To think that maybe its true about formula fed babies....

[curiousgeorgie]

Obviously no one can deny that breast milk is amazing, all the benefits etc...

But a friend of mine swears she had a very easy time with her DD because she was formula fed right from the off.. slept through from very early, hardly ever cries, settles very easily when she does. (Never even sick!)

As opposed to her DS, who was breastfed (For the first couple of months) and to be honest, he was a nightmare at feeding and sleeping.

Having a conversation about this with her and a group of other mums it did seem that all the FF babies were better sleepers and a lot less grumpy :p

Do you think this is true?

(I know that this says nothing of the longterm health benefits of breast feeding, and is purely about a small baby and sleep etc)

Soupdragon - you don't think them getting up less in the night is a plus??

No, because it isn't a plus of formula feeding, as you can gather from the anecdotal evidence on this thread.

Your baby not starving, however, is :)

I think the evidence on this thread is quite mized.. quite a few people agree with my friend?

And quite a few don't! Which is precisely my point! :o

It isn't a plus of FFing - it is a plus of certain types of baby.

I seen studies (think they were on the baby friendly website if you wanna look) that show that mothers who breastfeed get more sleep than mothers who formula feed.

Not sure it was anything to do with how often the baby woke up - more to do with how breastfeeding mothers don't have to get up in the night and faff about making bottles. Many co sleep and can even sleep whilst feeding. Also breastfeeding releases a sleepy hormone that helps the mother fall back to sleep easily afterwards.

Study here

Also

Also this one

My sample of 2 - both BF till 9 Months

DD1: Fully BF, slept 7-7 from 8 weeks until 10 months when she started teething. Born at 5lb 7oz, so blows weight theory out of the window

DD2: Fully BF, slept 7-7 at 19 months.

Go figure.

Both my DDs were/are FF.

DD1 was a dream baby! She slept through from about 5 months, had long naps during the day and even now at the age of four she loves her sleep. At 18 months she used to stand at the bottom of the stairs and ask to go to bed, in the evenings and at nap times. My mother was gobsmacked!

DD2 (11 months old today) is a fucking nightmare little different, however! She slept through quite early and lulled us into a false sense of security, then bam! 6 months hit and something changed. She is Ok going to bed but she wakes in the night and no amount of shushing, patting, singing will get her back to sleep!

I'm new to this topic.

My DC1 was born a little over 3 weeks ago. Had a traumatic birth (induced due to restricted growth and low fluid led to violent contractions, placenta abruption and a uterine tear).

Was BF from the onset but being bed-bound for 48 hours meant a poor latch and MWs too busy on New Years Eve night to pick him out of the cot and put him back every hour or so because that's how often he demanded yet they were telling me I needed to BF more often?!?

We struggled with latching and every position I was shown meant I was sitting awkwardly and after 2 weeks, DC1 was feeding for up to 12 sometimes 14 hours a day! It was beginning to wear me down. My bottom hurt from sitting (no joke!), I was tied to the chair unable to even have lunch or dinner sometimes and from 5pm until 1am (on one occasion 3:45am!) DC1 was constantly grazing - latched for 10 mins, slept for 10 mins back on the breast for 10 mins. This was constant. I was exhausted. No matter how good breast feeding is for babies, I felt nobody was thinking about my needs and considering PND is such a big issue, I felt I was heading down this path yet everyone was more concerned about baby than me! My argument was that if I'm unhappy, how can it be good for my baby?

I will admit that I am very pro-BF but for some, it doesn't work - physically or mentally! So with the support of my peers and family, I chose to express and formula feed via a bottle this week and I've never looked back! Formula feeding is so easy - much less stress than BF or expressing. It takes minutes to make a bottle and DC1 is VERY happy on it and I am too. I am thinking of giving up the BF via bottle and going straight to formula simply because my whole family is better off - sharing the role of parenting equally, able to venture out for longer periods and further afield without the need to 'whip it out' (uncomfortable doing this and like I said, awkward positions!)

The effect on DC1 is astonishing. He sleeps far better after a formula feed and is not as ravenous as he is after breast feeding. I'm doing what is best for the WHOLE family. Doing what is best for only one person puts family life under a lot of stress and turmoil.