Does formula really make them sleep longer at night?

I have a friend that had twins and she also bf but at night she ff because she said it made them sleep longer. Does anyone else do this and does it work? Just wondering. I ebf my DD and so far have done the same for the boys but I'm really struggling with no sleep at night. I think making a bottle would be harder at night, but my boys are only going about 2 hours at night. I know it will get better and I'm trying to hang in there.

 

We often gave a bottle of EBM and/or formula right before bed (especially if I was just too exhausted and "touched out") - and it didn't seem to make much difference in their sleep whether they nursed or had EBM or formula.

That said, there's nothing wrong with giving it a try if you want. Maybe your DH could take over at least one night feeding so you could get a longer stretch of sleep?

Good luck, hope you can get some zzz's soon! :hug99:

 

I've tried it recently and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

I read a study once where they watched moms who ebf and those wh osupplemented with formula at night so they could sleep better. They tracked both reported sleep and actual sleep and found that the ebf moms got 40 minutes more sleep on average.

I don't have time to search for that study now but will try to look it up later when I'm nak later.

 

I gave my boys ebf most of the time, but if I didn't have enough at the end of the day they sometimes got formula. It didn't make any difference. Something that might help you get more sleep is if you and your dh alternate babies and nights. On Mon. night you get up with and bf baby a and dh ff baby b and then on Tues, switch babies. This helped since my boys did not get up at the same time so I was not up all night. Dh and I lived for the nights we got the "good" sleeper!!

 

my doctor has said that there is not evidence that supports that wives tale.

We did try it (formula) but it made no difference for us.

 

I was told over and over that formula digests slower. This I am fairly sure is fact. What they don't tell you is that babies waking is not directly related to hunger. Babies naturally have a wake/sleep cycle and while I would LOVE there to be another answer babies will wake until they are ready not to.

Case in point....Our DD eats like a sparrow and is a good 2 lbs lighter than DS yet she can go 6-8 hours at night now. DS even if we give him a bottle is up randomly throughout the night and only recently started sleeping more than 4 hours at a time. Even in those 4 hours he will cry out for a few seconds/minutes in his sleep.

You are in the hardest time right now. Just know that it really does get easier and better. Try really really hard to enjoy ever moment. Before you know it they will go to sleep easy most nights and you'll end up missing them! For me once they started on a regular bedtime (that didn't take 2 hours to get them to sleep) things improved mentally for me. It is really hard not to have any free time at all that you can bank on. I would HIGHLY recommend healthy sleep habits happy child. I think with a singleton you can let sleep happen but with two (if you don't have sleepers) you need to put in some work or you'll go crazy.

Good luck....it really does go so fast. I NEVER thought I would still be BFing and be able to function up 2X a night every night!

 

I have a friend whose Ped told her that if she switched to formula her boys would be STTN in two weeks (they were 6 months old and EBF). They are now 9 months (formula and solids) and still waking for a feeding ...

Mine started STTN at 8 1/2 months old and are EBF and solids

FWIW

 

QUOTE
I have a friend whose Ped told her that if she switched to formula her boys would be STTN in two weeks (they were 6 months old and EBF).


Oh BARF. That makes me so mad. Aren't pedis supposed to be in the "breast is best" camp???

 

With ebf mine were going 8 hours and 2 mo and STTN(12 hours) at 4 months. Never on formula but bf. Don't believe them.

 

I don't know what the official word on that is---but that was definitely my experience with my kids. My oldest was FF and he was sleeping through by 6 weeks. With my twins it was more like 7 months. Other than what I fed them I didn't do anything differently!

Reyna

 

My LC said recent studies suggest formula is not digested slower, but that ff babies take in more because they are 'forced' to finish a bottle, whether or not they are still hungry. We did a bottle of formula at night early on for a long time and I pumped... we found this quicker (both babies took a long time to bf, and I coulnd't tandem yet) and I could have DH help. It worked for us, but when I eventually switched to nursing during the night, they still slept the same amount.

And I agree with pp that each baby has their own sleep patterns... at 6 months, my DS has been STTN for a couple of months by my DD still nurses 2-3 times per night. Both usually still get one bottle of formula before bed, so who knows?!

 

my boys are getting 3 ff's feedings/day and 6 bf. i don't find ANY difference in the amount of time they sleep! (they're just over two months adjusted).

 

I BREASTFEED DS AND FORMULA FEED DD AND THEY BOTH SEEMED TO GET UP THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIMES AT NIGHT. DD ACTUALLY SOME NIGHTS SEEMED TO GET UP MORE OFTEN THAN DS. THERE ARE MYTHS OUT THERE THAT FORMULA WILL MAKE THEM GO LONGER BETWEEN FEEDINGS BUT I DONT BELIEVE IT. DD HAS ALWAYS ATE EVERY TWO HOURS JUST LIKE DS UNTIL JUST RECENTLY.