Do formula-fed babies sleep better than breastfed babies?

[babyboymam]

So I am 4.5 months into my BF journey and I have set myself a target of 6 months. I am starting to feel ready to stop and I have been thinking whether switching to formula will improve my baby's sleep at all? Does anyone have any experience of switching to formula at six months and seeing any improvement?

My HV and all the evidence says no but speaking to some friends it seems to me that formula fed babies do sleep better at night as the formula fills their bellies for longer. My ds was waking twice a night which was amazing but since the 4 month sleep regression kicked in he's up every 2 hours through the night.

I know threads like this can be heated in the breast vs bottle debate so please be kind and keep comments just about sleep 🙏🏼

In my experience no. I breastfed for 6 months as did my SIL and our babies are now 9 months and wake multiple times a night. My baby woke 6 times last night and my SIL was up 9 times with hers!

I think it depends why they are waking. If it’s genuine hunger, possibly, but I think more often it’s needing a feed as comfort as much as for nutrition, which applies to both bottle and breastfed babies.

You could always try continuing to breastfeed during the day and introducing a bottle of formula in the evening? Your partner could possibly give that feed to give you a chance to chill

I think there is some evidence in younger babies that they sleep in blocks that are a little longer when ff, but breastfed babies can settle sooner when they wake at night if you are able to responsively feed back to sleep. I have breastfed and coslept and my baby is almost 2, she’s still in with me and feeding through the night so you might not want to listen to me though 😅good luck and do what feels right for you, I’m sure you’re doing an amazing job whatever you decide to do

I breastfeed 8 month old DS and when he was 3/4 months tried formula in an evening and at night instead and it made no difference whatsoever. In fact, I got less sleep because making the bottles even with a perfect prep machine made me feel more awake and I struggled to get back to sleep afterwards. I went back to exclusive breastfeeding and he refuses a bottle entirely now :(

With DS1 I combi fed but breastfed in and evening and if he woke in the night and he was a brilliant sleeper.

Thanks for replying

@wishuponastar1988 aw bless you that must be hard! How many times do you feed baby through the night ? or do you just settle baby back to sleep without a feed?

@Mindyourfingers I'm considering doing this first before cutting down and stopping all together. That's a good point about comfort. I offer the boob every time he wakes but I think sometimes it is just comfort he wants rather than food x

My baby was combi fed from 9 weeks. She was a terrible sleeper (both before and after we ditched the night feeds) until she started nursery.

I have three friends with babies of a similar age to my DD (14/15 months). 2 have always been exclusively breastfed. 1 of them still wakes every 3 hours or so and has pretty much always done so. One was sleeping through from 7-7 by about 7 months. The one who’s always been exclusively formula fed is still waking for 1 or 2 feeds a night.

Moral of the story: all babies are different and nights feeds in older babies don’t always have much to do with how hungry they are!

PS: I’m not for or against breastfeeding or formula. Do whatever you think will work best for you!

I have 4, all BF, 2 slept well, 2 didn't.

Yes and no. As in it’s no difference really. But switching from breast to bottle at the right time can be a fast track to nightweaning, or for us anyway it worked.

@Dryshampoofordays Aw sounds like you're doing an amazing job, i wish in a way I wanted to BF for longer but I'm just not enjoying it as much as a I should and just feel ready to get my body back.

@Moonshine160 that's really interesting! Thanks for replying!

I'm just so tired as well that I'm hoping formula will be a magic cure but it doesn't seem likely! 😅

One of my friends formula feed both of hers. first child was a terrific sleeper from very early on and was sleeping through from 4 months. Her second was also formula feed and was a terrible sleeper and up multiple times for feeds or cuddles. He is now 2 and still wakes multiple times a night.

My first was combi feed from 6 weeks and I stopped breast feeding at 6 months. He has always been a terrible sleeper and switching made no difference. My youngest is ebf, refuses a bottle. He was sleeping 6 hour stints at night from a week old. He is 5 months old and have had a couple of nights in the last week where he has slept from 8 to 5.

