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?

Most babies in family bf until 3-4 months, then ff. they were all excellent sleepers from day one as they were all severely jaundiced & jaundiced babies do sleep longer. The only baby ff from day 1 slept in 1-2 hour blocks, started crawling at 3 months, and walking at 9, and is now talking in sentences at 11 months. None of his achievements are to do with the way he was fed though.

WellErrr Link me to high quality data please. This is blatantly not true.

The midwives told me ff babies often sleep better than bf, as cows milk isnt so easy to digest. On its own, thats not a good reason to ff.

DJBaggySmalls Can get non-dairy cows milk too. Does the same thing apply?

**non dairy baby milk lol

From experience I've not been able to BF my baby but if I had the choice would had be chosen to FF. Burn me for it but my baby is not chubby nor does he have two heads or fifty fingers😁. All babies are different some with sleep and some not so much but try it and to hell with other people.

I thought it was well known that ff babies often have longer blocks of sleep.

I don't think it generally talked about as it's contentious because many people like me who had wider family or friends not on board with bf - will jump on any hint of tiredness or any suggestion that baby isn't sleeping enough with hugh pressure to ff.

Plus it's a general thing I knew couple of mothers who stop bf - one for medication another because heading back to work - who found the opposite a switch to ff cause havoc with their babies sleep.

DailyFail

You seem very angry about this. Start here, at the Lullaby Trust's page on it.

This is a bit more in depth.

BMJ research about SIDs
www.bmj.com/content/310/6972/88
Conclusions: Bottle feeding is not a significant independent risk factor for the sudden infant death syndrome. Patterns of maternal smoking, preterm gestation, and parental employment status account for most of the apparent association with bottle feeding.

Doesn't hold true for me.
My first ff was a HORRIFIC sleeper. Nearly put us off having anymore. Is 4 now and still doesn't sleep well.
Second baby was breast fed and sleeps amazingy well.

I do think that babies who are fed to sleep (more likely to happen with bf babies I guess), sleep worse cos they can't get themselves back off to sleep if they wake during the night. Dummies are the greatest invention known to man

Only have my only experience but 3 bf babies all slept through from 10-6am from 3 months and right through from 6 months. Depends totally on baby.

All babies are different and feed differently. I had 4, first one ebf and slept through at 6weeks, second one ebf for 4 months, never slept through, even after weaning (still a poor sleeper at 31). Gave up worrying after that

Dailyfail that's old research and formula feeding has been found to increase the risk of SIDS.

If only that were the case! No baby is the same as I keep getting told but my DD is ff and hardly bloody sleeps! She will have a 2 2hr naps during the day but then fights her sleep so much! Not the best presumption to think that they are better at sleeping I'm afraid

When my 3 ff babies were first born I got bottle ready, changed whilst it was cooling down under the cold tap and then I fed them back to sleep. I think they just woke simply because they were hungry. They started to miss out the 1am ish feed out and slept 10/11 until 4/5 at around 8 weeks. Later on they woke for any other reason but hunger.

I have noticed bf babies I know were chubbier than mine. Mine were hyper little things though interfering with everything in sight and they were quite happy just sat.

I think the only way to find out is to see how each baby would react to each diet and compare, but of course that isn't possible as they can only feed how they feed.

I bf 5.All good sleepers bar one.The 2nd one,God he was a nightmare.Sleep for 10 minutes,awake for 3 days.

I didnt co sleep though,i thought i would sqush them.No dummies either.

Mostly they slept from 11-5 decent amount of sleep for everyone.

I breast fed both my children. Ff babies sleep longer as its harder for the body to break down the formula where as it breaks down breast milk easily as it is made specifically for what baby needs ( your milk changes all the time hence when mums body picks up a virus your body makes the white cells needed to fight it which you give baby in your milk, breast milk changes for what baby needs at different ages to) FF babies tend to be chubbier as well because breast milk has very little waste. Obviosly its fine to breast feed or formula feed but thats the scientific reason ff babies sleep better. Mind you it never bothered me to have to wake up in night. Its easy enough to breast feed without to much disruption

My son is EBF and sleeps straight through. He was FF when he was first born and he was a terrible sleeper and had terrible wind. I think it just depends on the baby.

as if you feel you've been duped somehow.

You're right, I do feel duped. I often read about women who feel they weren't prepared for how awful childbirth could be. I feel that way about bf. All the information I got with my first DC was about how marvellous bf is. No one mentioned the drawbacks to bf, and I don't just mean the sleep, I mean things like having a bottle refuser and what that means when you're ill, for example. Do I just have a blind spot or do people (other mothers, HCPs, lactation consultants) really avoid mentioning the disadvantages of bf?

Don't think it's always like that

My Dd started sleeping through at 4 months when we started weaning her

Ds didn't sleep through until he was nearly 16 months.

Both were FF as I failed BF

It's just one of those things

I think it's true, but nobody likes to admit or advertise it incase anyone considering breastfeeding goes running for the formula instead.

^^This

Bit of confusion here between correlation and causation in relation to SIDs.

OP I think when BF is going well yabu. But where mum is struggling/ there are problems with latch etc so baby is hungry yanbu.

My DD was FF from 6 weeks and slept like shit til she was 3 1/2!

I think that it is down to individual babies. I know formula fed babies that are terrible sleepers and breast fed babies that are great sleepers. All babies have there own wonderful personalities

I really don't like the judgmental comments though that ff mums are more likely to do CC, sleep train or rely on dummies.

Mums breast feed or formula feed for a variety of reasons sometimes it comes down to choice other times they have no choice