Do formula fed babies sleep more?

[McShities]

4.5 month old EBF, still feeding over 14 times a day, 4 times at night. I'm shattered. Fed up. Only break I get is when I pump for DH to give bottle and I fucking hate pumping, considering I breastfeed for over 7 hours a day I can't stand using it in the rare times I'm not. Yes I know breast is best, and I've done it for months but can someone be real with me, as my HV is refusing to say anything that could be conceived as pro ff. Will it help? Read a tub of Aptamil which suggested between 5 or 6 feeds a day which sounds like heaven to me. I'm so bloody tired

Yes but Consider that's anecdotes for you! My anecdotal experience is the opposite. One friend was pulling her hair out at 2 months so swapped and it made no bloody difference.

It's also the way conversation and communication work. So there's me with friend listening to her travails, for all I know there could have been another mum sitting next to us as baby group who did the same and it worked a dream and full baby then started sleeping five hours at a time, but she might think 'Well I'm not going to tell this poor woman that, that's the last smug thing she needs to hear' - same with you and friends all agreeing that FF gets them sleeping, could easily be one or two who ARE having ongoing issues but don't want to put a downer on the conversation. It's just the way anecdotes work, people want to come to agreeable conclusions in conversation as it's affirmative. It's really interesting. But it's also why you need to look at studies to get clearer answers.

I breast fed my dc, and I co slept, so it was really easy. I don't remember being sleep deprived at all, even the baby woke up few times during the night.

You have hit the point of sleep regression.
However no reason why you should do all of it. If you hate pumping then yes switch to formula. You've had a good crack at breast feeding. Sounds like you've had enough.
I think babies tend to snack more on the boob and take a bit more from a bottle.
It wont be forever, hang in there.

I read that it is a myth, but not too sure. However in your situation I wouldn't pump. I would just give formula for those bottle feeds to give you a break. Things are established enough it shouldn't affect your supply.

Both my DS's were EBF. DS1 was a nightmare, feeding multiple times at night. DS2 was totally different and slept for 5 to 6 hours from birth. By about 6 months he was pretty much sleeping the whole night.

There are no guarantees.

My ff baby slept for longer in between feeds than my bf ones. However feeds took longer for my ff baby and it was more awkward when we went out because he would only drink the milk warmed up and he always wanted feeding at the same times every day, including 3pm when I was picking up my older dc from school. So I found breastfeeding a lot easier despite the frequent feeding.

I also wonder with the anecdata here if it includes a people from the time before the rules on formula prep became stricter. I can imagine how you'd get better sleep if you could just leave a made up bottle on the bedside table and give it to baby but not so much when you have to go to the kitchen and faff about boiling kettles and measuring powder.

You don't have to boil kettles and measure powder in the middle of the night, you can make up a bottle and leave it in the fridge, then re heat when needed. The big advantage of formula isn't necessarily that babies sleep longer, but someone else can feed them leaving you to sleep. I mix fed, so bf most of the time but dd had one bottle of formula a day which dp gave to her so I could get an early night and have a decent chunk of sleep. We did find that it helped her sleep. You could always give it a go?

SnuggyBuggy when we switched to formula we had a perfect prep upstairs so it didn’t take long at all.
The main thing for me was that yes, formula feeding was a faff, but I wasn’t the only one who had to do it! So I ended up doing one formula feed per night while DH did the other, rather than breastfeeding 5-6 times a night, which he couldn’t help with. In fact DC2 was breastfeeding feeding every 40 mins throughout the night at 7 months, and that instantly dropped to twice a night when I switched.
But as I said above the sleep thing wasn’t why I switched to formula at a particular point with any of mine, it was just a by product really. There are many complex reasons why people choose to exclusively BF, or to FF, or to mix feed, or to stop BF-ing, and I think it’s wise to take all the factors into consideration when making a decision.
If you feel you’re done with breastfeeding for whatever reason, then that’s fine. If you want to persevere, that’s also fine.

Yes, in my experience. I've had 3 babies , 2 formula fed from birth, and they all quickly and easily fell into a pattern of 3 hourly feeds, and they all dropped the 2 am one by a few weeks. I used to give them a last feed at 11pm ish, and they soon slept through till about 6am.
Also, sterilising and making up bottles isn't really a faff, not once you've done it a few times. Practice makes it a lot easier.

