Breast fed introducing a nightly formula feed at 6 weeks?

[Tallysmum]

My 4-week old daughter struggles to go longer than 3 hours between feeds at night and its very tiring. I've been told that introducing a late night forumla feed (say 11pm) at 6 weeks will help her sleep through the night, or at least only wake once. As the advice is all about 'exclusive' breast feeding, does anyone know how this feed will affect the benefits she gets from breast milk? I would express at this time to keep my supply up, but like the idea of getting more sleep!

tbh any evidence for it helping a baby sleep longer would be pretty anecdotal, just as it is for early weaning . You should expect her demands to increase short term at around 6 weeks when she may have a growth spurt and your feeding her directly will help your supply keep pace. It shouldn't compromise many health benefits short term as long as it is only one occasional feed but the potential problem is that it is so tempting to let one become two and so on, which will affect your supply overall.

If you are planning to express why not use that milk as her next 11pm top up - ie. you express and go to bed at 9/10pm , your dh/dp feeds her at 11pm , then you do the next b'feed having had an extra hour or so's sleep? I'm afraid 3 hourly is normal for a newborn and even a f'fed baby might only do 4 at a stretch. It will get better though , whether you decide to introduce formula or not, probably when you least expect it to.

hth

both dss had a formula feed at night from birth but were bf at all other times. ds1 it worked and he went form 10pm till 7 at 6 weeks, ds2 no such luck and he at 5 months still wakes up during the night loking for a snack. tried it and see if it works. When ds2 was 6 weeks old he was up 2/3 times a night. HTH

Hi Tallysmum

I have a 3 week old and I think I've had a good night if he goes for 3 hrs in the night! I've been told this is completely normal at this age but will improve around 8 weeks ( but not always) I don't think there's any guarentee of the formula making them sleep thru. My brother did this for his kids but mainly to allow his wife to sleep longer in the evening rather than expecting them to sleep thru.
Also it can affect overall milk supply as mentioned but if you express at the same time it doesn't but then doesn't give you a break either.

At the end of the day, you're not gonna know until you try! Would be keen to hear how you get on as I will do the same if I'm not sleeping enough bfore going back to work.

Good luck and best wishes x x x

Message withdrawn

I did it, and it changed my life so much so that I can't recommend it enough.

I know most people will say it's the slippery slope to bottloe feeding completely, but for many people I know, and for me it was a life saver.

I used to go to bed early after giving ds a breast feed at about9ish, and then when dp came to bed at about 11ish he gave ds a bottle. Then when he woke in the night I fed him. He did only used to wake up once or twice when we gave him a top up bottle compared to the 6 or 7 times when he was exculsively breast fed.

My midwife supported me with this and I didn't find it interfered with my supply.

AND I'd do it again with the next one - only this time from birth!

There is absolutely no guarantee that formula will make a baby sleep through. For women who have a naturally good supply of milk, their milk production will not be too badly affected. For those women whose milk supply is not yet fully established, a bottle of formula can be th ekiss of death to breastfeeding. I personally think it is pointless to swap breastfeeding for the hassle of expressing. Your baby's demand for breastfeeds is fine tuning your supply. If you fill her up with formula you are interefeing with natures way of regulating your supply. 4 weeks is very early days. When she wakes at night do you get up or do you take her into bed to feed? Better to lie down and feed and sleep at the same time.
Make surte you get some sleep during the day - babies are meant to night wake but mums often neglect catching up on sleep during the day. Try not letting her go more than 3 hours during the day between feeds. That way she might sleep longer at night.
Formula milk changes the bowel flora of an exclusively breastfed baby and therefore disturbs the protection against infections and allergies that BF babies can have. I personally would not introduce formula for those reasons.
If you stick with it you may well find that she is only waking once at 6 weeks anyway for a feed.

At the time (ds was 3 weeks) I spoke to my doctor about it, in particular about the benefits of exclusive bf over giving a top up, and he said it was negliable and as long as the first 2 weeks had been exclusive then most of the benefits of bf had already been given to the child.

But listen to what others are saying as just because it worked for me, it might not for you - although I guess you have to try it to find out.

PanicPants - the advice your doctor gave you is incorrect. Unfortunately doctors know very little about breastfeeding at all. For you though there were no problems with topping up, but that may not be the case with everyone.
Here is a link with some more information.

I know Mears which is why I told the op to listen to everyones views and advice, not just mine.

It's a shame there is so much conflicting advice about. You sound like you know what you're on about, are you a bf councillor?

No, I am a midwife who is very focussed on successful breastfeeding. Have breastfed 4 of my own children too. I get very upset about professional who give women inconsistent and/or incorrect advice. GPs are often the worst. If only they would refer on to experts such as BF counsellors instead of making advice up. The same applies to midwives and health visitors i have to add.

Tbh my midwife was very pro bf, but as I got more and more depressed she helped me through it by supporting my decision over the top up. I do honestly believe I'd have gone mad if I hadn't have done it.

I am glad that it worked for you. It is much better to have breastmilk with formula top up than no breastmilk at all. Please don't do it from birth next time thoufgh PanicPants
Breastfeeding establishes faster second time around usually. Breasts remember what to do

We all know that exclusive breastfeeding is the best option. However, we also have to be pragmatic and understanding in the approach. Surely it can't be best for baby if poor mum is a complete physical and emotional wreck even after seeking the advice of bfing counsellers/midwives? Mears is right that it MAY interfere with milk supply but not for all women. I disagree that expressing is just as cumbersome - I find it a lot easier, esp if you have a feeder that likes to savour his palate!

