Are all bad sleepers breastfed?

[sharkstale]

DD, breastfed until 18 months. Horrific sleeper until we stopped.

DS, combi-feeds, but wants to be glued to my boob all night every night. Even worse sleeper.

Due to the fact that sleep improved instantly when I stopped bf DD, it makes me want to stop bf DS now at 8 months, believing breastfeeding is the issue.

What are your experiences please?

Yabu - bf is not the issue
Yanbu - stop bf and get some decent sleep.

I bf my DD for a year but never had either of my kids sleep with me. They had their own rooms from day one. I had a good routine from day one too and both slept well (second had reflux and was fussy to go down the first three months then fine).

DD1 didn’t sleep longer than 40 minutes until 7 months. FF.

DD2 was sleeping in 4 hour stretches after 2 weeks. BF.

I breastfed my first for 6 months and he was awake every 2 hours for almost 8 months. Even after I switched to bottles at 6 months it made zero difference. I had to bottle feed my second from the start for a few different reasons and I found him to be much easier to manage. There was no cluster feeding so i found I could put him down for naps and he went down easier after the bottles. I think it’s a bit of both. It’s the luck of the draw some babies are better sleepers than others regardless. But in my experience the lack of hours on end of cluster feeding with a bottle fed baby makes it easier. Plus you can hand them over to someone else for a proper break. I was sad I couldn’t breastfeed my second because of course it is the best for the child but in my experience bottle feeding is easier in a lot of ways.

I don't believe breastfeeding is the issue. My friend and I had babies at almost the same time - we both breastfed and her's began sleeping through the night at around 8 months but mine did not sleep through until over the age of 1 year.

This was DP rather than me (two mum couple), but I think with DC2 she didn't want to go through the difficulty of weaning off feeding to sleep, so tried to instigate good habits from the start. With DC1, she had fed to sleep initially, because you do what works, so it was a more difficult process. But essentially we followed advice in Alexis Dubief's book 'Precious Little Sleep', aiming to create a really solid routine and then move elements of it around, so that feeding was no longer the last thing in the routine. For DC1 I think we introduced a bedtime story, which would be after his last feed and with the other parent not the breastfeeding mum. We then moved from rocking to sleep (which was a bit closer to the cuddly part of breastfeeding) to patting to sleep instead. I'm not going to pretend it was a quick or easy process, but we got there.

For DC2, we made sure that feeding was never the last thing, and instead did feed-bath-stories-special song-cot. He now (nearly 2) just gets his bath, can take or leave the stories depending on mood, and if he's really tired he just asks for his special song so he can get in his cot.

BF both. Both were good sleepers although younger went through a bad patch around 6 months.

In my control group of 3 people..
I wasn’t breastfed-still a horrendous sleeper 50+ years later
dd breastfed till 6 months-terrible sleeper
ds breasted for a year -great sleeper

8 months of breastfeeding is a great achievement for anyone, if you feel you’d be doing a better job by stopping, then that’s what you need to do.

Both of mine were terrible sleepers, and were breastfed for a long time. Youngest still is at 6, but he's autistic and sleep issues are common with ASD. Other child sleeps well but can take a while to drop off and would go to bed as late as possible. Partner and I are bad sleepers too, so maybe it is just in our genes. I know bad sleepers that are FF.

Nope. My bottle fed DS was a shit sleeper

DD slept through the night by 3 months and breastfed exclusively until 6 months.

1st and 2nd were terrible sleepers- bf caused a lot of issues with gas - 3rd one exactly the opposite- slept beautifully fairly early- i think gut maturation is different for each baby

From my massive sample size of one child: no it won’t make a difference. Exclusively breastfed for 2 years. DD started sleeping thought at 8 weeks. Started waking again at 4 months and returned to sleeping through at 10 months. Co slept from birth to 10 months. Fed to sleep until nearly 12 months. Always went straight back to sleep after a feed.

Mine were both bf until a bit short of a year, by which point they had been night weaned for a little while. After that they still weren't perfect sleepers.
However when I see people feeding toddlers though the night on here I wonder how the DC even get the chance to try at settling themselves to sleep.

All mine were EBF for 1 year. All slept really well after the first couple of months, with a few dream feeds in the night

I breastfed and my daughter woke once a night to feed then slept through from 5 months old - and continued to sleep through ever since. She’s now 11!

It’s not that they wake more frequently. It’s that they are more easily roused from sleep.

And that’s one of the reasons. Others are things such as antibodies in milk and more developed airways from breastfeeding

Babies are supposed to have lots of caregivers in a big tribe but we've moved away from that- to our detriment I think! They are also meant to wake up a lot. As are adults. The idea of having on big chunk of sleep is a very new industrial revolution idea. So now you just get very tired and unsupported mothers and a huge industry trying to sell them stuff to make their babies sleep.

Both mine ebf. DS woke up every 2 hours. DD has done 6 hour chunks from birth! Breastfeeding also releases lots of hormones for the Mum to help her get back off. Also co sleeping helps.

Baby 1 ebf till 12 months. Slept ok!

Baby 2 ebf till 8 months. Didn't sleep ok. Stopping bf had no affect on babies sleep. Mine improved though as we were able to share feeding/night waking.

I breastfed my first until 8/9 months. He was a terrible sleeper until 2.5/3 - needed the feed, only issue we then had to have washed bottles and a fortune in formula until almost 2! He refused anything but a bottle until then. I breastfed my second and she has just turned 2.5. She is starting to sleep through now. They are both night owls and have fast metabolisms. Nothing to do with breastfeeding, your first might have started sleeping through anyway and it was a coincidence

Ah yes interesting, I mentioned my eldest up thread, who was the terrible sleeper of my two. He remained a poor sleeper and has been diagnosed with ASD. Trying to implement a good sleep structure has been virtually impossible with him!

I’ve got 5 children, I formula fed 3, mix fed 2 and breast fed 1, all were great sleepers, so no link with us.

Both breastfed. One had no issues sleeping, the other one did. I would never base my decision on whether to breastfeed or not on sleeping.

I don't think breastfeeding makes horrible sleepers of babies - I do think feeding to sleep and not night weaning in a timely manner is highly disruptive for their sleep. I breastfed for the first 4 months both times, the first I did mixed with a formula bottle before bed to help with sleep and the second was EBF, both were nightweaned at 4 months. I also worked hard not to feed to sleep and get them to learn how to sleep through themselves - so both were sleeping all through night from about 4.5 months. I don't think you need to stop BF at all if you like it - I would absolutely work hard to cut night feeds and make sure they learn to fall asleep without the breast.

Two EBF kids here. DS slept through at 6 weeks (health visitor insisted he had to be woken up for feeds but he was having none of it) and DD slept for 10 hours with one quick 5 am feed at 2 months. Never fed to sleep. At 8 months he’s on enough solids that it isn’t hunger waking him.

If you take it away from him at 8 months it will be a difficult transition as you will lose your superpower to get him to sleep.