Would my almost 12 week old dd more likely 'sleep through' if i gave her a bottle of formula last thing at night?

[CharlotteACavatica]

She is exclusively breast fed, but im very tired, im on my own with 3 other small children, and im not getting an awful lot of sleep, she tends to wake up around every 1 and a half to two hours at night, im aware that formula tends to sit heavier on their tummy, would this help her sleep for longer?

IME no. I tried with ds1 when he was 7.5 months old and it made no difference at all, he still woke, just didn't feed anymore. Tried with ds2 at 11 months and it made him really sick (but he has a bowel disorder).

I wouldn't have thought there would be any harm in trying it, but just don't hope for miracles.

You really have my sympathy. Neither of my kids sleep well. I haven't had a good nights sleep for nearly 5 years. Not sure how I'm still going though.

Sorry that all sounded so doom and gloom. All I was trying to say is that it might not work, but if you try it I hope it does.

Do you have anyone who could sort the kids out whilst you got a couple of hours sleep?

The research on this - which is not a huge amount - says not worth it and does not lead to extra sleep. Can you perhaps consider co-sleeping as a way of getting more sleep?

Breast-feeding increases sleep duration of new parents.
Doan T, Gardiner A, Gay CL, Lee KA.

Department of Family Health Care Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.

OBJECTIVES: This study describes sleep patterns for mothers and fathers after the birth of their first child and compares exclusive breast-feeding families with parents who used supplementation during the evening or night at 3 months postpartum. METHODS: As part of a randomized clinical trial, the study utilized infant feeding and sleep data at 3 months postpartum from 133 new mothers and fathers. Infant feeding type (breast milk or formula) was determined from parent diaries. Sleep was measured objectively using wrist actigraphy and subjectively using diaries. Lee's General Sleep Disturbance Scale was used to estimate perceived sleep disturbance. RESULTS: Parents of infants who were breastfed in the evening and/or at night slept an average of 40-45 minutes more than parents of infants given formula. Parents of infants given formula at night also self-reported more sleep disturbance than parents of infants who were exclusively breast-fed at night. CONCLUSIONS: Parents who supplement their infant feeding with formula under the impression that they will get more sleep should be encouraged to continue breast-feeding because sleep loss of more than 30 minutes each night can begin to affect daytime functioning, particularly in those parents who return to work.

No.

DS1 was FF and was the crappest sleeper on the planet.

DS2 exclusively BF and was a great sleeper. I also found it a whole lot easier to get back to sleep too.

I think it is a myth that formula helps babies sleep.

i tried this also. no help with sleeping throught the night. i have 2 dd's oldest is 2 and still does not sleep through, youngest is 8 months and sleeps through no trouble. i wish i knew what i did different but i have no clue at all

I would say not. My DS was FF and is now 19mths old and literally started sleeping through last week. For him, it took being weaned onto proper food, eating a hearty supper and weaning him off his cow's milk onto water at night.

I tired this with DS from he was 5 weeks old (he's now almost 8 weeks). Different to the above women, it did work for us .

He used to wake every 2 hours, same as his feeding pattern during the day. I introduced a bottle of formula as his last feed from 5 weeks and he would sleep for around 6-7 hours while that digested!

I did it because I was tired, my DH wanted to help feed him and mainly because I wanted him to get used to a bottle from a young age.

There have been no problems with nipple confusion, my supply is okay and he's a happy boy.

I'm not saying this is all thanks to formula, or maybe DS would have naturally fallen into a longer pattern of sleep at that age anyway.

Try it and see!

NO.

Sorry.

My DH started giving a ff in the night at this age as I was exhausted and got very little out when expressing. It made no difference what so ever to the length of time between feeds but gave me a rest from feeding. At least it reassured me my milk wasn't unsatisfying (I had lots of wobbles with slow weight gain). My DH enjoyed the oppurtunity to give a feed but I felt very guilty about it.

My DD woke lots for feeds until she started on solids then slept through the night very reliably soon afterwards.

MY two little sisters and I were bottle fed, and all 3 of us sleept right through as soon as we got home from hospital! I bottle fed ds, and he was the same! Other family members who also bottle fed their dc, said that there dc slept through from a couple of weeks, however family members who breast fed, would moan about their dc getting up all through the night!
Therefor, i think there probebly is some sort of link between ff and sleep, however it could maybe just be my family, cause everyones genes are different!
Although i do think you should give it a go and see. Hope everything works out for you.

Its worth a try in my opinion. My DS (FF) has a bottle every night at 1030 and sleeps through til 7.30. He's been doing this sporadically since 8 weeks and then solidly since he was 10 weeks.

It may be luck though, but if your baby isn't exclusively breast fed then it won't do any harm to try a late night bottle before you go to bed.

