Are formula fed babies more likely to sleep through the night?

[Bluesea14]

Hi everyone,

recently had a baby and have been advised by the hospital to combi feed.

After reading more into breastfeeding it seems like Bf babies have less chance of sleeping through the night.

Curious to know when your babies slept through and if they are formula, ebf or combi. X

DS was formula fed from birth, through choice. Slept through from 8 weeks until 1 year. And then it all went to shit! Every child
is different, I don’t think there is a magic formula sadly.

Both of mine FF on special formula due to allergies... DS slept through from 6 weeks (8-6!) and DD wakes at least 3 times a night.

BF both mine until about 3-4 months old then started adding in the odd bottle. They both slept well (ish) from the outset and when I added bottles it made no difference.

I combi fed my first, bottle fed my second. Both slept through the night 10-7ish from about 9 weeks.

EBF and toddler (still boob mad) has only slept through once! Still wants to nurse to sleep.

Babies won't sleep well if they don't get enough food. Doesn't matter whether its breast milk, formula milk, or a mixture of the two. Generally I'd say it's easier to make sure FF babies have enough because you can monitor their intake better. I don't think there's any reason why a well fed baby should sleep less well with breast milk than formula though.

Combi fed from day 2. The main advantage was that LO could be up with Dad having a bottle while I went to bed and tried to get a solid 4h of sleep. We kept up the bottle of formula before bed as part of our routine even if all other feeds were BF because it suited us, and have no way of knowing whether it made a difference to LO's sleep!

The only thing we DID find when LO was tiny (first four weeks) was that she would get too tired to latch and suckle effectively, and be a horrible combination of hangry and exhausted - and giving a formula top up after a BF solved that problem for us. I imagine expressed milk would have done the same, but I couldn't face the thought of trying to express or pump when I was so tired and sore.

Both mine were/are awful sleepers and EBF, but DC1 stopped breastfeeding at 18 months (overnight at about 9 months) and didn't sleep through til 3.5 so I don't think method of feeding had anything to do with it. DC2 is still EBF at 8 months and is a terrible sleeper (but slept through most nights between 3-5 months, not dure what's happened since!).

Both of mine were FF. First was a terrible sleeper until they went to school. Second slept through the night from 8 weeks. Didn't do anything differently.

It's totally down to chance!

Depends on the baby. DS1 was exclusively breastfed and woke hourly until 6 months when we persuaded him to accept a bottle and then he switched to 6hr stretches. In his case it made the difference. DS2 I planned to combi feed but he also wouldn’t take a bottle so ended up exclusively breastfed. He pretty much slept through the night from the day we got home from hospital.

I'm just doing what the hospital have asked me to do x

My two ebf babies had completely different sleeping patterns. One slept through at 7w, the other did for the first time at 22 mo.

Please continue to follow the hospital's advice too.

My baby was FF and slept 6pm - 6am from 6 weeks old x

My first BF baby slept through 8-6am from 8 weeks, my 2nd slept through from 10 weeks My 3rd, and combi fed, baby slept through from 9 weeks.

I breastfed and had one that slept well and one that didn’t sleep for years.

On the whole though, the babies of friends who formula fed definitely slept longer and from an earlier age.

I had a EBF baby (4 years old now) and she slept great from about a month old (4th trimester is pretty hard). She had developmental leaps like any other baby but has always slept amazingly. My partner has a 4 year old who was BF and he still doesn’t sleep even now. My best friend formula fed and her baby woke hourly. So it really depends I think. Congratulations x

Hospitals are rarely the experts on infant feeding. Combi feeding will make your supply worse.

From a bottle fed baby’s mum, no they do not. I whole heartedly believe r you get what you’re given when it comes to baby’s sleep patterns.

babies digest breast milk quicker than formula so are more likely to feed more often. Formula makes them feel fuller for longer….that’s what I’ve been told.

I don’t think they’ve suggested it to help her supply, they’ve suggested it as they are concerned about her baby’s weight gain.

I'd recommend a local breastfeeding group if you have one, I found the best advice there and the national breastfeeding helpline, if you would like more support with supply
But to your actual question, ebf started doing a good 6 hour stretch each night around 5/6 weeks, slept through at 8 months for the first time

My bottle fed baby only woke once in the night but each feed took 90 minutes. My breastfed babies fed little and often.

My breastfed babies all have autism and my bottle fed baby doesn't do that might be the reason my bottle fed baby slept better.

But they are experts in the health of the OPs baby

Congratulations on your new baby!

Please make sure someone qualified checks your baby for tongue ties (midwives aren’t qualified, neither are HV’s) and that latch and positioning is checked. You could try a lactation practitioner if no one is available in the hospital, but there should be someone qualified in the ENT department.

Low supply can be caused by ineffective latch and milk transfer, and as breastfeeding is supply and demand, if it isn’t being used, you lose it.

Low supply on its own with no contributing factors is less likely.

My little one lost a lot of weight at birth and we had to combi feed and pump for a while before managing to go exclusively BF with the odd bottle of pumped milk - so I know how scary it is. We were fobbed off, it turns out he has a pretty severe tongue tie that was missed as they weren’t checking properly. Too late to do anything about now. Sleep has been terrible, but even the HV acknowledges tongue tie can cause night wakes (due to wind, tight muscles, and it impacting on breathing).

DS was bottle fed since birth, bm to start and then formula from 5 weeks. He didn’t sleep through until 6.5 months old. Sleep through I mean 11-5am.