Of course what nature intended must be the preferable option in most cases but being too dogmatic about it may alienate a lot of women trying their hardest for their kids. I'm sure health professionals are only trying to support mothers through their decisions - whatever they are.

Amijee - couldnt agree with you more. DS is 15 weeks and i am, as of tonight, going to try an 11pm bottle feed of formula as he is waking up 2/3 times a night. I think people (especially other mums!! have to let other people dp what they feel is right and not go on about the benefits of exclusive bfing - we know that already!

do not dp

Not everyone does Mandymoo. Totally agree it is a personal choice. As long as it is an informed one that is all I care about. Some mothers make that choice not knowing of the potential impact on breastmilk production or baby. Sometimes night feeding can be helped by increased daytime feeding, feeding from one breast, EBM top-up etc. but that is not always thought of or suggested first.

I have to say, I didn't think any of the previous posts were particularly dogmatic!

Can I add that I tried the bottle of formula at night to help DS sleep? (Every 2 hours we were on, and I was bloody knackered. The HV advised me to try because he'd sleep better and it wouldn't affect my supply. Well she was half-right! DS drank it down, fell asleep and woke up a couple of hours later with tummy ache. I could hear his tummy going round well into the small hours. We had a VERY bad night. So he didn't sleep through but since I never did it again, it didn't affect my supply. But everyone I know in RL who did the bottle of formula at night gave up bfing within a couple of months. May not be connected of course, but they all said that they weren't making enough milk

I just think each woman is different and each woman's breastfeeding capabilities are therefore different - unless you try something you cannot know if it is going to work.

In this case, i would suggest that she try the night feed and simply see how it goes. I have friends who have done this for many months and still continue to BF at other times. Of course, this may not be true for this particular lady but unless she tries she wont know.

I think 6 weeks is such a crucial time. babies often go through a grwoth spurt then and look for extra breastfeeds. Night feeds are important for milk production at this stage. I read more about women who did not have enough milk after introducing formula and sadly gave up BF than those who continued on.

I admit that I am clouded by the fact I did not want to, nor ever did give formula. Neither did any of my friends.

You are right Mandy - depends your own personal circumstances and beliefs. My mindset was never to give formual and therefore I accepted the times of frequent feeds. This did not last forever and my babies did settle to longer periods of sleeping on breastmilk alone. Had i introduced formula I might have thought that was the reason.

I firmly believe that most women have the ability to exclusively breastfeed their babies. They don't necessarily have the confidence to ride it out.

I gave one to dd2 and really wish I hadnt as bfeeding was never that enjoyable with her and I totally blame formula

think its mad to suggest formula helps babies sleep as otherwise all formula feeding mums would have babies that sleep through the night...

Did it with ds after reading some advice from nobody . Made no difference whatsoever. So didn't bother expressing or formula with dd and had a far more laid back time of things, She slept through from 8 weeks after the 11pm feed. Ds was 9 weeks.

If you really think you need to do this then express and give it in a bottle. Baby will be less snuggly and sleepy with a bit of plastic than lovely mummy and more likely to chug down a load of milk than possibly dropping off in a happy stupour if breastfeeding. More likely to be windy too though.

And if you reall really really feel like there's no alternative other than to give formula at 11om, the express loads at 9pm ish then go to bed. Freeze the milk for weaning. If you just give a bottle without expressing your boobs will adapt to one feed less and produce less milk. you have to fool them into thinking you're still doing that feed.

Formula makes their poo really honk btw - bleurgh! Gave up that bottle with ds ASAP and he was back to lovely malty nappies within a week

We gave ds formula (around 6 weeks) for a couple of nights to see if he slept better, he was up more wanting food than normal, also got a lot of tummy ache.
He soon settled to been up once or twice until the next growth spurt.
Its so much quicker to bf at night than ff, ds is fed and back in bed in about 10 min.

i also tried this at approx 6 weeks as i was knackered (up most of night as DS had reflux. DS was feeding every 2 -3 hours. i can safely say it was my worst mistake ever. it didnt work at all and he has since developed a cows milk protein allergy which i put down to the formula as it was his only exposure to cows milk protein. i would never do it again.
After that i started co sleeping and sleeping during the day to catch up on sleep. i still do it now as DS is 8.5 months old and still wakes every 3 hours during the night but i have found away to cope.

A midwife who i work with at a BF support group also said that even one formula feed can undo some of the good that BF has done, maybe this is for the same reasons as Mears mentioned about the gut flora. This midwife is a BF counseller too

Tallysmum your baby sounds TOTALLY normal, in fact you are about to enter the difficult growth spurt, so brace yourself. She'll probably be up every hour.

Your baby is extremely unlikely to be 'sleeping through' for a very long time yet. Try to get to bed earlier or sleep during the day. These are EARLY WEEKS and they are TOUGH. Probably the toughest ever. But you are doing REALLY WELL to not have gone mad yet.

Do you want to continue to exclusively breastfeed? If you do, then your best bet is to persevere for a few more weeks to get your supply established.

A lot of people don't realise that just one bottle of formula can totally change a baby's gut flora.

Listen to Mears. She is full of fab advice. And FREE!