BF To Formula Question

You're going to quit breastfeeding a 4 month old in the off chance he might sleep a little longer? I don't get it. Babies wake up, sometimes frequently. He is happy and healthy why mess with it on the off chance that he might sleep a little longer?

Formula feeding and bottles often come with their own set of issues. You may just step from the frying pan into the fire. My advice is to suck it up and wait, this too shall pass.

i suggest you slow down on attributing your baby's sleep patterns solely to diet. yes, it's a huge factor, but there are many many others- including the most likely one, that he's simply going through a phase.

there are few things tougher for new moms than the seemingly endless sleep deprivation. it's important to combat it- but not by switching your baby's healthy, natural diet that's benefiting him in all ways to one that's not as wonderful and may bring its own host of issues. the fact that your baby has eczema is another reason not to switch.

good for you for adjusting YOUR diet, but now i'd focus on other ways to survive this (temporary!) phase. what's your dh situation? do you have family who could come in and give you a night off now and then? even an afternoon daycare provider could give you a little relief. there's not much hope of you getting regular restful nights just yet, but catch up where you can. i promise this will pass.

the MD can't find anything wrong because there's probably nothing wrong. your healthy happy baby just isn't a through sleeper yet.
khairete
S.

Formula does not improve sleeping and for a baby who is exclusively breast fed, it can cause a lot more gas and discomfort as they adjust. You are putting too much into diet and sleeping is not based exclusively from diet.

At 4 months, you should expect 3 feedings or so. You can see some typical schedules here:

http://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/3-month-old-baby-s...

Perhaps he is just a baby that wakes easily. My 9 year old sleeps like a rock and always has - he slept through two hurricanes when he was little!! My 5 year old will wake if you open the door to his room and the air pressure changes - I am not kidding!!! He work up at least 2xs per night until he was 4 1/2. Now, I know he wakes - because he tells me he does - but he knows not to wake me unless it is an emergency!

For my first I had to switch from breastfeeding to formula for medical reasons. Formula in no way, shape or form helped his sleeping. He didn't sleep through the night until 14 months in spite of a few rounds of sleep training efforts. We only made it as a family because my husband was sharing equally in all parental duties. My second was exclusively breastfed for almost a year and was a champion sleeper straight from the hospital. Based on my experience sleeping was a developmental issue we had to endure until the child mastered it. Good luck.

I would just stick with BF in your instance. I don't think formula helps with sleep. I switched from BF to exclusive formula when my son was around 6 months with gradual supplementation beginning around 4 months, but that did nothing to help him sleep through the night. He's 9 months now, and finally learned to sleep through the night just two weeks ago. Before this, he woke up at least once (sometimes twice) during the night to feed.

Every baby is different so switching to formula may help him sleep for longer stretches. However, since that's not a guarantee, I would not risk potential production issues for this. Not only that, since you've been BF exclusively, there is a chance that you will have difficulty getting him to take formula (I had to try 5 different types of formula before finding the one that he would tolerate).

My son is getting better when it comes to sleep, but he's been a pretty terrible sleeper since birth (at least compared to my daughter). It just takes some time for some babies to learn to be better sleepers, I think. Yours is only 4 months, give him some time.

I found that no matter what my son was eating (breast milk or formula), when he was having a growth spurt - he'd wake up fairly often for feeding.
Best thing you can do right now is to tag team if you can.
One night you tend to baby while your hubby sleeps uninterrupted - next night Hubby feeds breast milk with a bottle while you sleep uninterrupted.
That way you each get a good nights sleep every other night.
Try to nap when baby naps during the day and if you can have a sitter or a relative watch him during the day for a few hours - take the opportunity to get a few more hours sleep.

My breastfed babies both woke frequently at night, especially during growth spurts. Out of pure practicality, not because of any parenting ethos, I chose to cosleep. It made everything doable. I was quickly able to half wake, get a boob in the baby's mouth, and doze off again. It was the only way I got sufficient sleep, but I also really enjoyed the extra snuggling time after being in school or at work during the day.
I would suggest giving it a shot.

My oldest was a terrible sleeper when he was a baby! Looking back, i realize that one of the best kept (evil) secrets about having kids is that some kids simply do not sleep well until they are much older.

I don't think this has anything to do with your diet or with breast milk vs. formula. The only difference formula could make is that it takes a little longer for babies to digest it. That's why formula kids sleep a little longer. Also, if baby is formula fed, Daddy can do feedings, too!

The best thing I ever did to help our son sleep was to let him sleep with us! He would start every night in his crib. When he woke for the first feeding, I brought him back to our bed, laid him down next to me, latched him on and went right back to sleep! He slept better with us. I think that's partly because babies often sleep better when surrounded by warm bodies.

We never had issues with co-sleeping. He started every night in his own bed. As he got older, he woke less and less and just started staying the whole night in his bed on his own. We didn't have to ween him or anything.

Just saying, I don't think it's your diet or his diet. I think some babies start sleeping for longer stretches at an older age.

Well, not to be rude or mean but didn't you know that babies get hungry during the night and they don't sleep all night, really really sleep all night until they're much older and sometimes 2 years old?

