Truthfully now, will formula help him sleep???

[mistressploppy]

I'm just about at my wits' end with DS2 and his non-napping crap sleep. Took him for his 12wk jags today and burst into tears when the nurse asked how things were going

She said one of her children was like this and when she started mixed-feeding he got better....is introducing formula likely to help, at all?

I know it's not a popular thing, ebf is best, blah blah blah but honestly, I'll try anything

Judan -does he give published peer-reviewed references to support these views? I'd be interested to see what sort of scientific studies this advice is based on.

I was knackered with ebf DS by 6 weeks. To stop me going postal, DH took over absolutely everything for 24 hours and only brought DS to me to feed. He even sat up with us while DS fed and I carried on sleeping (I chose not to cosleep in general). It helped a lot. Is something similar an option for you?

BTW, comparing notes with FF friends, I'm not sure it would make a lot of difference, though of course someone else could do a night feed - with formula or expressed - to help you out now and again.

Pestopenguin, I don't know. I'm only trying to help by offering advice that helped me when I was in the same situation.

Hit "post" too soon!

For daytime naps I got into a maybe not overly helpful habit of taking him for a big walk in the pram when he was grumpy and tired - the motion might have helped him drift off I think. Possibly a little like a sling (which I couldn't use due to a back injury)? I also unashamedly fed and cuddled him to sleep in the day, even though he went down on his own at night.

Clever PestoPenguin got there first with both the things I was going to say, so let me second her suggestions of wearing your baby in a sling and the reading the isis website.

Now, I am almost afraid to say this because it's so bleedin' obvious, but: is your son definitely winded properly before you put him down to sleep? I ask because you say he doesn't sleep for longer than 30 minutes. When my DCs were very little, if I fed them then put them down to sleep without winding them properly, they would wake up after about 30 minutes and cry.

12 weeks is still very young. It's still very normal for babies that age to be waking. Sorry. :( Do you have family nearby? Does your DH work long hours? Are you getting enough help with your eldest and all the house stuff? If you're finding it hard then there are other things (than breastfeeding) that family can do to take the burden off you.

I say all this because my DD1 was fed formula by my Mum (for 3 nights) when she was nearly 6 months older than your DS2 and she didn't sleep any better at all, let alone sleep though the night. Some babies just don't sleep (joins in sobbing).

We had a night nanny for our twins for the first 12 weeks, every other night, she was a specialist in sleep training and has worked with hundreds of families. She would have supported whatever feeding method we chose, but as I was mix feeding (kind of forced into it by hospital, a whole different thread) and she advised us to bf during the day, to use formula for the 7pm and 11pm feeds, and use EBM during the night. They slept from 11pm to 7am from 12 weeks old and have done so consistently since. At 5 months old we dropped the 11pm feed as well and they've slept from 7pm till 7am since then.

Of course this is not evidence based, just my experience and that of my nanny.

I don't have any advice, but lots of sympathy. When DS was this age, he'd barely nap all day - little catnaps on my lap after feeds, but that was it. It got loads better when he was around 6mo and moving more, and was soon having 2x 1.30 naps - I didn't know what to do with myself! I hope you get him napping better soon, but if not, just remember it will hopefully sort itself out with a little time.

How long is he awake before you try an d nap him?

Both mine were/are 30 min nappers but I would be putting them back to sleep after 90 mins awake time, it wasn't/isn't unusual to only be awake 60 mins

Poor you - it is shattering. DT2 was a micro napper and still doesn't sleep well at night (13 months). He can still wake every 90 minutes. Too tired to sob those nights.

This wasn't helped early on with reflux (worth ruling out) and he mostly slept in my lap or moving pram during the day and in his moses basket/cot/our bed at night after a lot of holding and cuddling.

The naps were helped a lot by one of the suggestions in the No Cry Sleep Solution book (basically diving in as soon as he stirred at 20 mins, getting him back to sleep, and repeat for several days until he started to sleep for an hour). He still naps less than his brother though so I can only repeat that its all about the baby rather than any magical trick.

I tried formula twice with DT2. He was sick twice so it didn't help his sleep. Tried it a few times with DT1. Decided was a huge faff and it didn't improve his sleep. It was more helpful to learn to bf laying down.

Generally things got easier after 12-14 weeks for us and a lot of other people have said the same so fingers crossed for you.