I don't think it makes any difference

I don't know about length if sleeping but we switched to FF around 6 months and one thing that improved was my sleep as my DH could help with night feeds at the weekend and a dream feed every night!

In my experience no. I combi fed, and I tested the theory with either giving only breast milk or formula from afternoon onwards. Didn't make any difference, he woke at the same time for a feed through the night.

In my experience yes, my first was ff and slept through 7-7 from 12 weeks, second was breastfed and woke every hour until I swapped to formula at 6 months and then was sleeping through within a month and third was breastfed for 3 months, waking up every 20 mins from 3am and when I started giving a bottle of formula at midnight started sleeping from 12am-7am x

Its not to do with the feeding how well they sleep. My breastfed soon slept through at 11 weeks. Before that he would do stretches of sleep between 3 and 5 hours before 11 weeks. Loves his sleep like his mama

Son*

Evidence says no.

I think people get to a sleep regression, understandably reach the end of their tether, give a bottle in the hope it works and sleep improves. Would have improved anyway bottle or not but then anecdata says it works etc….

The 4m sleep regression is brutal though, so do what you need to survive and I mumsnetty hugs

Both our kids were formula fed.

They were both sleep trained / controlled crying at 4 months.

They both happily slept 12 hours a night from that point forward and only ever wake in the night when poorly.

DS1 took ten minutes of crying on the first night and then slept through. There was less crying each time after that. DS2 was similar.

I've heard that formula keeps babies full for longer. I don't know if that's true.

IMHO sleep training / controlled crying is the key to everybody getting a good night's sleep.

Not all babies go through a regression. My sons 1 and never hit any. But still time

Like you said, the research does state that there’s no difference. But breast feeding lowers the chance of SIDS because the baby doesn’t sleep as deeply as formula fed babies. So clearly formula = deeper sleep. And if a baby needs to be nil by mouth for surgery you can give them breast milk much closer to their operation than formula, because formula stays in the stomach for longer.

In my experience formula fed babies sleep better but usually only if they’re formula fed from day one. My breast fed babies ended up with such a sleep association with the act of breast feeding that it was too late once I felt comfortable to introduce a formula feed before bed.

My formula fed baby slept worse than my two breastfed ones. Just depends on the baby!

Both mine were breastfed for 6 weeks then onto bottle. One slept really well from 10 weeks onwards the other just woke up loads through the night until he was almost 1. So personally I don't think it's to do with how they are fed!

Well done on breast feeding for that long. I hope you have some good support available for the times you have harder nights. Good luck with your decision! X

Anecdotally I get the impression that in the early days FF babies sleep for longer chunks than BF babies, but in the longer term it’s less reliable - certainly the toddlers I know are variable about whether they sleep through the night and only a fraction are breastfed still, there’s no difference in terms of whether they were FF or BF in the past. I breastfed to 3+ years but night weaned after a certain point and from then on my babies slept through the night.

My daughter was a great sleeper as a baby. She was formula-fed and had a dummy. I know people are against dummies but my kid slept through the night pretty much from 2/3 months onwards with no waking 🤷‍♀️Got rid of the dummy when she was 2. She is now 13 and has lovely teeth, no need to braces, so no issues with teeth at all.

I combi-fed my son from birth, he was a big baby (9lb7oz if that makes a difference!), he was born in October and slept through by Christmas (8-6.30) but my friends baby, born at the same time, and met through baby massage, did the same and her baby was like a Jack in a box every couple of hours until about 6 months old! I just think it all depends on the baby! Even before sleeping though my DS would be up for a feed at 2am and back down 30-45 mins later, he was just a good sleeper and nothing to do with feeding!

My 5 month old is formula fed (from birth) and has slept 7-7 since 8 weeks. Also never experienced a sleep regression at 4 months.

I've taught him how to self settle since birth.

If you aren't set against formula then I'd give it a go, especially since someone else can feed baby.