Would echo trying it but not expect much - I tried the lot with DS and hoped each thing would work - bottle of formula at night, starting on solids, more active because crawling, more active because walking (he did this at 10mths ), 2 meals a day, 3 meals a day, cows milk at 12 mths, etc, etc. Not a damn thing worked, he slept through at about 14 months when he was ready!!
Bit of a shock after DD who slept through at 14 weeks

Sorry if that doesn't help

Yes, definitely.

Eeek, i guess it does work for some and not for others (much like everything else in life i guess!) i did find that research interesting, thanks tiktok, in my heart i very much enjoy 'JUST' breastfeeding, and im abit smug about it too, as i had a very very stressful pregnancy, dd was very tiny at birth and life continues to be predictably stressful, so quite a few people said how they dont think id manage to breastfeed and look after my others aswell, and due to stress my milk would be 'of poor quality' so i thought i'll show them! - so im not going to give anything else unless im very very desperate! - but for sleep i think im pretty desperate im torn......

i think its definitely worth a try...im having a similar problem, my 4week old little girl just doesnt stop feeding off me, which in the day time its bad enough but at night its a totally different story. we've started giving her just one bottle of formula before i go to bed so now at least i know im gonna get at least a couple of hours unbroken sleep... obviously it doesnt work for every baby like this but it seems to for her.
good luck hope u manage to get some sleep

FWIW my 11 week DS always sleeps longer for the first sleep of the evening - 8pm till at least 2pm and sometimes until 6am (on the odd blessed occasion ) and has done for the last 6 weeks or so. This seems to be the same with my other friends who are bf-ing or ff-ing alike. If I was giving him a FF it would probably be the 8pm feed, so I would think it was the formula, wheras it is just the way he and the other babies sleeps. Perhaps that's why people think the formula helps?

OTOH, you are doing fantastically well bf-ing with 3 other little children - I am in awe! - and if the ff might possibly help esp if someone else can give the last feed so you can get a bit more sleep, go for it. At 12 weeks your supply should be pretty established (though check this as I am only going on 2nd hand info) so if it doesn't work and you don't want to continue, you could always just stop and go back to bf.

Well done and good luck for getting some more sleep!

I'd give it a go. It definitely works for me. I've 'tested' it a few nights by bf'ing for the last feed and he wakes up like clockwork 3 hours later whereas on formula he goes to morning (4 months)

If you're worried about supply issues could you do your usual feed just before you go to bed and then top up with half a bottle of formula. I used to do that with ds except I gave him a bottle of ebm as a top up (I could express when I only had one, impossible to do now with a toddler). DS was doing 7-7 from 12 weeks (with a quick dream feed at 10pm before I went to bed)

DD is now 16 weeks and is still having a 7pm feed, a 10pm dream feed, a 1am feed and a 5am feed. She was doing 11pm to 5am only three weeks ago and seems to have misunderstood the instruction manual that says babies are supposed to go longer between feeds as they get older. I'm getting very close to trying topping up with a few ounces of formula after her dream feed myself!

Didn't make any difference with my DS, but I know people who have found it helpful.

Have you thought about co-sleeping? Sorry to add yet more conflicting advice but this worked for me. Lots of breastfeeding mums find they don't have to wake up properly to feed if baby is in bed as well. Just 'plug in' a breast and drift off back to sleep...

Obviously you have to make sure that baby can't fall out of bed or get stuck under pillows etc. (not a problem if you are a careful mum) - maybe this could help you hold on to that lovely exclusively bf feeling while still getting more sleep...

I agree with your point Getthepartystarted, my baby (3 weeks old) will sleep for 5 or 6 hours for the first portion of the night, she is ebf. Same for my other children, waking them for a dream feed at 11pm never helped either because their natural pattern was to sleep for a long time for the first part of the night. They would still wake at about 3am whether they had the extra feed or not. My view is that formula isn't necessary and you can get them sleeping thru on breastmilk, however it obviously works for some people we can see from this thread, not all babies are the same. OP, could you try settling her without feeding if it has been less than say 2 hrs since the last feed? Hard work I know. Does she scream the place down or is she just grunting and moaning a bit. Perhaps she would quieten a bit if you didn't go to her straight away, and you could break the habit.

Co-sleeping was what really helped us. It meant I didn't need to fully wake up and neither did he! I know that some worry about it's safety but actually research seems to indicate that it's actually safer for baby - e.g. they mimic your breathing and heartbeat, they are right beside you if anything is wrong, if their body temp is too high yours naturally cools to cool them down etc.

Others have mentioned co-sleeping. Personally that's what I would try before the formula but only as I wanted my baby to be "exclusively" BF and I don't have lots of other kids to cope with!

I don't know if you will be interested in reading this article. IMO OJ is a bit of a twat but he knows how to distil the scientific info in an accessible way. It's fascinating stuff!