A big baby bottle may make for a big baby, a new study has found. Paediatricians asked parents of new babies fed only infant formula to show them their baby bottles. Some bottles hold 60 millilitres; others hold 3.25 decilitres or more.
After controlling for other factors that influence weight gain, the researchers found that using a large bottle when the baby was 2 months old was associated with a more rapid increase in weight gain by the time the babies were 6 months old compared to those who used smaller bottles.
While babies should gain weight, rapid weight gain in infants is a predictor of later obesity. Using a smaller bottle could be an easy step to take to help ward off excess weight gain.