Does your FF baby sleep through?

[Lolarosemama]

I’m interested to know if your formula fed baby sleeps through and if so, how much do you feed them in the day?
DS is five months and it feels like we’re not even getting toward him sleeping through or even reducing night feeds. We were going to put him in his own room at 6 months but that’s starting to look less likely. All experience/advice welcome!

No, most babies don't sleep through at that age. My ff one had a night feed(s) until 9 months (most babies have them til closer to a year) but didn't sleep through ever until she was 13 months. And even then it was like, twice. She didn't sleep through for any period of time until maybe 2.5-3, so usually at least one or two night wakings. My bf one, on the other hand, slept through a bit around 3-4 months, and then much more consistently from about 2. He's 3 now and he might wake 1-2 nights a week, but generally sleeps through the others. So it's a lot more down to personality than how they're fed. He was always by far the better sleeper.

That said, until babies are getting a significantly about of calories from food, which doesn't usually happen until 10 ish months, they still need quite regular feeds. But then unfortunately, the main reason that small children wake is for comfort rather than for food, so it's a bit of a long slog still I have to say. You will get breaks when sleep gets better though and it's great for getting yourself caught up.

My FF 4month old slept through from about 9 weeks old, we’ve just hit sleep regression about 2 weeks ago and he’s now waking for 1 feed in the night anywhere between 1am-4am. He’s drinking about 6oz every 2-3hrs at the moment. I find that if he takes a 6oz bottle after 9pm he usually sleeps through but his feeds have been a bit all over the place, leaving bits of bottle etc since the sleep regression hit. Hoping it won’t last too long and we can go back to our full nights sleep!

My 2 year old doesn't sleep through

Dd was 6 months, ds was 8 months. I encouraged ds by gradually reducing the amount of milk in the night feed from 6 months

Hi, I feel the same...I kept getting told that three months would be the turning point and I’d start to enjoy longer periods of sleep but never really happened. We do a dream feed at 10ish and the longest sleep we ever got was once a 4.45am feed and we had a couple of weeks doing just one feed around the 3am mark. We’re still only feeding once per night on average but the wake ups seem a lot more frequent atm so thinking this may be the regression. I’m also thinking that putting him in his own room at six months is looking unlikely as I think I would find it more tiresome having to keep go into a separate room and not reacting as quickly so him getting more distressed and taking longer to go back down. What do you think you will do?

11mo FF - no

Ds was ff but is now on cows milk. He's 15 months and still often wakes up once a night. I dont think there's any clear age. Unfortunately, like so many things it's just down to luck of the draw and each individual baby.

My 6 month old DD recently went down to one night feed but has now started wanting two again..she has 3x 7oz in the day then 9oz before bed then 8oz in the night. Shows no signs of sleeping through but she does go to bed at 7 then sleeps til about 2 when she wants her feed, then she'll sleep til 7-8am

Hi we're the same. DD just turned 5 months and still wake sup once a night between 2-4 for a bottle. She has 5oz every 3 hours starting from 8am and we're considering putting up an ounce as she's finishing bottles dry. She's teething just now so sometimes when she wakes up before her normal feeding time I out in a dummy and if she spits it out then I know she wants a bottle. Most of the time that settles her for a few hours

My DS sleeps through. He's 3.5 months and is now solely FF. He has a very good appetite and feeds well in the day so cut out the night feeds quite early on. Appreciate we are lucky though and this isn't necessarily the norm.

4 month sleep regression & 16 week jabs due soon so I doubt it'll last long.

Nope! DS is 8.5 months and usually wakes twice during the night for a feed. He goes to sleep at 7.30pm and wakes for the day around 6am. DH and I do one feed each so generally get a reasonable amount of sleep. Not really concerned about it and hopefully once he’s eating more solids he might sleep through; he’s still very little.

As an aside DS started sleeping much better at night once he was in his own room. I think we were disturbing him at night turning over in bed/coughing or sneezing/getting up for the loo etc! If you think your DS is ready then go for it at 6 months.

