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

It's worth remembering that sleeping through isn't necessarily 'the goal'. Little babies are biologically designed to wake through the night. It's a safeguard against SIDs and is how babies are designed. Of course some breastfed babies will sleep through too, mine did at 6 weeks, although doesn't now (although she just wakes up once which I'm perfectly happy with for as long as she needs to) but I feel a bit uncomfortable about stuffing them with formula to suppress natural waking patterns when the overnight wakings aren't overly extreme, or that sleeping through is some
sort of badge of honour.

Also when you delve a bit deeper into all these babies who STTN you find gems such as 'He STTN, I just have to put his dummy back in a few times' (that's not STTN) or 'She goes 7-7, I just give her a dreamfeed at midnight' (also not technically STTN). People tell a lot of fibs about baby sleep and see sleeping through the night as some sort of milestone, when in reality baby sleep is not linear like that.

Sleep is entirely dependent on the particular breed of baby you get I’m afraid
DC1: breastfed for 2 days, fed expressed milk from a bottle for 3 months, then formula until 1 - shitty sleeper until around 15 months. Slept through the night at 2.
DC2: breastfed for about 8 weeks, then prescription formula until 2 and a half. Still doesn’t sleep through and has just turned 3.
DC3: Ebf, 8 weeks old. My best sleeper out of the 3! She stirs a little in the night, so I feed her, she falls back to sleep on the boob, we roll back over and sleep until next feed.

So in my experience, method of feeding has little impact on how well a baby sleeps.

My three all slept for longer periods when I changed them to FF .

This is the best summary I have read of the evidence. www.basisonline.org.uk/hcp-sleep-and-feeding-method/

I think there's a chance a formula fed baby might sleep. But it's not an exact science.

They do generally drink more milk in one go, and go to sleep completely full. Whereas breastfed babies tend to drink little and often and can result in them sleeping for shorter stretches because they wake feeling the hunger sooner and want a little bit more milk.

It obviously isn't as clear cut as that, but generally speaking in my experience with my babies this is how i explained how much they slept.

Teething, illness, sleep regression will throw everything out of the window in any event!

All of my friends with formula fed babies slept better than the breastfed babies. And those that breastfed and then switched to formula saw a significant improvement in sleep.

Obviously this is anecdotal.

At the breastfeeding class I attended the teacher said formula takes longer to digest and makes babies sleep more deeply which is why breastfeeding reduces the risk of SIDS.

Also, don’t feel guilty about switching. After just a few weeks of breastfeeding a baby has had almost all of the benefit associated with breastfeeding, especially the immunity.

I've no idea, but my two EBF babies were both good sleepers. I had a ton of milk though - I literally could've fed twins!

Might sleep longer **

Yes FF sleep more and eat less because they have full bottle feeds. Not occasionally sucking milk out and using your breast as a dummy. Just move on. You've done absolutely great OP! 4 months is a lot of time I applaud you . I've seen a lot of friends move on from BM to FF and there is only 1 thing you can do wrong which is feeding on demand. Establish a routine! 3 hourly feeds starting at 6am or 5am whenever the morning starts so you get 5-6 feeds by 9pm and call it a night. Don't feed on demand when it comes to formula because weaning will be a pain in the bum . Wishing you all the best x

It's not either/or. If you're uncertain, you could always try introducing a formula feed before bed to see if it helps baby sleep longer so you can get a stretch. If it works, great, if it doesn't do anything to help, you'll be able to make an informed decision about whether to continue.

Anecdotally, yes, the formula fed babies in my mum group all slept better. And several of the mums who co-slept are still doing so now that our kids are all 18m-2y, with their partners in the spare room.

As a pp said, the bulk of the benefit of breastfeeding comes in the first few weeks. There’s no shame in switching to make your life easier.

I think it really is luck of the draw. My DD was breastfed until age 3. Would never drink from a bottle not even expressed. And she never slept much (and still doesn't). I was breastfed until age 2, apparently slept well from birth. My brother was breastfed until about 6 months and then had formula. He didn't sleep as much as I did at any point according to our dm but he wasn't a terrible sleeper either. Friend ff her baby from 6 weeks, other friend bf her dd for a year... both were good sleepers according to their dms. I've heard many varied stories for both types of feeding and really think it is just down the baby. Plus side with FF is if you have a partner/friend/family member who is willing to take over nights so you can sleep.

I cannot compare as I FF all 3 of mine. But here is my experience.

They all slept through from a very young age and were contented babies. I gave them the recommended ounces/feeding intervals as per the tin. I think it was 6 feeds per 24hr for new born. Night time was the bigger of the gaps. Last feed and nappy was around 1am and morning feed would be when they woke which was usually around 6 - 6.30am when DH got up for work.

As they got older the feeds got bigger and the night time gap increased.

It helped that I'm a night owl and not going to bed till 1am is normal for me. So it worked that I always did the last bottle at night. DH who is most definitely not a night owl - would always be tucked up in bed by 10pm (still does this) and bring me up the early morning bottle before he left for work.

It was very routined but it worked for all of us and I don't recall many sleepless nights. I think FF does give you more freedom to get on with everyday stuff as you can plan ahead more.

The introduction of solids improved sleep for us. I gave ds some savoury solids (usually a pouch of beef stew) then bf yo sleep. He was just over 8 months when he started eating solids. Before that I have him formula about 8pm and bf him at 9 pm that helped but was not as good as beef stew

The introduction of solids completely messed sleep up for us with DC3! He went from one wake up for a bottle at around 4am then back to sleep until 7, to 3 or 4 wake ups. Still hasn’t improved at 10 months.

Nope!

Formula fed babies tend to sleep more deeply (hence why dummies are recommended) not necessarily longer.

I BF both children to 12 months. 1 never slept and woke every 45 minutes day and night and at 10 months old finally slept for 3 hours. He is now 5 and still wakes nightly.

2nd child slept like a log from day 1 and is 3 and been sleeping solid through the night from about 9 months old.

I think it's pure luck to be honest. Also I'm not sure your baby will even take a bottle , neither of mine would or a dummy

Just ride it out , having kids is exhausting and to be honest I still feel exhausted now

You are doing a great job

Yes they do make a HUGE difference.
My six month old went from eating like yours down to sleeping through the night (11 pm - 6am). The only downside was he got used to bottle and no longer wants to be BF. That did make me a bit sad but after 4.5 months of what your going through I'd also had enough. A baby needs a happy & relaxed mummy to thrive, I think the milk is secondary. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Depends on baby. Ds was BF and awful sleeper.. I moved him tonFF. For other reasons and from day one slept 11 hours a night at 3m

Dd we FF from the off. And always slept well.. Still does now at 1.5yrs old. She slept through 9pm.till 7am from 6 weeks.

I may just have lazy babies lol.
Well see what dc3 brings.

100% makes a difference. Looking back, I was completely depressed due to the amount of time I was breast feeding. Baby fed throughout the night and I was scared of falling asleep with him. NO ONE would advise me on switching to bottle because of the focus on 'breast is best' and looking back, that was cruel. The day I switched to bottle feeding was the day I truly enjoyed being a Mum and I haven't looked back since.

They definitely do not - it’s an old wives tale.

On breast my son sucked for hours on end no break though to be fair I found out a week in I wasn’t producing milk ... ( hadn’t had a baby before so didn’t know how it was meant to feel )

Formula feeding meant that he wasn’t on my boob non stop but it was every 2-3 hours feeding ... with a 1-2 hour re settle window upside husband mucked in more as wasn’t just down to me