To suggest that ff babies are generally more content than breastfed babies?

[mrsb26]

...because they are fuller for longer?

Following on from an article I read recently regarding a study that suggested that of its recipients, the ff babies were generally deemed to be more calm, easy to settle to sleep etc than breastfed babies.

I know this is bound to be a taboo subject, but I must say, as a breastfeeding mother myself to a 4 month old dd, I have considered whether she'd be more satisfied on formula. She's not the easiest of babies and, to me, seems fussier and more demanding than her formula fed peers.

For example, she is really hard to settle to sleep for naps. She will sometimes feed to sleep, but not always (I know this is a debate on itself). I have never been to the shops or out for a walk for half an hour without her fussing (even if it's just for a little bit). She will sit on my knee or go to someone else for five minutes tops before fussing and starting to cry.

I'm not doubting the benefits of the quality of breastmilk, obviously. I guess I just feel like I'm filling up a tank that's emptying as quick as it's filling^^ and that she's never fully satisfied. I know breastmilk is digested quicker, but still.

She has no issues re: reflux, tongue tie or anything either.

Of course there are behavioural differences amongst all babies, but as a general rule, what is your opinion? Interested to hear from anyone who has perhaps breastfed one baby and formula fed another.

So, knocking a baby out with large quantities of hard to digest artificial milk can be culturally preferable.

What a shitty comment.

I couldn't breastfeed I couldn't get enough milk dr confirmed not that it matters. Ds is a very unsettled baby he will sleep through if in our bed but in the day he is very unsettled. I think it depends on the baby.

Meant to say out of my group of mum friends, he was the only formula fed one but also the easiest and least fussy baby...

...but that may have just been different personalities. I don't know.

YANBU. I suspected what you are saying from my own experience and friends, but I only have anecdotes so I normally keep my mouth shut on feeding threads.

I have a 4 month old that I ebf.

I can easily take her out in her pushchair for 3 hours at a time without her wanting a feed or fussing. I usually get her out for 15 minutes or so as a break but otherwise she's fine as long as she can look at the trees. She's generally happy to nap, will self settle, and until the regression and teething kicked two weeks ago in was sleeping 8 hours from 3 months (9 hours last night - absolute bliss!).

Conversely I have a friend who has a 6 month old who is ff, never breastfed, who still wakes every 2/3 hours for a feed & requires vigorous rocking to get him to sleep.

I'd say yanbu, it is the child which is the deciding factor - not the feeding method and your view seems to be a popular misconception. If I ever mention to friends without kids that my dd had a bad night formula will be presented to me as the magic solution (I can't wait until they have kids )

I BF all 3 of mine and people always commented on how content and quiet they were. People used to say they never hear them cry.

I FF all 3 of mine.

DS1 didn't sleep through until he was about 7 months old.

DS2 slept through at 6 weeks

DS3 slept through at 4 weeks

All were quite content during the day.

I bf both my babies. They were the most laid back chilled out babies ever.
People kept asking me did they ever wake up?!
They fed easily and slept for hours. No issue with allergies or colic or any of the things I think you can come across with formula.

DD was a PITA, BF, slept with us, night waker. My friend's baby was a FF, quiet, slept alone from birth baby.

Now, mine is confident, fearless and active. Hers is timid, anxious and fussy with food.

Clearly either BM and sleeping with parents make children happier, or anecdata is bullshit.

YANBU to wonder this. My completely unscientific, personal experience: I bf as did some close friends, all our babies were quite clingy & they fed a lot, particularly at the start. Whereas my friends who ff seemed to have babies who slept longer at night. And they are happy, healthy babies.

I pushed hard to bf, it wasn't always easy. I'm glad I did it, but if I had another baby I wouldn't put myself under the same amount of pressure.

I totally disagree and having seen fraternal twins behave completely differently as babies despite being fed and treated exactly the same I am convinced that babies really do just have different personalities/temperaments. One is a devil child and the other is angelic. They are both formula fed. My breastfed baby is somewhere inbetween but closer to the "angelic" one. Yes, it's anecdotal. But a massive range of anecdotal evidence shows how silly these generalisations are.

I think it depends on how well a breastfeeding mother eats as to whether the baby feels satisfied.

If a breastfeeding mum has a rubbish diet then the baby will get empty calories and the milk wont be very filling.

If the mum eats really well then the milk will be more nutritious and filling.

