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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

Has anyone introduced one bottle of formula at night, did it help baby sleep better?

25 replies

sweetkitty · 19/09/2008 21:29

Just out of interest, DD3 is 9 weeks and exclusively BF, waking 2-3 times a night for a feed.

Was talking to someone today about BFing and sleep and they were saying they gave one bottle of formula at 8pm then their baby slept through the night. Is it just a coincidence? Would it adversely affect supply?

Just wondering if anyone has done it and what effect it had?

OP posts:
alittlebitshy · 19/09/2008 21:31

we have
ds has gone from mostly 3 hour as longest stretches (sometimes 5) to 6-8 hour ones.......
Re supply - I'm expressing before i go to bed to keep my supply up. the bfc said that's fine.

iwantasecondone · 19/09/2008 21:35

Hi sweetkitty! (it's turtle from the March08 thread in disguise)Um..yeah...we did. Makes no difference whatsoever. But I think that's because DS is outstandingly clever and knows that if he keeps waking up, sooner or later he'll get the good stuff as he knows Mummy is too lazy to do formula in the middle of the night.

pudding25 · 19/09/2008 21:37

We introduced one bottle of formula mid morning at 3 weeks (husband works afternoons/evenings - wanted him to do a feed so I could rest and I could not express) and another bottle of formula at the dreamfeed at around 13 wks. Not sure if it made a difference. I don't think so. She slept through from the dreamfeed when we took away her dummy at 16wks. Not sure if the formula had anything to do with it though.

Neither bottles affected my supply but that is probably just lucky for me.

TheProvincialLady · 19/09/2008 21:38

It does happen, but almost everyone finds it makes no difference at all - or makes a very short term difference until the baby gets used to digesting the heavier formula. At 9 weeks you would definitely be well advised to protect your supply and do what alittlebitshy does and express.

BUT at 9 weeks waking 2-3 times a night is okay. It really is. It doesn;t feel like it I know, but it won't be long before your DD sleeps for longer stretches anyway.

BabiesEverywhere · 19/09/2008 21:38

This study showed that breastfed babies who were given a bottle of formula in the evening slept 30 minutes less than exclusively breastfed babies.

Waking 2/3 times per night for a feed is totally normal for a 9 week old baby.

Would you consider co-sleeping with your baby ? That way you can nurse lying down and catch up on more sleep.

thisisyesterday · 19/09/2008 21:40

2 or 3 times a night at 9 weeks is bloody good!

breastfede babies are SUPPOSED to feed little and often.
and remember that even one bottle of formula will damage the virgin gut.
giving supplements can affect your supply and the best thing for your baby is to be exclusively breastfed

scarletlilybug · 19/09/2008 21:41

DD started (unexpectedly)sleeping through the night at 10 weeks - exclusively breastfed. Yet at 9 weeks I remember being sleep obsessed because I was being woekn up 2-3 times per night.
I'm not convinced that formula is a magic solution to sleep... maybe one advantage could be that someone else could do at least one feed for you.
I would say what helped me most was adopting a loose EASY rotine based on Tracy Hogg's ideas. (BTW, I think her advice about the specifics of breastfeeding is pretty poor on the whole - but nevertheless the routine thing worked very well for me and led to dd sleeping through the night at 10 weeks and thereafter.) Anyway, from what I recall, the idea was to feed the baby on waking, do a bit of activity until it got tired (could be somethng as simple as having a bath or kicking in a play gym), then letting the baby sleep as soon as it seemed tired. During the day, never let the baby sleep for more than 3 hours at a stretch without waking it for a fed. At night (say from 10ish onwards) never wake the baby up - just allow it to sleep to its own rhythm and when it does wake up, try to keep things dark and calm so that there is a difference between night time and day time. Anyway, this worked for me. HTH.

forevared · 19/09/2008 21:41

I introduced the first bottle at 5pm as I found my milk was in really low supply at that time of day and ds was wasn't getting enough breastmilk at that feed.
I think it probably is a coincidence, and could affect your supply if you then don't express at that time.

It's so difficult to gauge how much lo's get when bfing, but might it be worth expressing in the day or late evening for her to have a bottle of expressed milk last thing at night? That might help her to go a little longer. If you gave a 7 or even 8oz bottle it might be more than she's getting from a bf and could help her sleep another hour or 2. Every minute is precious when they're waking that frequently for a feed.
Good luck

TettyLouBar · 19/09/2008 21:43

Our DD is 14 wks, we started giving FF at night after 6 wks. She went from waking every 3 hours to sometimes sleeping for 9 hours! Its hit and miss, a normal night would be
down at 7pm with BF
FF at 10
wakes at around 3-4am and is BF
then sleeps til around 7-8am

BUT, whenever we have stopped the FF's to see what happens, she reverts back to 3-4 hourly feeds. So it works for us and we KNOW its not a coincidence for our LO.

Technically she's only losing one feed at night as a result of the FF, but it certainly helps! I express last thing before bed ti keep up the supply too

Original poster
sweetkitty · 19/09/2008 21:52

Thanks for all your messages [waves at turtle and ALBS]

This is the third baby I have exclusively BF, DD1 slept 11-6 from 6 weeks, DD2 well we named her Dyson she was a total boob monster she was still waking 6 times a night at a year. I do completely understand the virgin gut, protecting your supply and why BF babies wake so often, we cosleep and I latch her on and doze so my sleep isn't that interrupted.

