In neonatal units, various methods are used to feed or supplement preterm infants when they are learning to breastfeed or their mothers are unable to breastfeed. Alternative feeding methods include using a cup, bottle, or feeding tube. Cup feeding is a technique whereby a small cup of milk is held below the infant's upper lip, and the infant sips or laps the milk from the cup. Although relatively simple to accomplish, cup feeding can take longer than other feeding methods. Nevertheless, in recent years, cup feeding has gained acceptance as a method of feeding supplemental breast milk to preterm or full-term infants to prevent them from developing a preference for the bottle over the breast. A recent Cochrane Neonatal Review considered this question: Is cup feeding a better way to feed babies, rather than giving bottles or feeding with a tube, when mothers are unable to fully breastfeed?1 Four eligible studies comparing cup and bottle feeding in infants 29 to 36 weeks' gestation were included in this review. Three of these studies demonstrated that infants who were cup fed were more likely to be exclusively breastfed at hospital discharge. However, at 3 and 6 months, there was no difference in the number of infants fully or partially breastfeeding, whether initially fed by cup, bottle, or feeding tube. Furthermore, one study found that infants fed by cup spent approximately 10 days longer in the hospital. Reviewers concluded that cup feeding cannot be recommended over bottle feeding as a supplement to breastfeeding because it confers no significant benefit in maintaining breastfeeding beyond hospital discharge and carries the unacceptable consequence of a longer hospital stay.1

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