The Most Common Baby Feeding Behaviors

If you are in the midst of resolving your baby’s bottle-feeding aversion, you could be lacking confidence in your ability to accurately interpret his behavioral cues. And worried that you might respond in a way that causes him to feel pressured. In this article, I describe normal infant behavior that babies display while feeding, how to tell the difference between fidgeting due to playfulness and rejection, and how to respond.

Normal baby feeding behaviors

As a newborn, your baby has limited ability to deliberately move his limbs. However, he can easily startle. As he matures, and develops physically, intellectually, and emotionally, he will become increasingly more active while feeding. He will start to behave in ways that he has never done before.

Examples of normal infant behavior that you might observe your baby perform while feeding include:

• Pounding or bouncing his legs up and down
• Grabbing his foot
• Staring and/or smiling at you
• Tapping or trying to hold the bottle
• Grabbing and pulling on your finger of the hand holding the bottle
• Accidentally knocking the bottle out of his mouth
• Deliberately pulling the bottle out of his mouth, looking at it, returning it to his mouth, and repeat
• Sitting up or doing tummy crunches
• Stretching his arms or legs
• Leaving the nipple in his mouth without sucking
• Pausing and sucking again
• Vocalizing, babbling, or making humming sounds
• Blowing raspberries
• Trying to stick his thumb or finger in his mouth while the nipple is still in his mouth.
• Covering his eyes with his arms or the burp cloth
• Pulling his ears or hair
• Pulling your hair
• Pushing the nipple out with his tongue or hands
• Turning his head and/or body away

The type of behaviors would largely depend on your baby’s stage of development. Mostly, babies employ these behaviors to amuse themselves while feeding. Depending on their temperament type some babies are more inquisitive, more active, and more easily distracted compared to others. However, a baby might also perform some of these behaviors when feeling agitated, or when he wants to stop feeding. Hence, it’s important to be able to tell the difference between your baby fidgeting or rejecting.

Fidgeting versus rejection

Fidgeting	Rejection
Relaxed, playful mood.	Appears tense or agitated.
Willing to briefly engage in eye contact.	Avoids eye contact.
Settles with attention.	Becomes more agitated with attention.
Turns head to look around.	Turns head to distance himself from the bottle.

What to do when your baby fidgets during feeds

If there are no signs of tension, it’s fine to continue the feed.

1. Make sure the nipple flow rate is suitable for your baby’s stage of development. If the nipple is too slow this will increase the duration of the feed and the risk that your baby will get bored.
2. Look at your baby.
3. Speak to him or sing.
4. Provide something to maintain baby’s attention while feeding. For example, place a toy in his hand or on his chest, or wear colored beads around your neck which he can touch while feeding.

Gauge how your baby responds. Ask yourself if what you are doing is helping him to stay focused on feeding or distracting him away from eating?

NOTE: If you feel you need to go to great lengths to entertain your baby to keep him eating, consider if you might be doing too much. There is a point where encouraging a baby to eat becomes pressure to eat. Cross that line and it could cause or reinforce a feeding aversion.

What to do if your baby rejects feeding

…if your baby rejects go for a break or end the feed. …if in doubt! It may be that your baby is not particularly hungry at the time. There’s nothing like a hungry little tummy to provide the motivation for a baby to remain focused on feeding. You may find he eats better after a break. If not, end the feed.

Written by Rowena Bennett

About Rowena

Rowena Bennett (RN, RM, CHN, MHN, IBCLC) is a leading infant-feeding and sleep specialist and author of several books on infant feeding and behaviour, including the widely acclaimed “Your Baby’s Bottle-Feeding Aversion: Reasons & Solutions.” With over three decades of clinical experience across child health, midwifery, mental health, and lactation, she has helped thousands of families worldwide understand and resolve complex feeding challenges through her evidence-based, baby-led approaches.