Expressed milk in a bottle at bedtime - makes baby sleep better/longer - what's the logic and is this true?

[Creamtea1]

Just that really - noticing in real life and on here lots of bf mums are giving their babies a bottle of expressed milk at the bedtime feed instead of bf. and subsequently these babies are then sleeping longer stretches - is there are any logic behind this or is it just coincidence or luck? And would those babies sleep well regardless?
Just curious really, a bottle refuser here so not an option for me anyway!

I think it is coincidence. I did this with both my kids. One slept wonderfully, the other not so much.

I have only heard of a bottle of formula supposedly making a bf baby sleep better before bed and I think a lot of folks do this. For me I'm not sure the hassle / extra time involved in pumping and sterilising is worth it!

You are right to say there are loads of factors at play - how the baby would sleep anyway, how well they take to a bottle etc. Mine was a bottle refuser too till we started on solids so I sympathise.

What has helped me most is just to try and not obsess about sleeping through the night. It'll happen!

Funnily enough I have just done this experiment with my LO!

With an expressed bottle, he slept for 4 hours before waking up for his next feed. With bf, he goes 2 1/2 max!

I think the reason is that with a bottle, they take the milk a lot quicker and basically overload their digestive system so it takes much longer to digest...whereas, with bf, they have to work a bit harder to get it and take it much slower so the milk is digesting already by the time they're finishing their feed! (Only a guess)

I did it 2 nights on the trot and have since vowed not to do it again as I found my LO suffered a bit more with wind/constipation/tummy pains (he was noticeably not happy in the mornings) might have been a coincidence but I don't think so!

All babies are very different but this is my experience :)

There is no evidence that it works - in fact the evidence we have is that it doesn't (of course it may seem to work in individual cases, but co-incidence also works in indivdual cases :)

Google this study:

Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing. 21(3):200-206, July/September 2007

Breastfeeding increases the sleep of new parents

The study is the only one I know of which looks at the effect on parents' sleep of a bottle of formula. This is important, because that's what the whole point of a bottle is - to increase the sleep of the parents. If giving a bottle disturbs parents' sleep more than simply breastfeeding, then what is the point???

Parents who did not give an evening/bedtime bottle got on average more sleep than the parents who did.

Sorry - the OP asked about expressed breastmilk not formula.

I don't think anyone has studied this.

I would always ask though that if the bottle of ebm means the mother wakes up in the night with full and painfully leaking breasts, then again...what is the flippin point? :)

I do this and for me it seems to have worked a treat. DS gets 4 ozs after his bath, just before bed.

He sleeps 10 - 6, waking for one feed between 2 and 3.

May be coincidence I agree but it has worked for the last 4 nights so far.

My breats are full when I wake for the night feed so that is when I express most of the milk for the next day so full breasts are not an issue for me.

I express again after the morning feed to ensure he gets the hindmilk too.

Thanks all for the replies! I guess I am doing my own study here...to clarify I'm only talking about expressed breast milk here in a bottle and NOT formula.
So if we take waceys example - she feeds at 10 (bottle) , 2ish and 6 and has to express in the night.
So if I'm feeding at 12ish, 3ish and 6ish (bed is 8ish) then I'm thinking its not much benefit in my case? I definetly do not want to be expressing in the night..

Seem totally barking mad to me!

BFing to sleep is the best cuddle of the day and expressing is torture and all that junk to wash an sterilise. How on earth is it worth it.

If baby wakes in the night you just snuggle up in bed together and feed and dose.

Night waking is only a problem if you refuse to co-sleep bits of the night.

It really isn't a hassle to express. I have a small electric pump and it doesn't take long. You can express during the day though, I'm expressing right now for some extra milk as DP is going to spend some time with DS tonight whilst I hey a bit of a break.

I asked on a thread the other day when the best time to express was and the consensus was whenever it suits you.

It really works for us and I'd say worth it but different strokes for different folks.

@waceystills Its just the same for me. Baby sleeps longer when I bottlefeed him simply because he takes more milk at once.
On the weekends I pump during the day- between breastfeeds- and my husband feeds him in the evening. He will sleep between 4 to 5h straight. I always prepare two bottles. One for around the 2/3am feed and another for the 6/7 am.

Same here. I’ve been pumping to help heal my cracked nipples and give my boobs a rest. Been bottle feeding LO at night for the past 3 days and she’s woken up 2 extra times than usual! I’m hoping she’ll go back to sleeping through the night once I can nurse her again from my boobs. So to me it seems like breastfeeding breast milk works better than bottle feeding pumped milk. Maybe because she wasn’t getting the oxytocin from a bottle latch that she does with my breasts and she was missing me 🤷‍♀️

I've been suspecting this lately.. I have a 6 month old, he is breastfed but have been pumping since day 1 as he was premature, when came back from hospital they advised us to get a bottle of ebm each day plus the breastfeeding to help ensure weight gain (they got confused at weighing appt thinking he was 7 weeks rather than 3 and really freaked me out - that's another story) anyway, me and my husband are having some time apart and I noticed baby naps much better with him.. I switched to a bottle of ebm before lunchtime nap and he sleeps great now, I really struggled to get him to do daytime sleeping before, it was tiring and stressful. And now I'm noticing that our baby sleeps better at night after he's been with my husband, I'm starting to think it might be the bottles. When you look this up you just find info about formula being harder to digest - this is ebm I'm talking about. The 2 exclusive pumping mums I know also have great sleepers, I know sleeping isn't all about what you're fed etc but I'm starting to think this isn't a coincidence! Wish there was a study on the subject!

I know this is an old thread, but I think the main factor that is being missed here is the volume of milk intake through a bottle that possibly makes the baby sleep longer. Bfeeding they get sleepy and probably don’t take that much maybe 2oz and then fall asleep where as a bottle they could have 4 oz and that’s where the extra hour or two of sleep is coming from .