@YessicaHaircut just seen your post...how do you find him being in his own room despite still being up in the night for feeds? Do you have a monitor or just wait until you hear him from your room? I’m always curious because like the OP I just can’t imagine putting him in his own room any time soon when he is still up and down in the night!

Hi @Ggg1234! We live in a 2 bed flat and DS’s room is just across the hall so we could hear him without a monitor, we do use one anyway just for peace of mind. Not really a bother to get up for feeds and it also means that whichever of us is not doing the feed gets their sleep disturbed a lot less. I was very reluctant to move him too, it’s a big change, but as I said we realised that we were waking him up sometimes so we’ve all slept better now he’s in his own room.

It's a myth that FF babies sleep better.

Maybe their mothers do because the feeding can be more easily shared.

It's abnormal for a baby that small to sleep through.

My DS1 (now 7 yo) FF from birth and slept through the night just shy of his 5th (FIFTH) birthday. DS2 was about 2 and a half, which seemed quite an achievement in comparison.

We stopped night feeds when they were each 7/8 months ish.

I'm sure it's nonsense that FF babies sleep better

I'm sure it's nonsense that FF babies sleep better

Me too. I think you either get a sleeping version or a non sleeping version and they are hardwired already therefore whether you ff or bf them makes no difference.

Ha ha ha ha ha no.

DS had a brief period of sleeping through early on but then didn't sleep from 4-18 month. Expecting the same from DD tbh.

There's so many factors behind sleep, it's not just being full up.

DC1 (FF) slept through from about 4 weeks old, well from 10pm till about 6am.
DC2 (BF) slept through from about 9 months old
DC3 (BF) still does not consistently sleep though at 3 years old. She was still waking every 90 mins at about 8 months but did start to stretch it out after that. She does at least sleep though 2 out of 3 nights now but is usually up and about for the day at close to 6am.
DC4 is breast fed and has been sleeping through from about 3 months. They sometimes wake for some milk around 5am then settles back to sleep till around 7am.
So being FF or BF made no difference in this household.
@Lolarosemama hopefully the sleep will improve - I try and enjoy the night time sleepy cuddles (as no plans for any more)

I also agree that it's about the baby and not the way they are fed that dictates their sleeping patterns. I have four children, all BF,.... One slept through the night reliably at 7 months, another at about a year, another at two years and my current baby... We'll see!

No, he’s 12 months and still doesn’t. He stopped night feeds at around 8 months though; I reduced what he was having in the night and he stopped being bothered by it.
My older DD actually started sleeping through once she was in her own room at just over 6 months as we’d been waking her up

What do you mean by "sleeping through"? Babies have different sleep cycles than adults and it's pretty usual / standard that they wake multiple times a night. Sleep training could help but then you just train them not to call out for you, they will still wake though. Obviously there are better and worse sleepers / self soothers, co-sleepers, sleep trained babies etc but I don't think it depends on feeding.

My FF baby stopped night feedings altogether about 10 weeks but still woke up between cycles until he was about 10 months. It wasn't too bad until the 4 months regression hit but that just threw everything out and we were back to square one 🤦🏼‍♀️

Eventually, like at nearly 4 years old, most of the time...

We reached a high point of doing around 11 -6am, at about 2m old. That lasted until the 4m sleep regressions and it's taken until she was well gone 3 before we were getting that sort of block at night again regularly.

But we shared the night feeds (they stopped at about 15m) and night wakes, so I was a lot less tired than with my bf baby.

18 months old and still doesn't sleep through.

Yes they did.
Both FF. Both in their own rooms at 12 weeks.
Both slept through from 8 weeks (7 - 7).

Both were having 6x9oz of milk a day.

This was a long time ago though. Very old fashioned way of doing things. Fresh air for 2 hours a day, baby food at 12 weeks, only feeding at 4 hourly intervals during the day and no feeding milk past 12 weeks at night (only water and a comforting hand).

Lights always off, no talking at night, no TV, no eye contact.

Sounds grim. Not sure many adults would have 4 hour gaps between eating and drinking if they felt hungry or thirsty between meals.