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 🙏🏼

We never experienced the sleep regression either.

3 kids here first two breastfed until 2.5, not great sleepers especially the first (second was better but by regular norms still not great). Third baby will be two next week, still breastfed and she's been sleeping through since she was around 10 months.
Could be their personalities but what we did different with third was to put her in her room from 6 months. Apart from that it's just their personalities.

Very difficult to say, my first dc slept through from 5 weeks, my second dc didn’t until around 5 years old. Both were bf, obviously not to 5yo though. I think it’s down to each individual dc and nothing to do with parenting.

I remember reading that research showed that mums who breastfeed and cosleep get the most sleep. Which isn't actually the question you asked but I'm assuming is the real issue! I think it's probably mostly down to the fact that you can go back to sleep much quicker if you haven't had to get out of bed.

I found it did. Only did top ups for 2 months in the early days but when they stopped sleeping stopped (and never returned ) and milk poos multiple times a day.

I think it’s more bottle feeding rather than what’s in the bottle - I have done EBF and BFing and usually because my son fell asleep during BFing he rarely drank enough but when I bottle fed him after pumping, there was a good volume of milk and he would drink and then sleep for 6 hours.

I don't think it's possible to quantify this. Every child is different and there is no real way of knowing why each baby woke, if it was hunger, overtiredness, pain, developmental leap or a combination of all of those, or any other reason. I think one can only make a best guess.

I mix fed all of mine and generally speaking I noticed an improvement on sleep when ff. However my second who had more ff than the others was a worse sleeper. I think it just depends on the child. You could try a bottle and see what happens.

No

Completely depends on the kid.
My second has slept through the night since 3 weeks with no regressions and is breast fed.

My first was combi fed and woke ALL the time. The night wakes only stopped when we stopped feeding them at night, and then it took a while for them to understand.

It doesn't make a difference and everyone's experienced are just anecdotes. Do what works for you and your family.

For some reason some parents seem to think they win parent of the year based on how many hours their baby sleeps in one stretch. It's an unhealthy outlook to me and leaves other parents feeling crap.

Every baby is different, different sleep patterns, different levels of contact needed, different feeding patterns, different temperaments. I'd honestly ignore any parent who acts like their baby doing 10-12 hours in a stretch is some sort of badge of honour and down to their amazing parenting.

Formula fed since 8 weeks ish. From 10 weeks he has been a brilliant sleeper going 5-7 hour stretches during the night. Most we have is one wake up for a feed then straight back to sleep! About to hit the 4 month mark so it could all change! I have noticed breastfed babies in my mum groups seem to be feeding every 5 minutes compared to mine who goes 3-4 hours in the day!

No, formula doesn't mean they will sleep through/longer periods. Waking through the night isn't always for hunger, it could be for several reasons, comfort, cold, hot etc. The small trials that have been done show that mothers of breastfed babies actually get 45 mins sleep more per night (will link study if I can find it!) Breastmilk is very easily digested hence babies needing to feed often. Formula contains casein which isn't so easily digested, meaning there can (but not always) be longer periods between feeding. However, sleep is very much down to the temperament of the child and there isn't a direct correlation between feeding and sleeping.
You could always try co sleeping if you feel comfortable doing so? I know a lot of parents don't feel this is right for them, which is absolutely fair, but it can really help the sleep situation if you can get a boob out and carry on dozing. Lots of handy info online and if you have instagram happycosleeper shares some fantastic tips on how to do this safely.
You've done so amazingly breastfeeding to this point, but if you feel formula is the way to go then go for it!
I'm an IBCLC so speak to lots of new parents on this. Sending lots of love, it's tough with a little one, but please know it doesn't last forever. 🙂

Research says that breastfeeding co-sleeping mothers get the most sleep!!

See attached

@wibblewobbleball I have sweet sleep 😂 bought it when my older two wouldn't sleep 🤣🤣🤣

I haven’t read the comments but most likely people will say no, even though all the anecdotal evidence will say yes. In my experience, yes but my BF journey didn’t really even get off the ground so he was formula fed from early on. This time I’m hoping to combi feed if I can but I do plan to make the last bottle before bed a formula one! Could you add in a bottle of formula at night and see if it makes any difference?

Both my DC were breastfed. Eldest woke every two hours, sometimes every hour. Absolute nightmare! DC2 slept for hours from the day he came home from hospital. I just think that all babies are different. Perhaps if I had switched to formula, DC1 would have slept better, but I'll never know because I chose to breastfeed.

Ds was breastfed and slept through at 4 weeks old. Dd was bf then moved to dairy free formula at 9 weeks old but she was already sleeping through from 7 weeks old.

I think it's down to luck.

My three were bottle fed and didn't sleep through the night until they were three (no help I know)

You want to think formula would do this because it would give you control - but there is no magic button!

Why the six month target for stopping? Entirely your choice, but I found being able to whip a boob out really useful when DC were whingy almost-toddlers, dropping naps etc. They'd go from whiny to peaceful in three seconds flat!

You can always drop a feed or two and see how you go.

I can see how this would be the case for Mums that have sole responsibility for the night feeds but formula feeding (or combined) does allow both parents to share the burden of night feeds and even gives the other partner a chance to take over entire nights so the opportunity for a full nights sleep if you are really need it or are not feeling well.

We ended up combination feeding (not by choice initially) and then moved to fully formula feeding and even from the start I was able to get at least 5 hrs uninterrupted sleep every night due to DH doing the first part of the evening. He was also able to take over completely when I had insomnia for awhile and while I was sick with Covid and feeling rotten.

No idea really my FF baby slept for 12 hours a night and had all bottles during the day or before bed never BF so can't say on that

Mine did. I stopped bf at three months both times, they went into their own rooms (this was 20 years ago), and within a few weeks they slept through forevermore, barring illness. No 'regressions'.
They also never ever came into our bed.

DW didn't produce enough milk and we switched to exclusively formula fairly early for both babies. She'd do the days while I worked and I'd fully take over from 8pm.

DW would head to bed and I'd do a feed around 11pm before turning in. If that feed kept the baby quiet past 2am that would be at least 5 hours uninterrupted sleep (maybe 7) for my wife.

I think teamwork is key in the first few months.

I really can't stress how important I think sleep training / controlled crying is. I know some people consider it controversial, but for our sons it really was just a few minutes of crying on the first few nights. You then get your evenings and sleep back, which makes a huge difference.

No experience at all with formula feeding so can't say from that perspective but my breastfed baby has always had multiple wakes. I chose to co-sleep as I am not good at getting up at night! At 15 months he still wakes if I'm not there so we are still co-sleeping. I think he has only a couple of wakes with me there, but he always wants milk to fall back to sleep.