Cup Versus Bottle Feeding for Late Preterm Infants

The provision of breast milk is essential for preterm infants as it provides unique health benefits that are unmatched by other types of feeding [1-3]. However, breastfeeding presents unique challenges for preterm infants that include establishing and maintaining the mothers' milk supply and transitioning the infant from gavage feeding to breastfeeding [4]. One of the issues that presents during the transition to breastfeeding is that mothers of preterm infants are rarely available for all oral feedings during hospitalization; this makes it necessary for infants to receive oral feedings by other method, usually bottle feeding.

However, exposure of newborn infants to artificial nipples has been strongly associated with breastfeeding problems [5-9]. Frequently these problems have been explained by phenomena called nipple confusion. Nipple confusion occurs when infants are exposed to two different feeding methods, bottle and breast, resulting in the infant refusing to breastfeed. Consequently, it has been recommended that bottle feeding be avoided and that cup feeding be used for the supplementation of term as well as preterm infants.

Cup feeding is known as an alternative method of feeding breast milk to an infant using a small cup without a lip. Cup feeding is also recommended by the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.The use of cup was originally based on the goal of avoiding propping of bottles and also to increase bodily contact with the mother during feeding. Although cup feeding receives little mention in medical literature, and may seem to be a new technique for some, it has been used in several developing as well as developed countries. Lang, who observed cup feeding in South Nepal, implemented cup feeding in England and the practice expanded to other developed countries. Consequently cup feeding was established as a method for feeding infants who could not be breastfed from birth.