Some breastfed babies do feed an awful lot and some are much quicker and can go longer between feeds than others.

No it doesn't Spend Milk is never empty calories, doesn't matter if you live on grass, steak, or crisps.

DD breastfed all the bloody time ( I would generally get 20 minutes or so between feeds) and slept badly. She is now 9 and is still constantly starving and has trouble sleeping.

Meh. Mine were both breastfed for 13 months and never had any formula at all. DD1 slept through 8 till 7 (dreamfeed at 10 pm) from 6 weeks. Didn't nap worth a damn unless being held, except at nursery, then napped until past 4.

DD2 didn't sleep through until almost 1 year old, needed two feeds a night up until then. Not comfort sucking, she would drain both sides in 15 minutes flat and go straight to sleep. Napped like a trooper until she was 22 months then never napped again.

Both were easy toddlers. Some babies are just harder work than others.

I had three very contented BF babies. (I did one formula feed in the early evening for each of them but other than that they were fully breast fed).

The older two slept through the night early (around 8 weeks) whilst DS3 was a lot later (around 7m) but all three were wonderfully content during the day, napped well and were happy and alert during their awake periods.

Personally I think it is a lot less about the type of milk they are fed and a lot more about baby personality and how easily they are able to settle to sleep. Based purely on my own experience and from what I've noticed with friends' DC, it's very often sheer chronic over-tiredness and exhaustion that creates a lot of unsettledness and misery for babies, not the kind of milk they are on.

YABindeedU in making any sweeping and generalisations about babies.
Newsflash: they are all different! Yes, I know - amazing!!

The plural of anecdote does not data make, but here it goes:
FF DS1 - terrible sleeper, v unsettled baby
Mixfed preemie DS2 (31 weeker) - self settled and slept 8+ hrs aged 8 weeks corrected.
EBF DS3 and DS4 - both rubbish nappers, but great sleepers.

YABU to put such a emotive statement on AIBU - people get VERY upset about their feeding choices.

And I have not RTFT, but SpendSpendSpend, that is blatantly not true. Malnourished mothers can successfully BF babies and toddler. Who promptly become ill and die when they get weaned. So, no, mother's nutritional status has a very small effect on how 'settled' a baby is.

And anyway, the unsettled ones are the intelligent ones. Apparently. Or so my HV told me at the time….

So much rubbish is peddled around infant feeding - it makes me quite cross.

I think the baby matters much more.

I'm another one with 2 totally different babies. Both BF (1 to nearly 3, one to 8 months - and the 8 month old weaned himself, whereas the 2 year old was unwilling to give up his last remaining feed). The first was still feeding multiple times in the night at 18 months, the other one was sleeping through at about 6 months (7-7) - they were just totally different babies and are totally different kids.

I don't know as I've never had a bf baby and may be going off road a bit but with DD who was ff from birth I found that I could feed her a bottle, put her into her bouncer or pram (if we were out) once she could be sitting at a very slight incline and if putting her into either made her stir/ wake a bit I could feed her the rest where she was. This was only for naps of course but I feel it really helped settle her and helped me get far more done whilst she was napping. I didn't use this method at night of course but we co-slept anyway.

I refuse to believe i'm the only one who had demanding non sleeping babies! None of them were laid back

Mine were demanding, too. DC1 was the worst. She was generally very happy and smiley and good-natured and virtually never cried, but she fed all the bloody time, never napped for longer than 20 minutes and not at all from the age of 18 months and woke many times each night until she was two and a half.

My dd is breastfed. She doesn't sleep well but has a lovely nature. I'm not sure what is meant by demanding - she never cried much as a young baby (except for bedtime!). My mum bf 4 babies and apparently we were all very laid back and brilliant sleepers. I don't know any other bf babies but of the ff fed ones I know it seems there is a variation from good sleepers to non-sleepers. Just because you can find 100 people whose experience matches your hypothesis doesn't make it true. There may be 100 or more others with the opposite experience.

I've had 3 EBF babies.

I think all three behaved as babies as they went on to behave as young children suggesting how they were fed didn't make much difference. It's all about personality.

By demanding, I just mean they needed alot of attention. They still do :o 16, 14 & 8!
Mind you, I was never one of those mum's (still aren't) who could chat or read a book at the park either...

Second bf/ff thread I've read this evening. I did however laugh at the poster who said
"I bf both my children so no i can't agree ff babies are fuller for longer"

Well obviously seeing as you bf both your children