I was just wondering as you do with talking to someone who said one bottle of formula worked for them and their LO sleeping through.

On our post natal thread it is beginning to emerge that the FF babies are sleeping longer than the BF ones.

OP posts:
monthlymayhem · 19/09/2008 21:57

Hi again Sweetkitty

We introduced a FF a couple of weeks ago at 11pm as DS is 6mths now and still waking 2 or 3 times between 12 and 6am Anyway it made no difference whatsoever to his sleep and just means that we have to listen to him cry while making up the bottle (unfortunately he is very particular about temperature, it has to be perfect )

MrsTittleMouse · 19/09/2008 21:59

My SIL did, lost her supply, and gave up breastfeeding. Didn't stop her from nagging me to do the same when I was BFing though. She really put the pressure on via MIL and DH.
DD was much older than your DD3 is now, but when she did have formula at night (when babysat, or in deperation to get her to sleep) it made no difference whatsoever. In fact, she had 3 nights of formula in a row the first time that DH and I had a minibreak away from her, and woke up just as often as when I breastfed her.

chipmonkey · 19/09/2008 22:34

All my babies, except ds3 who generally is the exception to most rules anyway! they slept through from 4 months and they were all still being bf.

chandellina · 20/09/2008 18:18

my nearly 8 week old sleeps better after formula. we give him a bottle of mixed EBM and formula around 6:00 am so i can get a bit of rest in the morning (even if i've just fed him.)
it definitely settles him.

missbumpy · 20/09/2008 20:41

We did and found that DD slept worse than when just BF. I think it made her really windy!

LittlePushka · 20/09/2008 20:48

Gave both Ds's a formula dream feed at 11pm from about 8 weeks. Slept well and dd not affect their taste for BM.

jeanjeannie · 20/09/2008 22:08

DD1 was mixed fed and had a formula dream feed and she slept through from 9 weeks. DD2 is 16 weeks and exclusively BF - she has slept through from 11 weeks - so, not much difference in my very limited experience.

fishie · 20/09/2008 22:12

at that small age of baby / small stomach i don't see how formula rather than bf night feed could make much difference. it could indeed truly bugger up bf if not used with care.

LittlePushka · 20/09/2008 22:45

BM apparantly is digested quicker than formula hence baby feels empty sooner.

edam · 20/09/2008 22:47

I know it's not advised because it can affect b/f but we did the one bottle at night time thing and it worked for us. Meant dh and I could split the night feeds, one each. Which was wonderful as we both got a big chunk of sleep.

It wasn't a magic trick that made ds sleep any more than before, just let us share the workload.

DKMA · 20/09/2008 22:52

I started giving a bottle of formula at about 6 wks at 10.30pm (ish) and yes he did start to sleep for MUCH longer stretches - as did I!!!! As dh could do it and I could get an early night which was farkin bliss at the time!!!!

poppysocks · 20/09/2008 22:55

Exactly the same as alittlebitshy (hi ALBS btw if you're still there!). DH gives DD a bottle of formula before she goes down for the night and she started to sleep through (8-7) at 5 weeks (she's 6 now, so still tentative and holding our breath that it lasts!).

Was reading this thread as I expressed, before heading off to bed. Doesn't seem to have affected my supply and doesn't seem to have affected DD's digestion. Who knows whether it's responsibe for her sleeping well, but I'm not changing anything, while it's working well....

HolidaysQueen · 20/09/2008 23:00

We introduced bottle of formula at night at 2 weeks old - i was exhausted and loads of people told us it would help DS sleep better and i didn't know it could bugger up breastfeeding.

I managed to stop it buggering up breastfeeding but it made it very hairy for a while. I'm not convinced it has helped DS sleep through as his milk consumption in that bottle increased but his sleep patterns got more and more varied - slept through for 2 weeks at 3 months but then was waking twice a night between 4 and 5.5 months even after taking a 7oz bottle at 11pm . It has finally started to settle again this past week (nearly 25 weeks) after he has reached two devpt milestones of sitting properly and rolling properly (spent ages trying to master these two skills). So I think his sleep is completely related to growth spurts/neuro development rather than getting formula at night.

Not sure I would do it this way again with a second baby, although I do like it now for selfish reasons - means I can have a glass of wine in the evening and get to bed early while DH does the feed

handmedownqueen · 20/09/2008 23:01

I agree on the workload sharing, dont obsess about whether baby sleeps longer just get yourself off to bed at 830 pm - leave your dh to do the 1030 feed then with luck youll get through to 3 and will feel quite perky, you will have plenty of milk for the rest and baby will then have a good stretch

did this with four out of my five and it really helped me get thought those hectic first months, very rarely felt as completely knackered as I did with my first baby when i stuck to exclusive breat feeding and fed all of them for of year ( though no5 is still sneakily getting the odd feed at 14 months!)

Cadelaide · 20/09/2008 23:11

We did this with DS1 and it worked very well, he slept through 8 till 8.

Didn't affect bf, just did the one bedtime bottle for months.

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