Breast v bottle - sleep?

[lola0109]

Hi all,

I'm just wondering (not trying to do a comparison at all), my DD1 was breastfed till 6 months, is now 2.2 years and only slept trhough the night for 1 month.

DD2 is 7 months, breast fed till 5 months and not sleeping through the night.

My niece, 7 months was bottled fed and has slept through the night from 6 weeks. SIL claims this is due to being bottle fed and my bad sleepers being brestfed.

My DDs only wake up in night for a cuddle (well DD1 just climbs in now without waking us).

So are my dd's not sleeping through as they were used to the comfort they received whilst getting a feed?

Basically just wondering on your experiences?

Got nothing whatsoever to do with how they're fed, IMO, but the type of person and sleeper they are. My brother and I, for example, were both bottle fed - I had two oz every two hours till six months, then slept through. My brother finally started sleeping properly at about two and a half, by which point obviously he was off bottles.

I have breastfeeding friends who have been getting full nights sleep for months, and bottle feeding friends who are still up three times a night. And vica verca.

I do know however that breastfeeding mums get nearly an hour extra sleep at night due to hormone levels during night feeds. That's enough motivation for me

Oh is that right about the extra hour sleep!! Damn thrush making me stop! :)

I've never been so tired in all my life!

SIL kept telling me whilst I was EBF, oh once they are on formula they'll sleep through. Well my dd's proved her wrong!

Sorry to hear about the thrush.

And tell your SIL to shut it Its a fantastic myth started by formula companies that formula equals better sleeping babies... Does it hell!!

all three of mine slept through at 6 weeks - all breast fed.

no evidence AFAIAA that feeding formula makes any difference.

and i could probably out-smug her by a mile :)

No extra hour's sleep here. Most of the time I can't even get to sleep because I'm anticipating breastfed daughter waking up again. My mostly bottle fed DS was sleeping through by now, but they are totally different characters and I'm sure that's the reason.

At least when you're breastfeeding you don't have to second guess if they're hungry or not. Just pop them on and let them get on with it. No pouring undrunk formula down the sink.

DD1 slept through at 8 weeks 8 to 8 I truly wondered what all this baby sleep fuss was about.

DD2, 3 and DS have not, DDs 2 and 3 did not until they night weaned and I am currently
in sleep deprivation torture with DS

All breastfed

I breastfed all of my DSs. DS1 was a very bad sleeper. DS2 was better and DS3 has been brilliant. All bf and all different!

Ds was ff, never slept and barely napped (still doesn't sleep well at 12)

dd1 ebf and slept beautifully. Now 9 and really needs her sleep still

dd2 ebf and takes after her brother at 5 months. At least I can lie down and feed her half the bloody night rather than walking the floors for hours on end as we had to do with ds.

So my SIL was wrong :) I must rub that in her face tell her that! :)

DD - EBF until 5 months.
Slept through night (10-7) from 10 weeks until 20 weeks. Woke up every night for a week. Weaned onto babyrice and purees at 21 weeks and she slept through the night ever since. She is now 7.

DS1- EBF until 4 months and 1 bottle per day from 4 months to 5 months. From 5 months solids and formula (no breastfeeds).
Didn't sleep through the night until we did sleep training at 6 months.

DS2 - EBF until 23 weeks, one bottle a day until 24 weeks and solids & mixed feeding from 24 weeks (ie solids, formula and BF)
Slept through the night from 8 weeks to 16 weeks. Woke up every night from 16 weeks until 24 weeks. Started sleeping through night again as soon as offered solids (without sleep training etc)

So my baby who had the most formula was the worst sleeper. I stopped feeding him as he bit when the milk wasn't fast enough and he prefered bottles.

That being said, none of my babies slept all night just on breastmilk past 5 months - needed solids to sleep all night again.

