AIBU “Breastfeeding makes for bad sleepers”

[mmmgoats]

I can’t help but think this cannot be right?!
Friend told me yesterday that she bottle fed her children because breast fed babies don’t sleep and are nightmare sleepers.
She said her midwife admitted it but also said the goodness they get from it should put weigh the bad sleeping.
I have never heard this before?! Was your breast fed baby a good sleeper?

(I don’t have babies yet, not for the want of trying, but have always had the idea in my head that I would give BF a go. So not being goady, generally interested!)

I feel like this must be purely anecdotal as surely there are formula fed babies that are nightmare sleepers too!

I imagine it depends how much milk you make. Some people just make more milk than others. If you make enough for the baby to gain weight but not enough that they feel completely full they won’t sleep as well. If you make oodles then it would be no different to bottle feeding them.

Bollocks. My best mate is unable to BF for medical reasons and her DC are bloody awful sleepers. I EBF both mine and they were good sleepers. DS2, especially; he was sleeping through consistently at 5wks. You can 'prove' just about anything with anecdotal evidence... Just do what works for you and don't judge others for their choices.

Both breastfed. Both continued to wake for feeds until I weaned then around age 2

I only BF all four. Eldest had formula at 6 months, the rest didn't.

We all slept. Sometimes it was in the day, sometimes in the night. Sometimes it was for hours and sometimes it was for minutes. I can't tell if they were 'good' or 'bad' sleepers because they were babies and I fully expected to not get much sleep.

I think it's just one of those things people say that means jack shit in RL.

True in our case.

Two ff babies who were sleeping 7-7 from 6 and 14 weeks respectively. Also happy to go to anyone, would easily self settle etc.

Baby 3 is bf. Clingy, screams if I so much as leave the room, can barely leave him with dh never mind anyone else. Still erratic at sleeping through at 14 months and as for self-settling-pah! Will only go to sleep on the boob.

I had 2 wonderful sleepers - both bf! Just depends on the baby.

maybe in the first few weeks? I mean its easier to get into a routine with bottle fed newborns as you can see how much they are taking and try and space feedings etc...

Both my children were/are exclusively breastfed and yes the first weeks were terrible for sleeping as they wake very frequently during the night to bring in and maintain your milk supply, as the hormones are stronger at night (or something!) so it can feel like they are waking you every hour at first!

However when my son went into his own room at 6months he slept through the night pretty much straight away and has done ever since. Hes a great sleeper really... gets up quite late for a toddler at about 8.30am sometimes 9!

So I think it can make a difference to sleep in the first weeks but I doubt it makes any long term difference.... more dependant on the nature of the child

I can't really compare I ebf both my babies. Because breast milk is best. Wasn't interested in giving my babies freeze dried cows milk just to get more sleep.

Echoing what PP said about BFing meaning more sleep for the mum, especially if you get a side-sleeper cot/next-to-me/snuzpod
I could practically feed in my sleep after a few weeks

My BF baby did 7pm-7am with 1 wake up from 8 weeks, and 7-7 from 12 weeks
It went to shit a bit around 4 months but soon went back to normal

Baby number 1 was breast fed and a shit sleeper.

Baby number 2 is breast fed and a shit sleeper.

It's a myth that you have to get up and make bottles (and even more so the person who suggested you get up sterilise and then make bottles). Most people either use a perfect prep or do it ye old way of having the bottles made up for 12/24 hours and stored in the fridge. They can be kept in an insulated bag next to the bed, and getting it ready takes about the same effort as going for a pee.

Bottle fed baby here, not amazing but not a bad sleeper either, but I was able to split and then alternate the nights with my husband so neither of us have really felt sleep deprived.

It does seem to be a trend though (and backed up by research), that bottle fed babies do tend to sleep better, but obviously you do get fabulous breast fed babies and terrible bottle fed babies, in terms of sleeping.

1 bottle fed baby and 2 breastfed babies here.

My bottle fed baby was the worst sleeper of the 3 by far. This was exacerbated by him refusing bottles that weren’t at body temperature, so his night feeds took a lot longer than the breastfed feeds did. I found it much easier to get back to sleep after breastfeeding at night.

I had one mixed fed baby who was a dreadful sleeper - up 3-5 times a night and partying until 2AM until he was a year or so old. He still wakes up in the night a lot and gets up at 5AM. My second is exclusively breastfed and has been sleeping 12 hours a night since approx 8 weeks old, sometimes with one feed and sometimes straight through. I'm still breastfeeding my toddler so I think my baby hasn't had to cluster feed as much to get my supply up. I honestly thought it wasn't possible for babies to sleep as well as my second one does.

My DD sleeps great I feel very blessed as I know many peoples don’t, she’s BF and cosleeps with me I started off as friends and bf as she had latch issues due to being very small but once she was ebf I get a solid 8 hours every night now if only I could get myself to sleep and off mumsnet lol

DS1 was a decent sleeper building up to about 5-6 hours at 5 months. His sleep then went haywire until he was 1... Good job he was BFed as it turned out the trigger was CMPA which started being a problem from weaning until we were finally advised to put him on an exclusion diet. Attempting to give him formula to make him sleep would have resulted in a very poorly baby and expensive neocate formula.

