Are all bad sleepers breastfed?

We had a rocky start with BF, she was badly tongue tied which wasn't fixed until she was 3 weeks old. So I pumped during the day and bottle fed at night. Even when she did latch we carried on with that because being full to the brim really helped her sleep at night.

They use bottles to soothe also. It’s not exclusive to breastfeeding. My daughter 100% did.

My bottle fed daughter was a horrific sleeper. She only really started sleeping through the night aged 8 😭 and even now she can’t sleep alone.

Seems like from friends, as well as the people l know from antenatal and baby groups

No, my first exclusive BF slept through from 6 weeks and my second combi fed was about 10 months. The problem with BF however is that they use it for comfort not necessarily hunger, I was lucky both mine were able to self soothe (thumb suckers) which I believe was the trick to sleeping well.

My son was mostly bottle fed from a few days old (mix of expressed milk and pre mix formula) and he’s been a pretty good sleeper

It’s also the biological norm for babies to wake often in the night. Op doesn’t want this to happen she wants her baby to sleep for longer stretches! Understandably.

It might be the problem. It might not.

I had two that were ebf and two that were combi fed. Best sleeper by far was (and is) fed to sleep. Eldest sleep massively improved once I nightwear her, but middle two no change to waking up, but it took longer to get them back to sleep so was more disruptive for me.

Sleep disruption can be due to all sorts of things. At 8 months I'd say probably stick with it for now and review later on. It's more likely to be illness/teething if its really awful at that age. See how things go? (I realise its easy to say that now im out of the terrible dungeon that is horrifically broken nights....)

I’ve had 2 bf babies and 1 bottlefed. I don’t think there is a correlation but the bf 2 were terrible sleepers and the bottlefed baby was not. Having said that, the bf 2 are much less susceptible to illness now (again, perhaps unrelated). Of my DTs, the bottle fed one has had 4 sick days since starting school, the bf one has had none.

What do you mean by “bad sleeper”?

So did mine, although I only had one.

I told HV at about 8-9 weeks that I was waking him up to feed him at 2am. She was horrified.

He's remained a good sleeper, as a toddler I put him to bed in the evening and not a peep until he woke at about 7am. EBF until six months with only occasional BF mid-afternoon until about 14 months, then I couldn't be arsed with that and stopped completely.

It's just the baby you get, not the method of feeding. If I'd had another they could have been completely different.

Me and my friend had our babies at the same times-ish each time x3. We both breastfed all 3, she combined fed her second.

Mine were absolutely awful sleepers (first the worst and third the best so maybe some parenting upskilling involved too), but her 3 were all revoltingly good sleepers all the way through. I was sick with envy.

If you take it away from him at 8 months it will be a difficult transition as you will lose your superpower to get him to sleep.

Two EBF kids here. DS slept through at 6 weeks (health visitor insisted he had to be woken up for feeds but he was having none of it) and DD slept for 10 hours with one quick 5 am feed at 2 months. Never fed to sleep. At 8 months he’s on enough solids that it isn’t hunger waking him.

I don't think breastfeeding makes horrible sleepers of babies - I do think feeding to sleep and not night weaning in a timely manner is highly disruptive for their sleep. I breastfed for the first 4 months both times, the first I did mixed with a formula bottle before bed to help with sleep and the second was EBF, both were nightweaned at 4 months. I also worked hard not to feed to sleep and get them to learn how to sleep through themselves - so both were sleeping all through night from about 4.5 months. I don't think you need to stop BF at all if you like it - I would absolutely work hard to cut night feeds and make sure they learn to fall asleep without the breast.

Both breastfed. One had no issues sleeping, the other one did. I would never base my decision on whether to breastfeed or not on sleeping.

I’ve got 5 children, I formula fed 3, mix fed 2 and breast fed 1, all were great sleepers, so no link with us.

Ah yes interesting, I mentioned my eldest up thread, who was the terrible sleeper of my two. He remained a poor sleeper and has been diagnosed with ASD. Trying to implement a good sleep structure has been virtually impossible with him!

I breastfed my first until 8/9 months. He was a terrible sleeper until 2.5/3 - needed the feed, only issue we then had to have washed bottles and a fortune in formula until almost 2! He refused anything but a bottle until then. I breastfed my second and she has just turned 2.5. She is starting to sleep through now. They are both night owls and have fast metabolisms. Nothing to do with breastfeeding, your first might have started sleeping through anyway and it was a coincidence

Baby 1 ebf till 12 months. Slept ok!

Baby 2 ebf till 8 months. Didn't sleep ok. Stopping bf had no affect on babies sleep. Mine improved though as we were able to share feeding/night waking.

Babies are supposed to have lots of caregivers in a big tribe but we've moved away from that- to our detriment I think! They are also meant to wake up a lot. As are adults. The idea of having on big chunk of sleep is a very new industrial revolution idea. So now you just get very tired and unsupported mothers and a huge industry trying to sell them stuff to make their babies sleep.

Both mine ebf. DS woke up every 2 hours. DD has done 6 hour chunks from birth! Breastfeeding also releases lots of hormones for the Mum to help her get back off. Also co sleeping helps.

It’s not that they wake more frequently. It’s that they are more easily roused from sleep.

And that’s one of the reasons. Others are things such as antibodies in milk and more developed airways from breastfeeding

I breastfed and my daughter woke once a night to feed then slept through from 5 months old - and continued to sleep through ever since. She’s now 11!

All mine were EBF for 1 year. All slept really well after the first couple of months, with a few dream feeds in the night

Mine were both bf until a bit short of a year, by which point they had been night weaned for a little while. After that they still weren't perfect sleepers.
However when I see people feeding toddlers though the night on here I wonder how the DC even get the chance to try at settling themselves to sleep.