Do breastfed babies sleep better with a bottle of formula at night?

[ifeellikechickentonight]

DC1 was combi fed, I desperately wanted to EBF but I basically fucked that up from day 1 which landed her in hospital with severe dehydration and 18% weight loss at 5 days old so we mixed fed for 6 months before dropping the boob when she started on food.

Next time around I'd really like toEBF but I can't help but notice purely anecdotally out of the people I know that not one EBF baby sleeps well. My first baby slept like a dream. This could well be coincidence. But I have a niggling feeling it might not be. So we've thought about DH giving a bottle of formula last thing in the evening once BF is established ans me pumping a bit for the freezer to build up our stash and not affect my supply.

Is this a good idea? Maybe there are EBF babies out there who sleep brilliantly, or is my oldest child just a naturally good sleeper and it's coincidence that she slept best when she had a bottle of formula last thing?

(PS, I don't want this to turn into a tedious breast vs bottle debate though so in the nicest possible way I don't want to know if you think formula is evil and I'm the devil's mistress for considering poisoning my precious babe with it, ta v much )

My BF DD slept and sleeps amazingly well IMO. She's now 13 months, had 1 feed a night from 3 months, slept through from 6 months. Just luck I think

Didn't work for me. DS1 was EBF and a terrible sleeper. FIL suggested a bottle of formula before bed to try and "fill him up" to sleep longer. Made no difference at all...

My baby was BF and wouldn't sleep through; at about 6 months he had a bottle of formula at night & it worked like magic. He had a bottle of formula every night from then on. Obv it could be a coincidence but I don't think so.

All 4 of mine were breastfed. All 4 were good sleepers and slept through from an early age. One had to be woken for feeds or his blood sugar got too low. I'm firmly convinced that it's all down to luck. They all sleep well now as well. Still down to luck.

If there was a Special Magic Thing to make them all good sleepers,I'd have written a book and made a million, but sadly there isn't and my only riches are my nights of undisturbed sleep!

Thanks guys! Lots of food for thought there. Essentially what I'm getting is that it's down to luck! Good point about settling quicker at night etc with the boob even if there are more wakings. I had PTSD following dc1 being hospitalised as a newborn after feeding problems first time round, so any night wakings meant me lying awake for hours reliving what had happened even after baby had been back to sleep for ages. I can see how for people who aren't ridiculously anxious a quick BF in the night and then able to get back to sleep quickly doesn't necessarily mean being exhausted!

No. I switched to formula with my first in the hope it would help her sleep. Didn't make a difference.
My ebf second child slept much better

Two EBF babies here - one slept 11-7 from 7 weeks old, the other didn't manage that till he was two!

I've read several studies (can't say how reliable the sources) that say that formula fed babies definitely do sleep better. And I don't know any EBF babies that sleep through consistently early. (Lots do briefly before 6 months and then stop). Both my EBF babies didn't sleep through until they stopped breastfeeding, within days of stopping. And they were 14 months, and 2 and a half. Many friends have also said theirs started sleeping through the week they stopped breastfeeding or introduced formula. I'm certainly considering a bedtime formula bottle from 6 months with the third!

My EBF baby slept 7-7 (started sleeping 6 hours at night at 8 weeks and then stretched to 12 hours without a feed by around 5 months (was doing around that but with a dream feed from 3.5months onwards). I ate carbs before evening feeds.
Went to nursery aged one and started having milk in a beaker (still BF at home and also on water by then) and became world's worst sleeper!!
Not sure if sensitivity to milk or separation anxiety. Not fun either way!!

So shemozzle all the posters on this thread who EBFed good sleepers (including myself) are what, lying? I exclusively breastfed two good sleepers, obviously not covered in the studies you've read...

My DD was ebf and still bfs at 18mths and has always been a brilliant sleeper.

Science says no.

(Babies wake for lots of reasons, not just hunger.)

Shemozzle

I get the impression ff babies sleep better too, but I think the reason isn't the milk itself. Many mums keep bf during the night when babies don't need the calories, but wake for comfort. And they're obviously going to keep waking if they get a lovely cuddle with mum at 3 am! If you need to warm a bottle of formula and sit there giving it, which is much more of a hassle, you're going to make sure it's not going to go on for 10 months or longer. My DS 1 slept through -for four blissful months- the night after stopping all night feeds. He was mix feed by then and introducing formula had made no difference to his sleep .

Luck of the draw, truly.

One of mine was the most god awful sleeper until he was about 3. I tried mixing formula feeds in, but it made no difference. I was tempted to even give up breastfeeding altogether and go with formula completely, but figured it was unlikely to make a difference if I was already trying formula in the afternoons/evenings.

My other two were both breastfed and were both awesome sleepers. DS1 slept an 8 hour stretch at 6 weeks old, DD1 slept that stretch at 9 weeks old. Aside from colds and ear infections, they've never had interrupted sleeps.

I'm only 3 and half months in but my EBF baby currently sleeps in her cot 8.30pm - 3am and then 3.20am to 8.30am.