In my circle of friends, yes, FF babies had less trouble sleeping.

Oh my goodness that feeding schedule sounds like torture! You’ve done amazingly OP to last this long. Please don’t become a hostage to this though. There’s no reason at all to feel guilty about giving formula if that is what you want to do, whether by combo feeding to cut out the pumping, or switching over completely. Do what is right for you and your baby as a whole.

faff with making up bottles
This doesn't have to be the case! You can buy formula ready made - I loved the Aptamil, it comes in 200ml and 1L bottles and you literally just pour it into a clean bottle and warm it for 20-30 seconds in the microwave. You have to make sure you shake the bottle after that to disperse any possible hot spots but honestly what kind of idiot can't manage that .

Yes it's a bit more expensive than powder but in the grand scheme of things, is that really a deal breaker for most people in the OP's circumstances?

And anyone who comes on to tut about warming bottles in the microwave really needs to get a grip, in my very humble opinion. We are grownups and we are entirely capable of learning how many seconds it takes in our home microwave to warm it perfectly and not to scalding temperatures, and giving it gentle shake to disperse the heat.

And it does not release poisonous plastic fumes to do so, either - don't listen to anyone who says it does as there would be no such thing as microwaveable plastic if this were the case

Good luck whichever way you go, OP!

Mine slept very well from birth and they were both formula fed. Both sleeping through the night from about 8 weeks.

The suggestion that bottle washing / sterilising is "a lot of faff" is nonsense . I used to wash them after use , sterilise them together, make up 24 hours of formula and fill the bottles at one time. Kept them all in the fridge and took them out as needed. No faff at all.

Not I’m my experience. My older DD was ff and woke up more often for milk that most bf. I’m bf DD2 and it’s so much easier than ff.

If your happy to give formula then DH can give one bottle of formula a night so you can get some more sleep.

I though this used to be true, but for at least the last decade, it hasn’t been.

They have improved formula so it is more similar to breast milk and does not sit in the stomach and “fill them up” as it did in our grandparents/ parents days.

My DD1 was exclusively breastfed until 7.5 months and she was a pretty good sleeper at night, shocking during the day, but good at night.

Don’t think so, no. It’s luck of the draw with babies, some sleep through earlier than others. I have four, all EBF and two were sleeping through before six months but the other two not so much...

If I were you I'd be cracking open the formula.

@LightDrizzle that makes sense, weren't there also dubious practices of adding rusks and things to make formula heavier as well.

As to the faff, it's always going to be more faff than established BF. If it makes them sleep more or you can share the feeds it might be worth it but if it doesn't make any difference then you've added faff.

My twins were formula fed from 4 months. They definitely slept better. They were slow feeders and breastfeeding it felt like they were never off the nipple, they kept falling asleep. With a bottle they got more, quickly, and also DH could take responsibility for the bottles.

I think it entirely depends. Of all the babies in our antenatal group, the formula fed baby slept the worst! My DD is BF and has always been a good sleeper.

I think if you have a good sleeper they are a good sleeper regardless.

Also DD does occasionally get formula if I'm out and her dad is looking after her. The ready made bottles are great and we don't even bother heating them. She's happy to drink them at room temp. So for overnight you could just have a clean bottle and a ready made bottle and be ready to go in a few seconds if your baby isn't picky. It is more expensive though than the powder.

A study I read said that on average parents of ff babies do get more sleep per night - 14 minutes more. Depends if you think that's worth it!

If it's making you that miserable, then stop. You've done it for 4.5 months. It's better for baby to have a happy mother.

That being said, DD was formula fed from day 2, she doesn't sleep - Never has and still doesn't at 17 months old so in my opinion it's a myth. What I do think though, is that feeding is a lot more on a schedule.

My 2 were formula fed since birth and slept through the night every night since they were 6 and 8 weeks old respectively. Obviously that’s purely anecdotal but the rest of my nct group were all bf and had really bad sleepers.

With mine, I think what helped was that they had a bottle purely for feeding and it wasn’t a comfort thing so when they woke up in the night they were able to resettle without feeding again.

As for people saying it’s a hassle making up and washing bottles it really isn’t. We have a perfect prep machine which makes a bottle in 2 mins and washing the bottles and putting them in a stériliser takes no more than a couple of minutes. It’s really no hassle.