AIBU to think ff babies sleep better than bf babies?

[Scrumptiouscrumpets]

It seems blatantly obvious to me that ff babies sleep better than bf babies. Just take a look at the sleep board on here, the bad sleepers under a year old are more or less all bf (and many of the older ones too!). Yet nobody officially seems to acknowledge this, all bf info I can find on the Internet states that bf mums actually get more sleep than ff mums because it takes more time to make up a bottle etc. Well maybe that's true during the first three months but definitely not later on when the ff babies start sleeping in long stretches while the bf babies start to wake more and more often!
I have a 4 month old who is ebf and I love bf, but I am seriously considering switching to formula.
Am I just imagining things? Are all these bf blogs right and bf mums actually get more sleep?

Rinmybell, it's less that bf'ing mums don't use dummies and more that people who are against dummies tend to breastfeed. If you see the difference? Without exception in my experience, to be frank. I've met bf'ing mothers who were fine with dummies, but so far I have never met someone against dummies who planned to use formula.

Also, a lot of bf'ing mums are desperate not to unsettle their baby's latch and so eschew dummies.

I think there was a big/well respected study done that found that on average bf babies slept for 14mins more per night than ff babies, so basically not much difference!

My bf 9 month old doesn't sleep through the night but that's because he sleep crawls to a corner of the cot and gets cross, one of his ff fed friends does the exact same thing. He doesn't usually want a bf when he wakes up, I pick him up and cuddle him/offer a boob but he usually falls asleep instantly just from being held.

Babies aren't meant to sleep through!! That's not how they're designed!

If a FF baby sleeps 'better' it's because s/he is knocked out from all that food (like a grown up after a big dinner). That's not a good thing-it raises the risk of SIDS and possible future obesity (since the baby is used to feeling overfull).

I've had three, all EBF, all dreadful sleepers (even after I stopped feeding). But, being blunt, I'd rather be exhausted and know that they were getting the best possible start in life, than well rested with higher health risks for them and I in the future.

I didn't really notice any difference. DS didn't take to BF, I expressed for the 1st couple of months then was exhausted so ended up FF. DD was EBF.
I would say that DD took longer to eventually sleep through but apart from that I was really lucky & had 2 very contented babies.

I ebf both my dd's from birth up until they were old 12 months old, they were both brilliant sleepers, my 1st dd only woke a couple of times in the night for about 3 weeks and my 2nd dd slept all through, when my 1st dd was about 6mo she hardly slept during the day only 1 long sleep, my 2nd dd had a few naps in the day but still slept through the night. I think it depends on the baby.

YABU there have been studies on this and it is just a popular myth

Agree with other posters here who say it depends on the baby. Both of mine were breastfed - DS1 was a nightmare and I was a zombie. He woke every couple of hours for months (no reflux or anything). DS2 slept really well - not necessarily all night - but a good few hours at a time. Having a full tummy made no difference, as DS1 continued to waken a couple of times a night until he was 2 and he was (and is!) a complete bin when it comes to his food.

I think maybe some people have very high expectations of their babies and a skewed vision of what constitutes sleeping through. But I do understand that overwhelming exhaustion which makes you feel that you would do anything for a bit of solid, uninterrupted sleep.

I was going deranged by my first baby who slept in 20 min bursts. My midwife friend told me to give her a bottle of formula before bed. I did and it didn't make any difference really though my husband could do that bottle. But had all the hassle of sterilisation etc. Second baby breast fed and she used to wake up once in night. Also I never had any trouble getting back to sleep after breast feeding (hormones?).

Babies aren't meant to sleep through!! That's not how they're designed!

Babies are 'designed' to be little individuals.

If at any point they start to sleep through and as long as they're thriving, then that's exactly what they were 'designed' to do.

You can't lump them all together. Anyway, how old is a 'baby'?