Shes been a great sleeper since she was born always loved her long night time sleep. She does however not sleep more than 20 minutes at a time during the day!

I do agree that a lot of waking breastfed babies comes down to feeding for comfort. I think moving the baby into their own room, and then patting them to sleep, or having your partner go into them through the night is the quickest way to get them to sleep through. My awful sleeper was certainly more inclined to settle faster and stay asleep for longer when I wasn't going in to feed him during the night. I knew he wasn't hungry.

I ff dd3. She slept 12-6 from 4 weeks. However she was 9lbs at birth and I think she had a body that could retain enough nourishment for 6hrs.

Ime, absolutely yes. I really regret exclusively bf for as long as I did. I exhausted myself and ended up depressed.

As soon as I introduced ff, they slept.

You can't tell!

DD was EBF and slept through from 8 weeks (a solid 10 hours)

DS also EBF and is up all night. He has never slept more than two hours. He is 7 months and on solids now so I tried a big bottle of formula last thing in the evening and it made no difference. He just doesn't sleep.

Dd1 was Ebf and a medium good sleeper, woke once at nights for brief feed from 4 months on.

Really interesting to see the scientific info people have linked to saying it doesn't make a difference apart from a small amount in short term.

Think important not to get into habits like feeding to sleep above 6 months (i fell into this trap!) and letting kid into your bed in the night (we resisted this really hard and she sleeps really well now in her bed til gro clock says get up).

Have you looked up antenatal expressing of colostrum? If you had problems with first baby then might make a big difference to you to know you definitely had a good supply this time, and that you had a freezer with extra milk for any hiccups! There's been a thread recently I posted a load of links on it.

And agree with others, you didn't fuck up feeding your first baby, some babies are rubbish feeders and some mums have poor supply or flat nipples or whatever and it just doesn't work. It wasn't your fault! Breastfeeding is hard to establish for the vast majority of people and some are unlucky and despite doing everything right it is impossible! There's also no foolproof way of checking how much the baby is getting which means you can't always tell there's a problem until they get weighed. It doesn't help that different health care professionals give different advice. Why can't everyone who wants to breastfeed be told about antenatal expressing routinely?? Would save so much heartache.

However they get fed, more important is bonding with your baby and keeping mental health ok. Seriously not worth ptsd for it!!!

Good luck. Xx

2DC, both BF, both exclusively for at least first 12 weeks. DS was first and was ravenous, found it hard to settle to nap as well as at night, I did just half a bottle of formula before bedtime as I was trying to be as close to EBF until 6 months by the book as poss. The first time I gave it to him he fell into his first proper textbook nap. It helped for until next feed but by 4.5 months he was literally driving me to round the twist and I was getting less than 3 hours broken sleep a night. When I weaned him at 5 months (in desperation) his weight went from 20th percentile to 98th in the space of a month and he started sleeping through the night within 2 days of eating his first chicken. I did a mix of purée and finger food. When people sneer at purée I remember him yanking the spoon into his mouth when he still couldn't finger feed himself something like fish or fruit. It was a lifesaver at that time.
I had been eating a good balanced diet plus 2 pieces of cake a day and losing half a pound a week trying to meet his needs. I swore I would do more formula and stop being so precious for next baby. I stopped BF at 16 months when he was just more interested in cow's milk.
DD took no interest in bottles of even expressed milk, EBFd for nearly 6 months and would happily have gone on when I stopped it over Glasto weekend at over 2 years. She was a great sleeper from about 5/6 months until I stopped the BFing this summer They're all different!
IME food and sleep are so related. Formula isn't bad for babies or they wouldn't let you give it, but it is thicker and takes longer to digest, ergo baby sleeps better. The only reason EBF is recommended (but guidance says 'if you want to wean from 4 months...' and gives advice on how) is because a) it is designed for the majority of the world population including a couple of billion who don't have clean, safe, abundant water and b) when people combo feed it often slides into bottle feeding only, esp when people give bottles randomly as this will affect breastmilk supply.
Second time round I demand fed (didn't to start with first time) and I knew about fluttersucking the hind milk at the end of a feed to give a really satisfying feed, which went much better than with PFB, but my DD just didn't weigh as much and just wasn't as hungry. Good luck with new baby!

I was literally just about to ask the same thing OP. My DC2 (12 weeks) is fed every 2-3 hours day and night. She's 13 weeks, I'm exhausted as I have a just turned 2 year old, and it's hideous. The baby's sleep seems to be getting progressively worse, and I'm getting desperate, as DC1 only started sleeping "well" when I got pregnant so I literally haven't had a full nights sleep in years.

I do think formula helps with sleep, for whatever reason. I'm, however, reluctant to introduce it in case she reacts badly and also because I never gave formula to DC1, and bf him for 16 months, so I feel obliged to do the same for her!!

Oh crap JenLindleyShitMom this is my DC2. She's only 2.5 now, but she too has no idea how to sleep. Arse. OP formula is your friend.