Introducing a formula feed at night?

[Rubysmommy]

My little girl is 8 weeks old EBF. I've been expressing and feeding her bottles for the last week but my husband works nights so can't help with night feeds. I do co-sleep with her but neither me or my husband sleep properly while she's in our bed because we're wPorried about moving too much/ hurting her. I'm thinking of introducing one formula feed before bed... I've been told that this will help her sleep longer at night. Has anyone else done this?

It's a really common myth actually and can cause a lot more problems than it solves. Little babies just aren't designed to sleep for long periods, and while that makes that aspect of early parenting incredibly intense and exhausting, I promise it does get easier.

Formula is harder to digest than breastmilk - after all it's made from milk designed for babies with 4 stomachs! Because of this it can fill a baby up for longer and therefore they can sometimes sleep longer, but not in a healthy way. Babies are designed to wake frequently and sleep lightly which is a protective mechanism as their extremely immature bodies need more of a "kick start" and so a really deep sleep isn't always healthy.

This website has really interesting and useful links explaining other reasons why introducing formula, even just one bottle a day, can be a risk: www.kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/infant-formula.html

Saying all that, lack of sleep is horrible and it is absolutely right to look at the options out there. Co-sleeping seems to be interfering with your sleep which is understandable. Most people feel like that when they start. A good book is "Three in a bed" by Deborah Jackson which is very reassuring about the safety of bedsharing as well as its benefits to you and your baby. If you're still not comfortable, perhaps a side-along cot would be a good investment?

Are you exclusively expressing or just offering the odd expressed bottle?

Everyone says what someone else's doing helps the baby sleep. . I personally don't believe formula makes them sleep better. This is just from my NCT group. Two of the bf babies were great sleepers. One very large, one very small (my DD, some will tell you size matters. Big being hungry and small ones can't hold too much milk). The other great sleeper is ff. we are have bad sleepers in both camps.

Obviously this is a small group of woman. We won't have any big sample size doing this in a large unbiased group because I can't see anyone funding this than formula companies.

BTW 8 weeks is very young. My DD suddenly slept through at 11-12 weeks without me doing anything. It lasted till 6mo for us. And she's considered very very good amongst mums I met. So I think you might need to readjust your expectation a bit.

Interesting thread. When i was pregnant i was adamant I would be doing this and I really believed it would help the baby to sleep longer.

Once she arrived I realised it was perhaps an urban myth or at least not as straightforward as it previously seemed. Three mums in my NCT group tried it. It made no difference to one, one threw it all up every time and for the baby who did sleep better mum woke up engorged and leaking.

I'll be interested to hear if anyone has had more positive experiences because based on this, albeit anecdotal evidence, I'm not sure it's worth trying??

Organiccarrotcake - I'm exclusively breast feeding at the moment. I've just expressed some so that my husband can feed her and to give me a bit of a break every now and then.
Thanks everyone, I'll have a look at what you've suggested.
I am very pro breast feeding for all the obvious reasons but as with everything else (before she was born i was adamant i wouldn't have her in our bed and wouldnt give her a dummy...) I'm not completely against formula. we've had her in our bed...we're still doing well on the no dummy front, but we've decided to never say never! I really believe you should do what's best for you - If I hadn't had her sleeping with us, I'd be a very sleepy grumpy mommy!)

Hi Rubysmommy,

Haven't got any great advice (sorry!) but I'm currently trying to do exactly the same as you with my 13 wk old. From my own personal experience, one formula feed in the evening has helped my babies sleep longer at night (this is my 3rd baby), so don't lose confidence that your idea is a bad one - it isn't! This method has also worked very well for many many of my breastfeeding mummy friends too....

My main problem is that my little monkey is currently refusing a bottle unless she's really sleepy, so I'm trying to do it as a dream feed, waking her up at 10pm-ish. If I try & give her a bottle at 7pm (her bedtime), she looks at me as though i'm mad! However, she will happily take a bottle for a dreamfeed.

If you can, express in the morning to give her the milk in a bottle in the evening - I find that my morning milk is of a 'better quality' (i.e. more filling / satisfying for baby) than the evening. Having said that, I am happy to use formula in the evening bottle - what with a school run / nursery run & a 3month old, I have little energy left to sit there with a hand pump!