Are you saying that a 4 or 5 month old for example should not be sleeping through, if they want to?

when i had my youngest son .they would not let bf mothers in the same bay in hospital as bf mothers incase we put off bf mothers with our babies who seemed more satisfied and slept longer .unless in emergency no bed any where else situation .but my three sons all ff were awful sleepers didnt really want fed just wanted to to play all night .but yes generally thats correct but you cant admit this i feel they bang on to much about bf .you should not be made to feel guilty whatever your choice .

I think the reputation of BF babies sleeping worse is possibly in the older than One group.

You see a lot of very upset BFing Mums on the sleep board cos their child is constantly snacking on them all night, waking almost every hour.

You really don't see that so much with FF babies at that age.

Nope. Both FF here and both terrible sleepers. FF is meant to work for sleep before 6 months as it takes longer to digest but after that the effects don't work. It's also typical that sleep problems for FF babies seem to happen around this time as the formula no longer fills them up.

BF does have a hormone in it which is meant to induce sleep but only at certain hours of the day (which makes sense). Link here

@araminta99 both my children were ff and I can assure you there weren't 'chubby'

I bf for a few weeks until I reached the point I was about to get in my car and just drive off. DP bought formula, fed DD and she slept for 4 hours solid. Fucking bliss. Also meant he could pick up night feeds.

It very much depends on the baby. I was lucky. I had a non clingy baby who slept 10-8ish from about 8 weeks. She never had a dummy. Her choice. No food, no interest.

My DD is currently ff and doesn't sleep well at all. Ridiculous comment that will yet again spark arguments between ff and bf mothers

It totally depends on the baby. Both of mine were BF and slept though from 10pm to 7am from 6 weeks. (Sorry!) They were both born big and consistently gained weight and had all that adorable baby chub.

Breastmilk is just as bad for teeth as formula.

Wrong. Bottles are worse for teeth because they encourage the milk to pool in the mouth and spend longer in contact with teeth. Therefore a bottle of breast milk might be as bad as a bottle of formula but in direct breastfeeding the milk arrives in the mouth further back and spends less time there, if that makes sense.

OP, you sound quite resentful, as if you feel you've been duped somehow. This thread just goes to show that there are FF bad sleepers and BF good sleepers. When you have a bad sleeper (and I speak from bitter experience) it is very easy to get caught in the attempt to find causality where there is only correlation. On the odd good night with DD I remember madly thinking back through the whole day, trying to work out what had made the difference (pears for lunch? A white babygro instead of grey?). In retrospect, it was totally random.

You can never gather enough anecdotes here to get meaningful data on here, and you'll drive yourself mad if you do. In the meantime then, let's not perpetuate this myth that FF is a magic bullet that will turn a bad sleeper into a 7-7 angel.

worra is totally right,

I think its a very individual thing. And can be damaging maybe because like others in this thread I know of a couple of mums who switched to formula in the hope it made for a better nights sleep and it didn't at all!

Maybe bad sleepers are just bad sleepers?

My breast fed baby had us all on our knees she was waking every 90 mins which gradually improved to every four hours in night till she was around 2 and at 3.5 still wakes up for cuddles and any other excuse she can dredge up.

My 12 week old formula fed baby sleeps through from 9pm to 8am. I don't know it it's by chance, just plain old different babies , divine intervention or fuck knows but it's a god send 🙏🏻

I formula fed and my DS never slept longer than 45mins until he was 1yr. However two BF mums in my nCT group had amazing sleeping babies. It's bollocks

I think all the generalisations are largely bollocks; people will have different experiences regardless of how they feed. DD was FF and slept through from about 12 weeks, but she never had the lovely chubby rolls I saw on other FF babies, and she was on the 8th centile for weight - she was (and still is at almost 3) a bit of a beanpole, taking after her dad.

I disagree that dummies help (although my experience is purely anecdotal). All of mine were BF, but I tried them all with dummies. The only one who wanted a dummy was my worst sleeper! He spent his whole life waking up because he'd dropped the damn thing!

Mine both breastfed. Both slept well from newborn. Never had any sleep issues

ricepolo Formula milk doesn't cause SIDs. What an irresponsible, ill informed comment.

It doesn't cause it Daily, but SIDS is more common in FF babies. That's not sensationalist, it's true.