income and race were taken into account.

It was concluded that infants who are bottle-fed in early childhood are more likely to empty the bottle or cup in late childhood and thus consume more calories than those who are breastfed. Further research is needed to see whether early bottle-feeding is associated with appetite self-regulation in older children as well.