What do bottle fed babies do all day?

[lizzlebizzle33]

I have 2 sons both EBF, my youngest is 10 weeks and it seems like he still bf's all day long, has very short periods of being awake and happy before getting upset again and wanting boob to soothe him.
I'm just wondering what parents of bottle fed babies experiences are and what their young babies are like when they're not feeding or asleep, what do they do?
This might sound like an odd question but with both babies I have used breastfeeding as d way to soothe them when they are crying and not just when they are hungry so I wonder how you soothe a bottle fed baby other than feeding?

Mine were both BF, they cluster fed for a couple of hours in the evening (7-9ish) but during the day they just fed for 20 mins or so, slept or were awake and happy. Grizzled again when hungry or tired. Can’t see how it would have been any different if I bottle fed?

Mine looked longingly at other women's breasts all day, a little tear forming at the corner of their eye.

I only ask as I'm struggling with ds2 at the moment. He sleeps fine at night, waking for 2 or 3 feeds but is very unsettled in the day.
Typically I will feed him and put him in his travel cot or bouncer and he will fall asleep but DS1 will wake him up either out of playing loudly and having a tantrum.
He more often than not wont be able to put himself back to sleep and I will have to pick him up and once I do he starts rooting for a feed.
I find it hard to not just give him to stop him crying, I know I do just give him the breast too easily but it's what the health visitor has told me to do in the past.
I do engage him and play with him but to be honest if I manage to get him settled and happy I try to play with Ds1 or get some cooking or housework done.

Do you think I should let him cry a little longer? Give him a dummy?

I can't take him out for walks when my husband is at work at the moment because we don't yet have a double pram as we can't afford one yet, we have two singles so unless hubby is home or I can ask someone to come out with me were a little housebound.
It's driving me quite mad 😬

InThisHouse

Oh yes, and because your dh can also take turns to feed them (plus Grandparents, visiting friends, etc), you actually get to do things too like have a soak in the bath, or go out without them for a bit, or whatever you fancy. Or even have a full night's sleep.

Please understand i am not having any kind of dig at bottle feeding, I just haven't experienced it so I wonder how the babies day differs? Are they happier to be full quicker and then play happier for longer? I know every baby is different

I used to just bung them in front of Jeremy Kyle and Loose women and they’d be happy as Larry.

That does sound very tricky OP, some babies do seem to need to suck to settle which is where dummies come in very handy! How do you feel about dummies?

I didn't give DS1 a dummy but life was easier then, now with two babies under two I think I might be up for trying a dummy. I was always warned off it though because of it affecting milk supply and nipple confusion? What do you think?x

I bottle feed on demand, so sometimes DD seems to eat every 2 hours.
I suppose the difference between BF and FF is that I didn't worry about giving her a dummy if I thought she just wanted to suck (I think you are advised to not use a dummy to begin with if you are BF in case of nipple confusion).

Otherwise, I reckon it's the same for babies, except I can go out and leave Dd with my husband and not have to worry about expressing. And when I say "go out" I mean to the hairdresser or supermarket, still too tired fo anything more strenuous as even if DH can do the night feeds, I'm still awake as I wake when I hear DD anyway.

This thread bloody annoys me. Exactly the same as BF babies! They need just as much cuddles and love, they're just not on the boob!

She used to go in her swing or her bouncer, we'd sit and cuddle and play, or we'd go out for a walk

Oh my god I'm not surprised that's driving you mad. I think you're doing very well to hold it together tbh with the Not Getting Out.

I settle all of mine with dummies - 1BF, 2 FF.
They're the best thing in the world in my book.
For example, if one of mine woke up from the older playing as you have, I'd just stick their dummy back in and they go straight off again.
I have 3 under 3.

Would you try going out with your 2nd in a sling?

Well done you for BFing whilst you still have your oldest at home demanding your attentions.

Kimchilala sorry I've annoyed you I'm just struggling to entertain my baby or settle him with anything other than boob and I wondered what bottle fed babies days were like, I get that they need jut as much cuddles and love. Really didn't mean to offend anybody with this pot, it was more about the struggle I am having right now 😬

My (failed bf, then ff) baby just cried. And cried. If she wasn't crying, she was asleep, but not for long. Later diagnosed with reflux, as well as "colic". As soon as she was awake, I was running around making and cooling a feed, feeding her, trying to stop her crying for a few hours (i.e. mostly just walking round the house shushing and rocking a screaming baby) then she'd sleep and I'd wash and sterilise the bottles, go for a pee, express what I could (almost nothing, unfortunately), she'd wake up, repeat ad infinitum. It's not necessarily easier, in case you're thinking of switching - all the added washing and sterilising and "bottle building" and making up feeds and trying different formulas to find one that suits and trying different bottles to find one that suits and carrying so much stuff everywhere and all the expense...it wasn't easier! It's not guaranteed they'll sleep better or cry less or any of that sort of thing. Also she took forever to take a bottle so I probably spent almost as much time feeding as you. Another downside of bottle feeding: I had no free hand whilst feeding (one holding baby, one holding bottle) but bf I often had one hand free so I could read news, mumsnet, Facebook etc instead of being stuck in the dark in the middle of the night for an hour at a time.

I just stuck mine back in the drawer between feeds

They are settled in a way other than feeding them, like cuddling..... thereby avoiding the problem of not learning to settle without being fed.

Go and RTFT. Nothing to be annoyed about. This is a struggling mum wondering whether bottle feeding might help. Ooof.

One of mine was BF. One of mine (very prem) was mix fed and more bottle than boob. He slept, he was carried, he lay down and stared around a bit. He was and still is better at self soothing than his brother was at the same age (and DS1 had the boob and a dummy). I don't know whether that's from his neonatal stint or his personality or bottle feeding.

All babies are different no matter how they are fed.

Can you put your baby in a sling and your toddler in a roam to get out for a walk?

Roam? Pram.

The longest I breast fed any of my three was for a week. They were all different one was very settled enjoyed cuddles and rarely cried the next screamed the house down for hours every day and nothing ever settled him. Youngest was a bit of both. Can't say they did anything different to my friends babies who where breast fed.

I only breast fed for a month but ds had a dummy from day three. Had to give up breast feeding for reasons out of my control but had no latching issues or nipple confusion. DS has dummy now to get him to sleep but soon spits it out when he's deeply gone. Worth a shot. Might give you more freedom

Sling and buggy and go out. Soother v unlikely to cause issues. Try it (needs persistence at first).

OP, can you get a sling on eBay or freetrader? My babies were breast fed and then bottle. I can understand what you are saying as with a bottle there can be a little bit more of a routine and I didn’t use a bottle to settle my babies unless I felt they were hungry. I would suggest a dummy. I never had a problem stopping the dummy once they were older. Otherwise I would walk around rocking them for ages until they
Settled. Those first few months are very hard, good luck.

Eat hot curries and pâté You can bf and eat these things!

Could you afford a secondhand double buggy? Must be v frustrating to be stuck in the house with a toddler.

I think the whole dummy/nipple confusion thing only applies for the first 8 weeks or do. My DD bf until 17 mo and had a dummy from about 9weeks old (roughly - can't remember exactly when we first gave her it). It never caused any issues with bf.

Feed and sleep... My prem FF DC took half an hour to drink less than an ounce to start with.
Also you need both hands to bottle feed (or at least one). So you can watch a box set but no books that need to be held open or anything else needing hands. V jealous of my BF friends who seem to be able to do it hands free.