To think there is a correlation between babies that wake a ridiculous amount in the night and breastfeeding?

[toomuchpeppapig]

I've seen quite a few threads on here over the last year or so that I've been on here about babies who wake constantly in the night and will only feed to sleep etc. It seems that virtually all (if not all) of these babies are breastfed.

I bottle fed my 2 DCs and although my oldest has never been a great sleeper (now 16 months old), I don't remember him waking as much as many of these posts say. Is it because bottle fed babies sleep better or is it just coincidence?

NB - I have nothing against breastfeeding. I personally tried and failed, and my thinking is that fed is best. This isn't an anti breast feeding post. I'm just wondering if my thinking is correct.

*'Also made the difference between night and day obvious, so lights would be dimmed, noises turned down, a story would be read and baby would be tucked in. Again that was from very early on, certainly from days old. '
Of course those of us with bad sleepers have been keeping fluorescent lights on all night from the first day, blowing an air horn for every night feed, doing the conga at bedtime and hurling the baby on to a pile of cold Lego from days old, then wondering where we're going wrong. FFS. Should I not be using the vuvuzela as her white noise, or...?

Burritofan, you are spot on with the self-congratulatory smug sleepers

3 dcs breastfed til over 12 months
dc 1, slept form 10-6 from 5 weeks
dc2 terrible sleeper for first 6 months, awake every hour, then slept through 10-7
dc3 fed then slept, so fed at 10 pm, 2 am, 6 am, until she was 5-6 months, and then dropped the 2 am and then slept til 7.

so 3 kids, 3 sleep patterns, but 2 out of 3 were good sleepers

Two breastfed babies and two awful sleepers here. My eldest woke in the night til she was 7 . There’s an 8 year gap and my now 10 month old can wake anything from 2-3 times to 25+ times between 7-7.

I think breastfed babies don’t learn to fall asleep independently, then when they wake slightly in their sleep cycles they want to fall back to sleep in the same way - at the breast.

I have co slept with both just out of sheer exhaustion and not being able to stay awake feeding safely.

DS was down to one BF at 4/5am at 6 months, no other wake ups. He then slept through solidly from 12 months. Since then can genuinely count on both hands the amount of times we’ve been to him in the night since (normally when unwell) and he’s almost 3. I breastfed him till he was just over 2. Never did any sleep training or anything, I think he was fairly average still waking in the night in the first year. My little cousin was bottle fed and would still wake frequently till before she went to school.

Think as parents we are too obsessed with talking about sleep, definitely learned that when I had my first. Feel it should be banned at groups, and I now make an absolute effort never to bring it up with anyone unless they do first. Nothing makes you feel more crappy than hearing about someone baby sleeping all night when you are in the depths of sleep deprivation with the stingy eyes

Ds! exclusively breastfed until 6 months old, slept through the night from 2 weeks old (11pm to 6-7am)
Ds2 also exclusively breast fed till around 6 months, slept through night from 7 weeks old.
DT's mixed (breast and bottle) slept through night from 5 weeks old.

No I am not smug about this, but none of them slept much during the day, so there was very little daytime respite for me. My sister has a theory about this, she reckons its genetics, as all of our Dc's have had similar sleeping patterns.

Both of mine have been similarly poor sleepers. One FF and one BF.

Babies are meant to wake in the night, adults do it too.

Mine were breastfed and were both (particularly DC1) great sleepers and slept through from a young age.
I think it gets to a point where they're not waking up for the feed itself but because being fed to sleep has become a prop. And because BF mums don't know how much milk the baby is actually getting, they worry they might not be getting enough and so are more likely to just feed them when they wake at night, rather than trying other ways to get them back to sleep.

Dd and Ds EBF slept through at 9 weeks and 10 weeks

Not sure. From personal experience (4 children, two of which are twins)....All breastfed...
One twin slept six hours solid each night from 2 weeks old, the other twin would not ever sleep more than two hours solid.
Next child was again a terrible sleeper (after nine whole YEARS(!!!) we finally got him out of our bed)!
Fourth child is currently six weeks old and she's the best sleeper imaginable. I have to wake her to feed her before my breasts explode. She self settles too. Amazing.

So from my own experience, it doesn't make much difference. I think it's more to do with the individual child and their personalities. Some need extra reassurance, some are hungrier than others...

Not in my experience my son was EBf for 11 months, he started doing 6 hour stretches overnight around 6 weeks old, he was an excellent sleeper.

I bottle fed both of mine and they never woke much at night. Both were sleeping through the night by 8-10 weeks. So yes I agree that bottle feeding seems to have a good effect on night time sleeping.

Mine were both EBF. DC1 woke constantly and due to reflex had to be held upright for an hour after a night feed or else would spit up all over the plus. DC2 had nights of fully sleeping through as early as 1 month and I was checking to see if she'd died because I couldn't believe it was possible.

My 3 year old and 2 year old were both bottle fed... They both still wake up through out the night.. Im lucky to get 3hrs of sleep a night.

Some kids sleep, some kids don't.

My four slept through a core night (11pm-6am) by about 8 weeks and they were exclusively breast fed at that age. I found night wakings easier as could lay down and doze while feeding.

My son was breastfed and sleeping through by 6 months (although was waking a lot before then). So I do think you can breastfeed without it necessarily meaning they wake up a lot.

I agree with you. Dd1 didn’t sleep through the night until she was 9 months old (the first night I gave her a bottle). She awoke constantly and I was dog tired. Don’t think I’ve ever really gotten over it tbh . I also have a theory than my tea drinking didn’t help this. I didn’t realise until after dd2 that the caffeine from my numerous cups of tea was going through my breast milk and keeping them up. I gave up caffeine when I was pg with dd3, she slept much better.

Haven't rtft but my bottle fed DS doesn't sleep through and never has.

Not in my experience, both bf, dd slept through from 2 months, ds was awake many times but turned out to have an upper lip tie.

My dd was bottle fed... Never slept through, rlwoke a ridiculous amount and was horrific for sleep and still is... She is 7later this year

It's nothing to do with how they are fed, it is just their little personality I think

I was breastfed and slept through from 8 weeks old. I was a very big baby and the midwife at the time said never to wake me for a feed. My dd was breastfed and woke for a feed 2x in the night, ds was the same even though he was bottle fed. However, ds started to go for longer sleep stretches earlier on.

Mine was bottle fed and slept through the night from birth 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think so but can only really talk from experience. I bf DD for about 7 weeks. She woke hourly every night needing feeding (and took an age to get back to sleep!). It was exhausting! Switched to formula and within 2 weeks she was sleeping 10-7. I don’t think it’s really that the formula made her less hungry, but more that we could get a decent routine in place, which she really needed.

Saying that, my friends 2 DS were ebf until a year, both brilliant sleepers. DBro has 2 DS FF from birth - both rubbish sleepers!

I think formula can help get into a routine (which some babies thrive on, some don’t) and can help get more independent sleep habits in place, but a lot of it is also luck of the draw.

I tend to think a lot of it is down to habit and how much milk they get. If they wake up and get fed, then they are going to continue to wake up for feeding.

I only breastfed ds for 2 weeks but breastfed dd for 26 months, the worst sleeper by a country mile was and is ds. At 18 he's still awful and barely sleeps.

I think if you are breastfeeding and the baby wakes up, the temptation to put the baby on the breast and feed to get it back to sleep, must be massive, whereas bottle feeding parents have a lot more to do..possibly get out of bed, go downstairs to get bottle etc...so try and avoid feeding as often and get them into a routine. So the chances are, breastfeeding babies are going to get fed in the night more, therefore wake up for it more.