Thickening breastmilk or formula

Pumping and thickening breastmilk can disrupt breastfeeding. Please consult a breastfeeding expert to help avoid problems.

Thickening formula is done for several reasons:

You want a food that doesn't splash every time the baby moves or the stomach churns. Thickened liquids don't splash out of the stomach as easily.
The stomach treats liquids and solids differently. Thickened liquids provoke a different kind of churning action.
Children who have trouble gaining weight may benefit from extra calories in their food.
Children prone to choking sometimes do better on thicker liquids. The thicker liquids seem to be less prone to going "down the wrong tube."
There is a chemical sensor (think electric eye of an automatic door opener) at the top of the stomach that senses an air bubble and will let it out. If it senses food or acid, it is supposed to keep the top of the stomach shut. If the sensor is faulty, it may not sense liquids properly, particularly water. Thickening liquids may help the chemo receptor recognize the presence of the liquid and close the sphincter at the top of the stomach correctly.

Thickening is bad for a few babies:

Watch your child carefully because there are a few children who choke more on thickened liquids! Remember to watch how the thickening affects swallowing of "second hand" food that has been refluxed out of the stomach once and the baby may re-swallow it.
It can interfere with breastfeeding
Some children gain too much weight when the milk is thickend with cereal. Non calorie thickeners are available at pharmacies.
Thickening does not reduce acid.
Thickening doesn't decrease reflux in all children, it just keeps the stomach contents from coming up far enough to be seen.

To improve the effects of gravity, fool the stomach, and properly trip the chemo receptor, the formula should be as thick as stage 1 baby foods or tomato sauce (not paste!). If the formula isn't thickened this much, you aren't accomplishing anything except increasing the number of calories per ounce.

Dr. Benny Kerzner, the Chief of Gastroenterology at Children's National, did experiments years ago to find out how much cereal needs to be added. It takes about 2.75 - 3.00 teaspoons per ounce. This is roughly a tablespoon. He said they learned an interesting lesson because the formula didn't get thick gradually as you might expect. In fact, it didn't thicken up at all until about 2.75 teaspoons had been added and then it thickened quite a bit. Depending on the brand and fluffiness of the cereal, it may take a tiny bit more.

One Tablespoon (= 3 teaspoons) of rice cereal per ounce is a reasonable recipe that works with most brands. If you use other cereals or thickeners, you may have to experiment.

Note: breastmilk will thicken up fine, but a few minutes later it gets thin again. There is something in the breastmilk that breaks down the cereal. You may only want to thicken an ounce at a time. The good news is that breastmilk digests much quicker than formula.

Thickened formula will not come out of a regular nipple. Most bottle manufacturers have cross cut nipples and variable flow nipples. Ask your pharmacist or grocery manager to order them.

Need to do a science fair experiment? We have instructions on measuring the thickness without an expensive viscosity gauge.

Check with your
doctor first!