Does anyone have a formula fed baby that feeds 2 hourly day and night?

[SydneyB]

Just curious as DS is exc bf, 9 weeks, and this is what he is doing and I am utterly exhausted especially have 2yr old DD to look after too. DH suggests I give up bf so he can help me at night and also with the thought that DS won't feed or wake as frequently. I don't really want to stop but I can't go on like this indefinitely. Pretty sure formula feeding woldn't change things too much anyway.

There is no good evidence in terms of research that supports ff as a means of increasing sleep, sorry - there are individual experiences across the whole spectrum.
This study shows parents who excl bf got more sleep than the ones who used formula.

It's probably the case that ff babies feed less frequently, but the reason for this is the less than physiological digestive process needed - but this does not mean the baby is sleeping more.

Frequent night feeding is very tiring - are there ways you can make this easier on yourself?

I kind of thought as much so thanks for confirming. Not sure how to make it easier. Have tried co-sleeping but I just don't sleep at all with him next to me. Apart from anything else he always has a cold, caught frmo DD, and is so so noisy that I've had to move him on to the landing at various points in the night to even get the slightest bit of sleep. He feeds quickly, 15 mins or so, and resettles himself so I should be grateful for that but it takes ME ages to settle after each feed as I know he'll be up again within 2 hours so I can't relax! He is also 13lbs 8, was 10lbs at birth and put on 2lbs in the last 2 weeks so I know he's getting enough milk and imagine some of these feeds are just comfort for him. Which I know is part and parcel of bf. I just wonder at which point I should do something about it. Although not sure exactly what!

He has never slept for more than 3.5hr in a row since he was born. Surely he needs longer stretches at some point?

that's normal at 9 weeks. ds2 hadn't gone longer than that at 9 months! lol

Is it really? Seem surrounded by friends with babies same age, only waking once or twice and doing 5/6 hour stretches and i know DD was doing that by 9 weeks. And the thing is that people always come along saying that theirs are still doing it at 6/9/12/18 months which just makes me feel even more desperate!

This is perfectly normal at 9 weeks. The formula thing is a myth. It used to be more true because formula was so hard to digest but in recent years it has become easier to digest so there is no real difference sleep-wise.

VS - 'in recent years formula has become easier to digest' and this means babies sleep less....when did this happen????

The major change in digestibilty of formula happened when the manufacturers brought out whey-dominant formulas, and I think (without checking, sorry) this was at least 30 years ago.

Is this what you mean?

I don't know when, it's something we were told on a training day last week.
I can try and find out for you though.

VS: Who did the training? I would worry that whoever did the training is an HCP who has been informed by formula manufacturers about how great their products are, at a conference, or a workshop, or by a mailshot.

There are some newer speciality formulas - like 'easy digest' and 'stay down' and 'comfort' but their marketing has been around issues of constipation and throwing up, not sleep.

It may be that they were referring to whey dominant formulas, of course, but they should know this change is really not 'recent'.

I don't really want to name her on here but she works at the Chipping Norton hospital, and is partly responsible for their massive breastfeeding success rates and top BFI awards.
She is definitely someone who knows what she is talking about but I can ask her where she got her info from next time I see her.

Do you think that feeding him more in day would help? Although hard with DD and he already feeds every 1.5/2 hrs. Or do some just adopt this pattern? Anything to do with him being a big baby?

Nope, size and day feeds will likely not make a jot of difference.
He will only take what he needs and he needs it when he needs it. I know it's hard but his tummy is only really tiny so he can only take a small amount, then once that is digested his tummy tells him he needs more so trying to get extra in him won't help.

sydney I hate to tell you, but my excl. bf DS is 5.5 months and is waking every hour/1.5 hours in the night for a feed. His longest stretch is 3 hours but this is fairly rare. It is extremely tiring, but co-sleeping helps. There is no way I could have persisted all this time if I had to get up and down out of bed to feed so often.

Hopefully your DS's feeding patterns will settle. It is frustrating when you hear that so many other DC's sleep 5/6 hours or all night, but some babies just do not sleep that long. I'm prepared for my DS to wake constantly for some time to come - am moving shortly to formula but am not hopeful that this will give me a full night's sleep

Yes,my ff dd fed v similar to bf ds (in fact,he is prob more settled at this age-she was frequent waker even on fully ff).

Keep hanging in there,ds has definitely settled more each week and gone for longer stretches (12-4am a few times)-heis now 4mths (exclusively bf). Mind you, I have co-slept happily withboth of mine (don't think I wouldfunction if not)

(Iwould agree that the consistency of formula might be different-my mumwas amazed how yellow (and bf-like) ff dd's poos were . )

Sigh. Can't cosleep as just dont sleep at all. He is right next to me in his basket so i dont have to get out of bed. Is more that there is so little time between feeds that i am developing this horrid insomnia now!

Sadly he doesn't really nap in the day for v.long. Typing this one handed whilst feeding him and DD having her nap - thank god she still does that! Just feel kind of desperate and mad at thought of this not ending soon. And even more desperate when I accept that there is absolutely nothing I can do about it!

Thanks VS - I'd be really interested.

I should have it written down somewhere actually, I'll see if I can find it, it was part of a true/false questions/answers thing.
One of the questions was whether breastfeeding/formula feeding affected sleeping and that was the answer.

Sympathies Sydney. Ds (8.5 weeks) is also feeding this often, but doesn't resettle easily, and will only settle on top of me or sometimes dh, so we are holding him pretty much 24/7. It's hard going.

i think a lot of what other people's babies are
doing isn't 100% truthful though.,
I see so often people saying things like "oh, x slept right through last night, he only wanted feeding at 2am" or something.
because baby settles stragith back down to sleep they don't count it as an awakening, iyswim?

my first child slept beautifully. 4 hourly feeds from birth (breast), only 1 feed a night by 3 months, and sleeping through by 5 months.

ds2 is another matter entirely! lol

stick with it, it's a fantastic sense of achievement and satisfaction when they get older and you think wow, I made that happen all by myself.

Oh thanks for the support, it does help. Sometimes its hard to remember why you do it that's all. I'm so sleep deprived at the moment that I'm a really crap mum to DD and DS. Neither get the best of me and I'm often on such a short fuse that poor DD just gets a grumpy mum. And poor DS is pretty much ignored during the day apart from feeding etc. Maybe that's why he wakes so much at night? Just wish there was some magic solution that's all!