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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Any advice for giving formula feed at 10:30pm?

13 replies

LouisePenn · 07/07/2008 21:16

My DS1 was exclusively BF. I'm considering giving DS2, now 19 days old, a formula feed - or perhaps just a top up - at 10:30/11pm, to help him sleep longer at night (to give me more energy for days with DS1). What brand of formula do people recommend? One of the reason's DS1 was BF was to help prevent eczema, as I have a history of it -but is this a genuine issue with formula? Does any one have any other tips for introducing one formula feed?

OP posts:

poshtottie · 08/07/2008 08:03

Hi, giving a formula feed is no guarantee that your baby will sleep longer, however I would give a feed at this time. The last baby I looked after had a feed at 10.30pm of expressed bm, then slept through at 10 weeks though would expect some babies to need at least one feed in the night. If you want to use formula most clients I have worked for use aptimil, just don't be tempted to use the hungry baby formula.

littlemisssplendid · 08/07/2008 10:32

Mmmm, I'm in a similar position at 10 weeks. Dd is having a bottle of EBM at 11p.m but to be honest it's a right faff expressing every day as I'm also trying to buid up a supply for the feezer for a wedding at the end of the month.

I'm thinking would it really be the end of the world if she had a bottle of formula at 11 instead.

Original poster

LouisePenn · 08/07/2008 20:39

Thanks for your advice. What's the hungry baby formula? Sounds intriguing! If formula could reduce night feeding to one feed I'd be over the moon - although I know there is no guarantee of this, not yet anyway. Main benefit would be that I could go to bed earlier and my husband could do the last feed. Don't fancy the EBM route - it's too impractical with a manic toddler around. Might postpone bottle until 4 weeks now, as I think my son has a latch problem - he comes off easily, lots of clicking noises, very sloppy eater. Having said that, he's putting on weight and going 3+ hours between feeds, and I don't want to leave it too late.

OP posts:

StarlightMcKenzie · 08/07/2008 20:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Tigger13 · 11/07/2008 12:25

Hi louisepenn

I am thinking of doing the same DS£ is 8 weeks and I am so proud of myself for getting this far and exclusively bf, my other DS1 & 2 were bf but with a bottle of formula at 10 -11pm from a few weeks old and it didn't effect my supply at all but allowed me to have a bit more sleep and DH to spend some time with baby alone.
I haven't given formula yet and just feel that I am becoming increasing exhausted with a 2.5 and 5 year old as well that it is beginning to get to me, I am also trying to move house which is another story! I can't co-sleep as I am to worried about rolling on baby so get up and feed and then go back to sleep. EBM is possible but am so busy all day I never seem to express enough.

Is formula so bad?

tiktok · 11/07/2008 12:42

The best health outcomes are seen in babies who are exclusively breastfed, but of course there are other issues that parents decide to consider and one of them is sleep.

However this is unpredictable. The one study I am aware of that has actually looked at the total amount of sleep enjoyed by parents of of i) infants totally bf compared with ii) infants given a bedtime bottle found that the parents in group i) had the most sleep.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17700096

So if you want more sleep at night, chances are that sticking to bf is likely to be more successful...but you cannot predict it.

kidletts · 29/07/2008 15:28

my daughter is 14 weeks now and exclusively bf. She was feeding and going to bed at 8pm at the same time as my other 2 children and was sleeping till 2am then after another feed with me in bed sleeping through till 6am....BUT for the past couple of weeks her bed time feed has been fraught and she has only slept till 10.30, after a feed she has woken every 1 1/2 hours till 4am when she has decided she wants to get up and will scream until we do. She has always brought up alot of her feed but her weight is good and has continued to rise. I am exhausted and am considering giving her a formula feed at bed time instead in the hope that she will sleep a little longer and deeply - however, as I bf my other two I have no idea where to start - which formula to use (as I dont want to aggrivate her tummy any more) and I am terrified that she will enjoy it too much and reject me Can anyone help?!?!

SalLikesCoffee · 29/07/2008 15:51

As someone who mix-feed, I would urge anyone to try and wait as long as possible before introducing formula (yes, I do realise this sounds a bit , but I've got my reasons). Obviously your call and all that, but I only wanted to do formula at night, but then did more often during the day too when we had guests etc, and I'm now suffering a little trying to get my ds back on breast, as a) my supply went down, which frustrated my ds, and b) even though he was bf-ing perfectly beforehand, he started preferring bottle! And because I didn't want to stop bf-ing, I had a really, really difficult couple of days to bring my supply back up, and is still working really hard in persuading him to breastfeed when he's groggy. I wish I didn't do day bottles to start off with!

SalLikesCoffee · 29/07/2008 15:55

One last thing - he actually sleeps better and longer after a breastfeed. And when I do give him formula, he often becomes constipated (I tried the hungry baby one too - that's even worse for him) and groggy. Obviously not everyone reacts that way, but thought I'd just give you my opinion - if you want to do formula only to make him/her sleep longer, it's unlikely to help in my experience.

constancereader · 29/07/2008 15:57

I am another who gave formula at bedtime and it did not help with sleep really.

As for which one to use, there doesn't seem to be any actual research into which is the best, only advertising claims. I just picked the one my friend used.

laughalot · 29/07/2008 16:01

Well both my children where bottlefed I would advise againt the hungry baby milk as it can make children constipated. My ds has cow and gate and my dd aptimal which I found very good. Despite my children being bottlefed they are extremely healthy kids. Good luck

isaidno · 29/07/2008 16:05

imo one ff a day is a slippery slope.
My DS1 had a ff before bed and I know that contributed to me stopping bf at 7 mths. It didn't make him sleep better really.
DS2 was bf for 19 mths and has always slept like a log. He is also much healthier than DS1.

My DD is 6 weeks now and I am def bfing as long as poss.

DonDons · 29/07/2008 16:31

I'm no expert by any means, but this is what happened to me... I introduced a bottle of EBM at 10.30pm feed at about 2 weeks, this continued until about 9 weeks when the breast pump broke and so I switched to formula (I say me, DH actually gave the feed).

IME the fact that it was formula had no effect on DD's sleep but it did mean that I could get half an hour extra sleep as I didn't need to express anymore.

By 10 weeks DD had lost interest in a full feed at 10.30pm. I dream fed her for about a week back on the breast until she lost interest in that too. Now she sleeps through 7-7 and is back to being exclusively breast fed (14 weeks).

I would add however that when she was having formula her bowel movements went from once a day to once every 3-4 days. (But I would stress that she didn't show any signs of distress)

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