DD1 bottle fed (formula) from 6 weeks, slept 7-7 from 8 weeks but very strict routine/Gina Ford which saved my mental health.
dd2 breastfed for 6 months and rice from 12 weeks (feeding 15 times per day and couldn't cope) didn't sleep until 9 months 7-7.

The facts are that formula is harder to digest so stays in their system longer.
Breastfeeding will prevent lots of illness and disturbed sleep through illness long term.
I think lots of breastfeeding mums are not always confident about whether baby has fed enough during the day and feel obliged to feed at night so its the process really not necessarily the formula per say. I never had the confidence to say they didn't need feeding. My friend bf all hers and all slept because she did have that confidence.

I RECOMMEND BREASTFEEDING DESPITE DD2 NOT SLEEPING THROUGH AS EARLY.

DS is EBF. He does need a feed in his sleep at 3 am, but other than that he sleeps through from 7:30 pm to 7 am and has been doing from 6 weeks. I think it's got to do with the baby, not what they're being fed.

I think it does depend on the baby. Out of the babies in my NCT group there are babies that have slept through from 6/8 weeks that were exclusively breastfed and some that have done the same having been formula fed.

For myself I introduced a bottle of FF in the evening for my DD at 14 weeks. It hasn't made her sleep longer but it does make her sleep sounder and settle much more quickly. She sleeps from 7-2 then wakes every hour until 7. I'm introducing a second bottle of FF at 2am tonight to see if she'll sleep longer for the second part of the evening. Tried last night but she refused the bottle so BF instead.

Like thecaptaincrocfamily I do not endorse this approach for anyone else. Mix feeding is inferior to EBF in everyway but I feel the trade-off to possibly get more sleep is acceptable for me and my DD.

Both mine were bf.

Ds- slept through before 6 months, had a wobble later after moving house a lot but didn't actually want milk at night so nothing to do with how he was fed.

Dd- now 22 months and still doesn't sleep, stopped bf over the summer.

I suppose there may be a difference in that when bf you are pretty likely to just feed the baby back to sleep each time but a ff baby may "learn" to self settle earlier or at least settle without milk because they are more likely to be more routine based with feeding so if the baby wakes an hour after last feed, a bf mother may feed back to sleep but a ff mother is unlikely to make up another bottle and will use other ways to get the baby back to sleep.

Just my opinion anyway, but out of the ff mothers I know only one fed on demand. I do't have a clue really

I have breastfed all three DSs and they have all slept through around 10 weeks. DS3 is 22 weeks and I give him his last feed around 9 and he ususally sleeps until at least 7. I really think it depends on the baby and not on how they are fed.

My 3 were all bf and all slept through 7-7ish by 12 weeks. Pretty much luck of the draw I think.

Obviously some babies are more likely to sleep through than others, but like Indith says I also wonder whether there is a different approach by formula feeding and breast feeding mothers which can affect sleeping. Formula feeders are more likely to be sticking to some sort of feeding routine than those who bf and I do think that a good feeding routine in the day can help night time sleep. I also think that bf mothers are more likely to feed in the night so if a ff baby has downed 7 oz at 10.30pm and then wakes up again at midnight the mother is more likely to think to herself that it can't be hunger and maybe won't give another feed, whereas a bf mother is more likely to put the baby to the breast again even if the baby had a great feed at 10.30pm. It just seems so much easier to pop the baby on the breast and doze off again than to try any other options. So it can happen that a bf baby comes to expect feeding at every wake or disturbance whereas a bottle fed baby doesn't and maybe learns to re-settle.

Ds1 slept throught from 14 weeks and has been an excellent sleeper since, is 3 1/2 now.

Ds2 is 7 weeks old is sleeping from 8-9 until 2-4 and then until 7, at the moment!

Both breastfed, both went straight back to sleep after feeds very quickly and rarely woke for anything but milk.

as far as i no there is no evidence that it makes a difference how there fed both mine were\are bf one doesnt sleep, the other does!

Mt DS is breastfed and slept through from 8 weeks.