Anyway, just wanted to reassure you that your idea is not a bad one, it works for many mums & is worth giving it a go / persevering if you feel totally drained & exhausted in the evening. Plus, dad gets to give the bottle to baby - my husband always complains that he feels totally left out during the breastfeeding stage of baby's life, so relishes the opportunity to feed baby once a day.

Good luck, hope you get some well deserved sleep soon x

Actually I do dreamfeeds on and off, directly from the breast. An EBF baby can latch on without waking up at all. So you can give dreamfeeds a try without the whole bottle cleaning sterilising hassles.

There has been some research done on this. Formula given to extend night time sleep does not increase the sleep time of parents - of course it may do in individual cases, or seem to do, but there is no reason for parents to feel it is bound to work for them. The studies show exclusive breastfeeding brings more sleep and more rest.

You can read an interesting article if you Google this: The Effect of Feeding Method on Sleep Duration, Maternal Well-being, and Postpartum Depression.

Giving a bottle for the father's benefit is questionable, too....dads love their babies, naturally enough, but they really don't need to feed them to express this or to help out. There are many other things they can do. Men needn't feel left out :( :(

Hello, Just read your post and thought I'd share something that has proved a lifesaver for us but we didn't figure it out until our third little angel came along.

As other posters have said, formula sometimes does or doesn't work, I guess it just depends on your baby BUT I do know that lack of sleep is horrible (been there and been wearing the T-shirt for a number of years now but that's a whole other story).

I BF (I'm a lazy so and so and just don't do bottles) and we don't co-sleep (for the reason you mention and because there just doesn't seem to be enough space for 3 of us in our bed!). Instead, we bought a v. cheap futon/roll-up mattress and a cosy double duvet and my husband sleeps in the baby's room a couple of night's a week. This means that he get's a couple of night's of undisturbed sleep and I get to cosy up with DD3 and feed her (all night if she wants) AND still get pretty good sleep.

It's not brain surgery and I have no idea why we didn't do it with our other 2 children because it has really, really helped us both stay sane, have a couple of nights when I don't have to get up and spend lovely cuddly time with our DD. Your DH would have to be willing to decamp though...

Not sure whether the above might suit your circumstances but best of luck and I hope you find something that works for you...

Tiktok Not sure what we're still doing 'being up!' but I thought your post was really useful and certainly true for me. I tried using formula at night but found that although she went to sleep really quickly she woke up two hours later (usually sleeps for 4) but with a dirty nappy or wind(?). And I think I have you and a few other mumsnetters to thank for encouraging BF mums to co-sleep. Wish I done it with my other two... Night, night x PS my little angel sleeps through most nights now (4/5mths) but I'm still co-sleeping when I get the chance!

MonkeeMummy - Thanks for the suggestion, funny enough a woman at work did the same as you. with my husband working nights, he gets his good sleep during the day (he now loves working nights for this reason! ) when he's not at work (and we're in bed with him at night) I don't think I'd like to kick him out. I can see how it would work for some people but I don't think it's for us.
Icravecheese - thanks to you too you've obviously done this a few times - when you've introduced formula at night, did your supply of breast milk drop off? Because of the reduction in the number of feeds? The other thing im a bit worried about is waking up engorged - I had mastitis a couple of weeks in and had to take antibiotics since then it's been good though

Hiya,

In my experience, I did wake up the first few nights (with my previous babies) feeling slightly engorged, but it only took a few nights for my breasts to work out not to produce milk at that time of day & it calmed down. It didn't affect my milk supply at any other times of the day.

Do be aware however, that once you start with the evening bottle, your breasts will adjust to you not giving a feed at the time you give the bottle. So, for example, if you decided 2 weeks down the line to stop the bottle & go back to breastfeeding as an evening / dreamfeed, then it will take a few days at least for your breasts to readjust back up to providing enough milk for that particular feed.

I certainly don't give the bottle solely 'for the benefit of the father' as tiktok suggests above, its purely a nice thing for dad to do in the evening. My DH loves to do the bottle feed, gives me a break to have a nice bath & get out to find baby is settled, asleep & happy, whilst dad has had some nice time with baby :)

My best word of advice about being a mum is to go with your instincts....good luck! x