Baby in pram with bottle in his mouth?

[mythical]

That's it really, he was in his (carrycot) pram with a bottle in his mouth. He couldn't have been older than 3-4 months. His mum was looking at someone's stuff ( we were at a car boot sale)
Bottle was just sort of balanced... In his mouth.
Wibu to do a double take? Or am I completely out of the loop and it's a perfectly normal thing to do?

My sis knew someone that tied the bottle on a string from the puschair and walked around town like it with bottle in babies mouth.I do think that was dangerous.

@Billy. Sorry, maybe a bit brusque - professional deformation. I'm a statistician and have an irrational hatred of non-quantified risks : I figure that if I'm allowed not to say how big the risk is - just that it could happen - I can make anything sound irresponsible and dangerous.

And I've generally found that with this kind of thing hard statistics are almost impossible to come by (and I could google for a living). Though I'll go and see...

Yanbu, it reminds me of those water bottles attached to the side of hamster cages.

Obviously a baby that is sat more upright and can hold its own bottle is different to one lay flat in a carrycot and being propped against it.

I used to do it with my dts. With propping they learn to hold their own bottle a lot sooner! Initially I fed them on the breast, and spent more time on an trip sitting in changing rooms than outside of them. So they went on ebm, propped!

I used to prop to one side, if the baby had had enough they would turn their head away. I should imagine they would do the same if they started to choke on it - surely they aren't actually going to drown on it? I used to keep an eye on them anyway (they were rear facing) and never saw them struggle with it.

My DS was EBF to 20 weeks, back in the days when most babies started being weaned at 16 weeks (according to my HV anyway!) Once he starte on solids, we started giving him 1 bottle of formula last thing at night and decided DH would feed him. The second night, he grabbed the bottle from DH and fed himself!
He refused to let anyone bottle feed him again, so I have never experienced bottle feeding my own baby. He must have known what he was doing, because he rarely needed burping and was never sick!
3 or 4 months does seem a little young.

I have a pic of dt1 holding his own bottle aged ONE WEEK!

it always seems a bit sad to me, but only because feeding you baby is lovely and a good excuse for a cuddle. I feel guilty now if I give DS2 who is 26 months his bedtime bottle without holding him while he drinks it!

I dont think the odd resorting to prop feeding is a big problem

I mean babies feed every 3 hours on average, thats a lot of cuddling and bonding time. I dont think a couple minutes of prop feeding will cause deep bonding issues. Im afraid i had to resort to it twice on wintry school-run mornings. My baby can take at least 30 mins to finish her milk so we would have been very late on some mornings where after broken sleep i accidently slept through my alarm

I always had my eye on her and kept readjsting the bottle, but free hands meant i could get myself and dd1 dressed and ready

It just seemed practical to me. As much as i would have loved to have been snuggled in bed, cuddling my baby the obligation to get dd1 to school on time won out

babies can turn their heads away..that is rubbish, they turn their heads to latch on to a breast..
and I did occaisionally prop feed DD in a bouncy chair in her buggy but mostly held her in my arms when she would let me as she preferred daddy-
I was not lazy and I did supervise. I had 4 kids under 6 years so was probably feeding or reading to a toddler at the time.
dont think I was being lazy..just multitasking.
My 3 month old held her bottle and was pushing up to stand at 4 months/ sitting unaided. No ear infections. The others were BF til at least 8 months each and they were all a month behind her in development.]
My first I BF baby had loads of ear infections probably becasue I had too much milk and it used to pour down the side of her mouth (to her ear I suppose)
AND do we trust google for everything?

funnys - so funny - you do realise that 26 months is 2 years 2 months! yOur midwife would have you hung drwan and quartered for giving your toddler a bedtime bottle! LOL

I have recently started doing this with ds when we're out but he's a chunky 7 month old. :o He has started not wanting anyone to hold his bottle or spoon so I have just given in to this on occasion.
I only learned you could do it when I seen a woman with her newborn that was days old in Drs surgery doing this in it's car seat...

3 months I don't think is a massive risk as they can move their head, a newborn however...

I've prop fed a couple of times. Although my baby was closer to the 5month mark and sitting relatively upright. I do think a baby laying down in a carry cot with a bottle propped is a bit odd, but then people will do it to make life a bit easier.

In my case i was in the middle of a busy city center with a screaming baby and very very stressed out!! I wouldn't do it all the time and i certainly wouldn't if i didn't have a close eye on my baby.

tartan I know. She mentioned it at his 2 year chck, but I smiled and ignored her! DS2 loves the routine of a bedtime bottle and to me he's still a baby......... Plus his teeth and bite are fine!

Even a newborn can turn their head, just not lift it. I once woke up to find one of babies had self latched on to my boob while I was still asleep!

Baby was only a few weeks old, I'd fallen asleep with him.

Is it really possible to choke on milk in a newborn bottle? How

Yes it is, but given the age of the child it isn't that dangerous, the applies to a baby well supervised.

As in drowning, babies go silent when they are struggling to breath whilst being prop fed, so close supervision is needed.

I work closely with HV's and obviously i come into contact with neglect (CP SW), so have heard of a lot of choking incidents, whilst prop feeding, including babies needing reviving and two being left disabled.

But out of the one's that i know about, hundreds probably prop feed and manage to remove all of the risks.

Personally i don't see the need for it, in young/newborn babies (unless triplets etc) and they are at the 'at risk' group, but then i would imagine that you would counteract that with close supervision.

I prop fed all of mine and never had a problem. i assume that the people on here complaining would prefer the child to have been screaming the place down because they were hungry. As long as the mother/ someone responsible was keeping a close eye then I really don't see the problem here.

She was at a boot fair!!!!!!!!!!!! How can a baby choke to death with it's mother standing next to the pram. She probably doesn't do it at home! No wonder some mothers have PND with all these do gooders judging them all the bloody time.

Yes, that is of course, why women get PND.

Yes, my first thought was bottle on hamster cage

I don't like to see a baby feeding from a 'propped up bottle'. How long does it take to feed a baby a bottle? Small babies get so much more than just milk from their feed. It should be a time of comfort and nurturing.

I believe if you can't breast feed for whatever reason, then at least make time to feed your child a bottle of milk.

"at least"? Why use those words? Sounds rather snidey too me

Please don't blow thing out of proportion so much, (re PND comment)I wouldn't have said anything to the mum, as I said before i wasn't judging her, I just saw the situation and thought - if I was lying down completely and my arms were swaddled up, trying to drink from a bottle wouldn't be very comfy hence why I asked "is this unusual or is it safe?" and not "oh my god is this mum horrible/should I call SS" because that would be very stupid indeed :)