DS2 liked his milk at night. I mastered co-sleeping and feeding lying down with him so the disruption was very minimal.

The point about personalities being a cause is a good one. Routine driven people will be more likely to switch to regular formula feeds. A more relaxed baby-led approach will be more likely to weather out breast feeding and its clusters. (Assuming that BFing was established and a switch didn't occur for all the various other reasons).

We have got up to 85% starting BFing, but society is still quite focused around a culture of FF, fill 'em up to help them sleep through, give 'em a bottle so you can pass baby on/ have some freedom, knowing quantities of milk consumed, not understanding the supply/ demand side of BFing. There are lots of reasons why people who want to BF stop, and that FF culture and its perception of convenience for sleep/ routines/ freedom and general pressure does contribute to some mothers switching.

I found one of the hardest bits of sleep deprivation to be the expectation that babies should sleep through after 6m, and the constant "solutions". DS did need those night feeds, I could tell that it was more than just comfort, although it was him soothing his upset digestive system. In that phase, despite taking well to solids and taking plenty of milk, his growth stagnated. Regular advice for dream feeds and witholding milk at night was not what we needed. I just needed to vent sometimes (and speed up the NHS!)

I think it's true that if you breastfeed you have to be prepared for the baby to wake more frequently at night. Part of that is because breast milk is more easily digested and the baby's tummy therefore empties quicker, part of it is because during growth spurts you have to nurse more frequently for your supply to increase sufficiently and part of it is because the baby will sometimes suck purely for comfort, even when not hungry. Most FF babies I know 'slept through' much earlier and a few were switched from bf to ff because they were particularly hungry babies and breast milk wasn't filling them so they woke even more frequently than most bf babies.

Having said this, if you can stick with it, even bf babies get there in the end, usually when they are weaned. Ds was 7mo when he first slept through and dd was 6mo, but even by then they'd dropped down to one or possibly two (if having a growth spurt) night feeds. I don't regret breastfeeding even a tiny bit. There were times it was hard, particularly at the beginning, but it usually gradually gets better ime. Mine have both been fantastic sleepers since they went into their own rooms and began solids. They remain great sleepers.

Both my breastfed babies slept from midnight to 8am from around 2 weeks old . They did a lot of cluster feeding in the evenings though. I’ve worked with pregnant woman and babies for over 20 years . I can honestly say that from my own personal observations that bottle fed babies generally sleep for longer than breast fed ones .

@queenofthedrivensnow I didn’t say I was considering it to get more sleep, merely curious as I’d never heard it before. I do hate it when posters come across as being judgemental/superior over those who formula feed - that isn’t what this thread was supposed to be about at all.

Judging from stories on here it seems as many posters say, 50-50. I was expecting everyone to be “nope that’s nonsense!” so it’s been interesting to hear everyone’s views.

@mmmgoats wasn't a critique aimed at you - more at the anecdotal evidence. And the culture of an easy life as a priority over nutrition or whatever. This has nothing to do with mums who try to bf and it doesn't work out for whatever reason

I suspect it’s probably why they’re more likely to die from SIDS than breastfed babies.

Good luck with the confounding factors on that one.

Great sleeper - bf to 15 months. Also coslept which probably helped. Once she was old enough to turn her head I didn't really need to wake up to feed her. I remember reading a sleep study which found bf mums had 20 minutes more sleep than ff mums on average.

Probably just blessed with a good sleeper but who knows. We all do what we think is best for our child.

I do think @queenofthedrivensnow hits on a good point. There's a lot of competitive parenting about how soon babies sleep through which makes many mums feel unnecessarily miserable or that they're doing something wrong, rather than it being normal for babies not to sleep through at 4 weeks or whatever.

My mil was awful for this, saying six months was very late for a baby to not yet be sleeping through. I just ignored her because I wasn't complaining, knew it was normal for ebf babies and was confident enough in myself (and was lucky enough to be able to ebf without problems). But then, my mil claims both hers were potty trained by 12 months (which is another element of competitive parenting). I've reached the stage where I have no fucks to give about what others think about my parenting! My kids and dh are the only ones that matter.

Not mine but my SIL bf hers and she slept through from 7 days old. SIL used to wake her to feed in the night but HV said if baby didn't wake then she didn't need to.
Shes a year old and has only had a handful of sleepless nights.

@LittleLionMansMummy I agree but really depends on who is around you at the time. My mum
Is a massive bf advocate - I was ebf and my mum doesn't see an alternative. My exh older sister is exactly the same - their attitude is 'bf and get on with it!' I didn't feel pressured just more supported to take the rough with the smooth.

Bf is really really hard work I don't deny this for a second as I was a lone parent with dd2 and a toddler. But you do your best for your baby don't you?