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.

My formula fed babies were crap sleepers. Up multiple times a night often for hours.

100% formula fed here. Terrible sleeper. Did suffer with colic and was just always hungry. Low moment was the neighbour coming round with a dummy and saying 'please put this in your child's mouth'. Child soon found out that chucking the dummy (or even three) out the cot and yelling was one way of getting mum back in the room.

My midwife said 'if in doubt, get them out'... I am a FTM and did this by the book. My daughter took to breastfeeding amazing and gained loads of weight etc, never had a dummy... Crap sleeper (unless contact nwping/cosleeping) because guess what? I'm a human dummy! Occasionally annoying but wouldn't change it as I know I will miss these days one day when she's older (plus future dc2 will not be like this!)

In my experience, yes. DC1was EBF. Terrible sleeper. DC2 was BF with FF top ups (not by choice-I was upset about it at the time.) DC2 slept much better from the start.

Yes mine was. She was just so hungry. I ebf and we co slept from 6- 12 months just top up in the night.Then i stopped bf at 12mth.(Just easier to bf co sleeping) She started weaning by 4 months x shes 10 now and still the same when it comes to food- she doesn't stop eating🤣

I've had three children who were all pretty much formula fed save a little bit of breastfeeding very early on for two of them. The first slept through the night at ten weeks and always has since, I can't ever really remember him being up in the night at all.

The second, no breast milk AT ALL, is five and I can count on my hands the number of times he's slept through the night. He's up before six every morning.

The third is in the middle. Only slept through at about 2.5 and is still up occasionally at nearly three, she also wakes up really early.

So in my experience, formula fed babies all vary and it's no silver bullet for sleeping, that's for sure. My friends with breastfed babies all sleep better than my second child at least!

yes. When I switched to FF for both my boys they slept far better than when they were EBF

First baby was breastfed until 18m and didn't sleep until his 3rd birthday. I have a v large age gap

Second baby still breastfeeding at 14m but slept through from 1 week old. I think she's had us up about 5 times in total. She is a little star.

All babies do their own thing

Neither of mine had a dummy, I figured I could never be arsed trying to prise it off them. One less battle and all that.

Hmmm everyone I know with a ff baby slept better, possibly because easier to get into a routine as you can go longer between feeds. Perhaps the stats picked people not in a routine to avoid this skewing results. I don't know anyone with a bf baby who has sleep as well as ff friends. But everyone was aiming for a routine and ff got there faster I guess.

So, really this is the only post worth considering. The rest, simply anecdotal 🤷🏻‍♀️ off to find the link…

The Swansea research is the stuff Prof Amy Brown was involved in. If you find her YouTube then much of it is nicely condensed into infographics.

My EBF baby sleeps really well, that is, if he's in our bed, co-sleeping. He does wake, but it's just to reposition usually, then fed back to sleep (a minute or 2). I'm not sure how any times he wakes as I don't think I ever fully wake. It doesn't feel like more than one or two times a night. He's almost 9 months.

No dummy I should add!

I think this thread proves nothing really! My theory is that feeding formula works if babies wake solely because they are hungry, if they're waking for any other reason including growth spurts, comfort etc and it makes zero difference what kind of milk they've had

I breastfed both babies and they slept well. Never gave them a dummy.

May be they do, may be they don't.

Hope mums who are able to bf chose to do so regardless.

"worse"?

I breastfed until age 5 but used formula in the beginning due to bad latch.

I'd always give the formula at night, this was a bad decision out of desperation due to wanting to get some sleep before I went to co-sleeping which ended all that trouble.

I gave it at night because she would guzzle it down and go to sleep for 7 hours.

A baby uses BM completely differently to formula. Babies are meant to wake up frequently throughout the night, they need to check they are safe, have their heartbeat regulated, and suckle to build milk supply.

When I got my daughter off formula (3.5m) yes, she woke frequently, saw I was right next to her, and drifted back, or sometimes suckled.

Babies are not born with the ability to sleep alone, self soothe, or without the innate need to suckle.

All they want is to be close to us and fed and loved, nothing more.

Formula stretches the gut a lot because it has 80% casein which is not what BM naturally has, we have much less in our lactation as each lactation is specific to its species. The closest milk to human is actually donkey but the dairy industry doesn't operate on what's best, but what's profitable.

So we use cows' lactation which is totally unsuitable as a gut lining, immune system priming, baby-specific species-specific babyfood, but it's what we have. I used it myself and yes the difference was very noticeable. She also was very red when having formula.

If you want to mitigate any of this used pace feeding or a specific bottle that mimics the breast and paced feeding. Let the baby suckle up to age 5 when natural weaning would happen (we don't catch up to evolution quickly as we do society, that need is still there)

Of course no "dummy" because you don't need a dummy when you have the real thing. It's all about their innate need to suckle. I know I've said this but people don't realise how cruel removing the dummy and any way to carry out the compulsive behaviour of suckling is.

Did you find it? I couldn't. I found this though
Sleepless nights: New research finds babies should wake at night
www-2018.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-archive/2015/sleeplessnightsnewresearchfindsbabiesshouldwakeatnight.php

when searching but not the one mentioned here, if you have it?

I'd say so I quit BF at 3 months DD was cluster feeding round the clock gave OH the bottles instructions, I went to bed at 7 pm and I woke up at 9am. OH had fed her at 7pm then a dream feed at 11 and slept through until 8am. I decided I was going to stop as I couldn't cope with the lack of sleep.

My first was EBF for 4 months then formula fed. He first slept through at 5 years old.

My second was EBF for 18 months, he slept through at 6 weeks.

Number 3's 6 weeks old now and feeding twice a night atm.

They're all different I think, much more to do with the baby than feeding method.

Thanks for all the responses!

For anyone who's interested, I've found a piece of research from American Academy of Pediatrics which suggests that whilst EBF babies are more wakeful and have fewer naps than FF babies initially, there are no differences in sleep at one year: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111017092037.htm

In the study, "Long-Term Relationship Between Breastfeeding and Sleep," 89 mothers of exclusively breastfed infants and 54 mothers of formula-fed infants (ages 3 to 12 months) completed the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire, and at four follow-up visits (at 3, 6, 9 and 12-to-18 months later).

In the initial survey, parents of exclusively breastfed infants reported more night waking, fewer naps, and more instances where their infant did not sleep in their own bed. Night waking and the infants not sleeping in their own beds were habits that persisted three months later for the breastfed infant group. However, six months later, the only difference between the groups was that the breastfed infants were less likely to wake up in their own bed. By 9 months later, all differences in sleep had disappeared.