Do breastfed babies sleep worse than formula fed babies?

[Calphurnia88]

I've heard this a few times now and interested to hear people's experiences (and if your EBF is a good sleeper whether they take a dummy).

Me: I have a 7mo who is EBF, has woken up two-hourly most nights since 4mo and won't take a dummy. Feed or motion to sleep.

It's harder to be sure they're full and to control how much they're getting with bf. Also harder to avoid creating a link between sleep and feeding. And they often reach a higher weight sooner. So IME yes.

But babies who get colic from formula may feel differently.

My EBF baby did her first 6 hour stretch of night time sleep at 8 weeks old. She was on 98th centile and always cluster fed A LOT during the day which I think helped.
Went on and did 1-2 night wakes until 8 months then slept through ever since.
No dummy ever.

IME absolutely. My ebf DS never slept and didn't do a stretch of more than 3 or 4 hours til he was one.
My ff DC slept through from being very little. And seemed to wake happy and contented rather than furious and hungry.

Dc1 formula fed and slept a dream. Slept through from 8 weeks.

Dc2 breast fed and supplemented a bit at the start which seemed to mess up his tummy then weaned off that and ebf until 12 months and slept like a demon until we sleep trained at a year old- perfection now. He used to feed to sleep and for comfort feed constantly.

Dc3 ebf until around 6 months and then slowly introduced formula. Slept so so well, didn't sleep through until a year but he'd only have one wake up and always went back to sleep and never needed to be fed to sleep. But i still worked hard on a sleep routine for the two that slept well.

Statistically no. The research suggests that while formula feed may also a bit better at first actually all babies wake and overall bf mothers get more sleep as they can often settle the baby sooner. Prof Amy Brown has some good links looking at sleep and what we feed our babies.

Sleep studies have been done both with diaries for parents to self report sleep and also with monitored sleep and interestingly formula feeding mothers tended to over report sleep.

Anyway. Babies wake and they wake for many reasons not just hunger.

Mine certainly did! Combination fed DC1 slept a 7 hour stretch at 8 weeks. Had to co-sleep with EBF DC because she woke so often. Could be coincidence of course.

Interesting re cluster feeding. My LO would happily feed for around 2hrs a night until around 4mo when his sleep went downhill. I wonder if this is related?

Despite my best efforts I struggle to keep him focused on feeding during the daytimes, so I suspect he is making up for it overnight.

Hmm not IME. Breastfed DD1 was a great sleeper. DD2 is 4mo and EBF and while she does wake every 2-3 hours overnight atm, sometimes longer stints, because I am cosleeping and breastfeeding I don't really have to wake properly to feed her, so I'm still getting 7-8 hours sleep a night and not really sleep deprived. If she was formula fed maybe she would sleep longer or maybe I'd be having to properly get up every two hours to make bottles and sit up and feed her, so who knows?!

My DS was EBF for 6 months and never had any sleep issues (well, nothing that wasn't normal). Slept 6 hour stretch from 6 weeks. We introduced an occasional evening bottle from 6 months and he actually then started to wake in the night. Not really sure if this was a coincidence or not.
Some friends who EBF had to co sleep, some of their babies were bad sleepers and still are as toddlers. Couple of friends who FF, one had a great sleeper from 6 weeks like we did, the other did not and gave bottles throughout the night.
So I am not really convinced if FF = better sleepers or not, I'd say just do what works for you and baby.

This.

Bf mothers although often woken more frequently, will often fall asleep more quickly due to the hormones released during feeding. As opposed to FF mother's who wake less often but will be awake for longer periods!

Oh and DD1 never took a dummy. DD2 does but she doesn't have one overnight, just for naps during day as they help her settle in pram/sling. So there's not really been a link for us.

DD1 was a 'better' sleeper than DD2 is currently but I'm getting more sleep with DD2 as I have coslept and fed lying down from birth, whereas with DD1 at first I did the whole sitting up for feeds and then resettling in cot thing, so even though she only woke maybe once or twice overnight, it was much more disruptive than DD2 waking 3 or 4 times.

Sorry forgot to add he didn't have a dummy as he wouldn't take one, he did eat a lot in the day, often comfort fed him during the day. May be why he slept so well at night - he was never a day sleeper!

This is a good point, I bedshare and feed lying down (not something I planned to do but necessary when dealing with multiple wakes) and often don't realise I have fallen asleep during a feed until I am woken up for the next one. I just wish they weren't quite so frequent!

You're unlikely to find a breastfed baby sleeping 10-12h without waking by 2 months old. With formula fed babies, not uncommon.

I know it's not a contest but my EBF baby was doing 9/10 hour stretches every night by 8 weeks. My bottle-fed two I was lucky to get 3 hours sleep out of them at that age. So no, in my opinion, breastfed babies sleep better.

Breastfed sleeper never had a dummy either. Bottle-fed two both did ( twins, reflux etc)

Completely the opposite of my experience.

Researchers at swansea university did several studies on this and found no difference.

Not in my experience, my ebf baby was a great sleeper!

For me the key to maximum sleep has been breastfeeding and cosleeping. I use a wearable baby monitor to put my mind at rest and follow the Safe Sleep Seven. But with cosleeping I've found baby stirs, I bung a boob in their mouth to feed side lying and we are both back asleep in minutes. No getting out of bed in the night, no crying to soothe as baby very content to be right where they want to be. I genuinely never knew how many times they fed in the night, sometimes once or twice maybe, sometimes five or six maybe more, but according to my Fitbit I used to get about 9 hours of good quality sleep a night, albeit with numerous brief wakings sometimes. I loved it.

DD was combi fed. It made no difference to wake up time if the 10:30 feed was breast or bottle (shexwould go through to 4-5am after either by 2 months). Through the night from 8pm by 6m.

Yep ds1 formula fed and slept from 6 weeks. Ds2 bf for 1 year and still doesn't sleep nearly 4 years on.

My ebf dd slept through from 10 30 to 5.30 from 8 weeks. Quickly extended to 6.30 -530. Next two babies did much the same. Didn’t bed share.

all of my bf babies slept perfectly , up to 4 months they did have night feeds but we do slept so it had virtually no impact on me at all

*Co slept