Do breastfed babies ever sleep through?

[StephiD3]

DS1 (now 8) was breastfed but had reflux so was advised to start him on a night bottle at around 2/3 months old - still wasn’t the best sleeper but much better than DS2 (4) who still tries to come into our bed through the night.

DS3 is now 13 weeks & I want to try & establish a bit more of a bedtime routine. He is breastfed so I just wanted a bit of advice on whether breastfedbabies can sleep through the night or am I expecting too much?

We weren't even close until I night weaned at 9 months. Still touch and go now to be fair

DS was breastfed and didn't sleep at all at night until he was about 8 weeks. Then I started putting him to bed at 7pm. He slept, had a dream feed about 10pm and then woke up in the morning.

(DD was rubbish at sleeping but didn't start a bedroom routine with her until about 6 months as she did generally sleep at night. She finally slept through about 2 and was fairly reliable by about 3.5. But we'll ignore that for now )

All 3 of mine were ebf. Dd1 slept through 3 months. Dd2 at 4 months. And ds1 is 7 months and slept through twice last week! And again last night. I'd say for him, weaning on to solids has played a huge part. Btw when I say slept though, they've all had a dream feed at around 2200.

Yes! DD slept 7-7 after the 4m sleep regression (awful sleep from 4m-7m). Wasn’t a bad sleeper, just one or two feeds before the regression.

DS sleeps 11-6am and is 5w, EBF. Has done so since he was a week old!! Likely to change, but that’s what he does now. Feeds all day.

Both my DD were ebf, both started 'sleeping through' from about 4 months old (from about 7pm to 6am ish) - with a dream feed at around 10/11pm. We stopped the dream feed once weaning was starting at 6mnths.

Don't get me wrong, there was the odd night where it all went horribly pear shaped and I would feed them, of course, but mostly they slept through.

So yes, ebf babies can sleep through! I did tend to follow the principle of filling them up as much as possible during the day!- first feed of the day no later than 7am, and quite a lot of cluster feeding (ie literally never off me) between 5pm and 7pm in the early months.

My LG (nearly 9MO) is showing no signs of sleeping through . She is generally a bad sleeper though, always fights naps etc. I think it's just down to the baby rather than feeding method.

DD is 2.5YO. BF until just past her second birthday

Little bugger still doesn't sleep through

Dd1, no. Awful sleep until 17 months. Dd2, bf on demand exactly the same. Slept for hours from a couple of days old. Often went eight hours in a row overnight, sometimes woke once or twice but easy to get back to sleep. Makes me think that it is the individual baby, not how you feed them.

Still breastfeed my 2 year old. She's never slept through.

Agree it’s down to baby not the way you feed them. Sleep is effected by factors other than hunger. They’re all different and do their own thing.

For example my DS EBF is almost 8 months- is down to one night feed unless unwell/teething. Dropped to this at about 51/2 months after being a hellish sleeper from birth. In the last month there have been a few times he’s slept 7-6/6.30 but mostly still has one night feed. My friends DS who is 4 weeks older, was bottle fed after 4 weeks- made no real difference at the time, and he has been up and down between sleeping through and periods of constant wakes ups ever since. My other friends DD is 18 months and still doesn’t sleep through.

Sleeping is developmental milestone that they master when ready

It's random. Ds didn't really sleep through until 18 months (except for a couple nights just to wind me up!), Dd slept through amazingly from 3-8 months and then not for another year. Both breastfed...
They did at least just wake, feed, and go back to sleep. Except when they didn't...

I don’t think it’s BF in itself that causes night wakes etc, but the things that tend to naturally come with BF - feeding to sleep, comfort feeding and the like. (All very natural and normal of course). These things mean a baby usually learns to ‘self settle’ later than a baby who is bottle fed.

Just my opinion. DD slept through 3 weeks after switching to FF (although I only BF for 6 weeks). I don’t think it was because of the switch in milk, but I found I was then more able to settle her in her crib with her dummy to sleep.

Thanks everyone.

We tried the set bedtime last night - bath, feed then in his crib to settle. He went off within minutes and woke for a feed around 12:30am so he’d had a good solid stint. He did wake around 4ish but I don’t mind that as he’d previously only been going approx 2hrs between feeds!

Going to keep up with the routine and hopefully will at least have evenings of peace 😄

I think it's down to the individual child, not how they are fed.

3/4 of mine were sleeping through by 12 weeks (8 hour stretch). DH and I were both breastfed as babies and both slept through early, and both have been very good sleepers ever since. I think our children are combination of genetics and routine.

I always avoided breastfeeding them to sleep, preferring instead (when possible) to put them down while still awake. We also moved them out of our room at 6 weeks, which I think breaks down the tendency to wake up for a feed out of habit. My cousin is currently struggling with her 16 month old waking every 2 hours in the night because he still anticipates a feed. She has had to start sending her husband in to settle him, hoping that it will break the habit.

Our one who didn't sleep well wasn't sleeping properly until past 6 months when we started sleep training him. He's still our more "difficult" or "affected" sleeper. For example, even now, if he has sugar or anything of the sort within 4 hours of bed, he won't sleep properly. Again, I think it's down to him as an individual and his set of genetic characteristics, and it's not down to how he was fed as a baby.

My daughter is six months and EBF and has never slept through once. Not one single time in her whole six month life.
We are just starting to introduce solids (not going well FYI) so see if that helps.
My SIL baby is exactly the same age as my DD to the day and is formula fed and has slept 7-7 from about two months, not sure if baby related or how they have fed?!

DS didn’t sleep through until I started giving him a bottle of formula at bed time at 8/9 months.
He only woke once a night though before that.