Will switching to formula help him sleep longer??

[Courtney10891]

Hi guys,

I am tired so sooo tired! My son is 6 months old. He is exclusively breasted. The trouble is he just barely sleeps at night. He goes to bed at 7.30 with is lovely but then he will wake at half 12 and then basically every hour until 6am when he gets up for the day. I'm exhausted. What am I doing wrong? He is in my bed with me but that hasn't helped. I stated weaning him at 5 and a half months thinking that would help but no such luck. I have a 2 year old also so as you can imagine I'm like a walking zombie! I'm starting to consider moving on to formula now and seeing if that helps. Does anybody have any advice? I'm desperate now honestly! X

No it won’t.
Formula is not magic sleep potion, it’ll just make it more faff when he does wake up :(

But obviously try it if you want!

Feel for you though, I remember these days. It will pass
Really!

Didn’t work for any of my friends who tried.

My eldest was breastfed to sleep (or rocked by my husband) then placed in bed so would wake and freak out. I relented and gave him a dummy at 7 months and it meant we could put him to bed awake, and within a short while if he woke he was able to put the dummy back in and go back to sleep.

Other than that I don’t know what else to suggest, other than saying it’s not food/drink related. And it seems bonkers to start all the faff & bother of bottle feeding after 6 months and especially now when having to go to the shops for formula is an extra issue, not to mention the bottles and steriliser etc.

Do you have a partner? I ff from day one so can’t help with the transition to formula but with a perfect prep machine ff is so easy and your partner could do some of the night feeds to give you some sleep.

Every baby is different so you never know until you try.

Do you have a partner? Then at least even if it doesn't help him sleep more, they can help with the feeds.

It might not make him sleep for longer but at least your partner could take turns with you in the night. So it’s worth a try.

By 6 months the habit of habitual waking is likely to be ingrained and difficult to break no matter how baby us fed.

Also, baby is unlikely to be waking that frequently due to hunger - it will be for comfort and help getting back to sleep, not nourishment.

However if feeding to sleep is the only option you have, then at least with bottles you can share the load.

At 6 months you can sleep-train, you can't go on like that (well you can but you'll be dead on your feet). DS was the same, we stupidly waited till 19 months to sleep train, eejits that we were. It worked within 4 nights. I wish to God we'd done it at 6 months and saved ourselves such a lot of awful sleep-deprivation! DS was noticeably happier once we was sleeping well.

for you, it's awful.

No but can someone else feed him from bedtime until midnight so you can sleep? How is his daytime sleeping and feeding? Sounds like his cycle is upside down

Formula is not going to help a 6 month old sleep longer. He is not waking hourly due to hunger, as others have said. At this age, some form of sleep training or routine - within the realm of your own comfort level - would be far more beneficial than switching to formula.

I don’t think the formula will help him sleep more, but it does mean someone else can feed the baby to give you a break.

My baby slept much better once I stopped BF but I think that was loosing the reliance on the comfort of the boob rather than the milk itself. I also introduced a dreamfeed 10-11pm which helped and used a dummy.

Would he sleep any better in his own room? We used to disturb each other when together so at 6 months we moved her into her own cot and that really helped.

Thank you for all your replies. During the day he has 2 naps, one from 10am - 12pm and then another around 2pm - 4.30pm. We then start getting him ready for bed around 6.30pm with a bath and massage and he goes down at half 7. My partner sleeps in a room with my 2 year old because my 2 year old kept trying to getting in the bed with us and I wanted him to be able to get some sleep also. Just to add my 6 month
Old will take a dummy and during the day that sometimes works but at night time it doesn't work at all. X