I often see this sort of thread and am confused. Babies don't sleep through the night. Their tummies are about the size of their fist. They can't hold much in it and they're going to be hungry, starving hungry every few hours. They do NOT really sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time until they're a lot bigger and their tummy has at least doubled in size. Nothing will change this. They get hungry when they get hungry. They need to eat at least every 3 hours. To fill up totally again. Then 2-3 hours later they'll do it again.

I truly think women who go around bragging their babies slept through the night at this age are fantasizing or hallucinating from sleep deprivation...truly, I do. They make it sound like that's normal.

I have over 13 years in child care, I have babysat kids since I was a teen. I know of 1 baby that laid down at 7 in the evening and slept past 7 in the morning. Only 1 and the mom was so engorged she felt like she was about to rupture when the baby finally woke up.

Babies are not supposed to go to sleep and not wake up in a bit to eat. Really, I think that a mom who says her baby sleeps all night is fudging. She probably means the baby goes down at some ridiculous early time then wakes up right about when the mom is going to bed. Then gets a full tummy. Sleeps a few more hours then wakes up in the middle of the night, which that mom could say is in the morning, then goes back down to sleep some more. So even though they say the baby goes down and sleeps all night they really aren't laying down, going to sleep, sleeping 12 hours without waking, then waking up happy and alert and ready to eat.

Babies wake up all night long. Nothing will change that except growth.

If you are exhausted and need a break then have mom or mother in law or cousin or bff come over and take care of the baby all night while you sleep. You can pump enough over a few days to have 2-3 bottles made up where they can feed the baby. So you can sleep.

I can't answer you on the sleep improvements with diet change because I didn't go through that. However, I wonder if you can pump to either combine with formula for a week or so (in the same bottle) until he transitions (although it wouldn't be a full-blown switch off breast milk), freeze your breast milk, or even pump and dump to keep your production up? Are you sure the reason he is waking up is diet-related? And are you sure it's not GERD even if he's not spitting up? If he has eczema, there's something in his body he's trying to get rid of! If you aren't consuming dairy or soy, but you're still going to use a formula that contains one or the other, what will it prove? Only that there's something else in your diet that's causing a problem with him.

He's a little young for sleep training but maybe you could consider it if there's any possibility that this is not diet related and just a self-soothe issue.

is baby really hungry or just looking for a pacifier? my daughter was like that and started sleeping for longer periods when a pacifier was in her mouth. my son couldn't sleep for long periods if i laid him flat on his back. so i used a sleep positioner to keep him safely on his side and he would sleep longer too. co sleeping was also a big help when my daughter was nursing. i would try other things before switching to formula. that stuff will be hard on a brestfed babies tummy and will probably cause more problems than wanting to eat often at night (if baby will even eat it... nothing compares to brestmilk and babies know it. and bf babies may flat out refuse all formula)

I do not think what you described here will benefit from changing from nursing. I think that you are just in a tough spot agewise with response to sleeping. He's only a few months old, and it is not uncommon for babies to wake often. I cannot tell yo what age DD slept through the night (and by that I mean 5 hour stretches, not 8). Remember it will pass. I would not stop nursing for this. There is no formula that will be a magic bullet here. Go to kellymom.com for tips and consider a dream feed if you think he is hungry. Babies go through growth spurts, too, and some simply sleep better than others. IMO, I think you need to pass him to dad if you can and get some extra sleep. Take a nap or pump a bottle for dad to give baby at night.

Neither of my kids slept any different regardless of whether I used formula or nursed. So my suggestion is not to try to get the baby sleeping right now, but to get some sleep for YOU.

One thing that helped my sanity was that my DH would give one bottle at night so that I could get one longer stretch of sleep (so if baby woke at 12, 2, and 4, DH would take the 2AM feeding so I could get one stretch of sleep from midnight until 4. Or, some Saturday, have your husband take an entire night while you sleep in a room without a baby monitor - your supply won't tank in 1 night, you'll just need to pump when you wake up.

If your baby is not picky and will switch between bottles and nursing easily (mine ate anything I gave them), you might try it. As a tip - I would pump milk and have it ready in the fridge. Before bed, DH would put the bottle in a little lunch bag cooler in the baby's room. The bottle warmer was also in the room, so all DH had to do was pop the bottle into the warmer, and it was ready really quickly.

To wake up that often is very typical. If you're nervous or upset or emotional and or over tired, it will directly affect your baby. Are you rocking and softly singing to him? Are you putting him in bed close to you? Putting him on formula is not going to get you or him more sleep and if he's crying or awaking due to stomach problems or gas or discomfort, formula is going to make it much worse. Is your diet more alkaline or acid, acid can cause the eczema as can stress. You need a alkaline diet more so and plenty of water. Just Velcro a glass of water to your hand. Are you eating a lot of fruit, this can cause gas. Just realize the waking time is not unusual. Mine were all that way at that age.

If need be find someone that can help you so you can get some napping in.

Sending the best to you and your sweet baby ~

Yeah up every 2 hrs at 4 months is rough. I don't think expecting sleeping through the night is plausible but at least one longer stretch (4-5 hr range) isn't asking for something crazy. I am in agreement unfortunately that formula won't change his sleeping though. It digests less slowly but it usually doesn't buy you a lot of extra sleep time. But if you want to try it to see if it works more power to you, we all need some sleep to stay sane. Try it for a week and pump when you bottle feed him so you don't sacrifice your supply also don't switch him cold turkey gradually mix in formula and breast milk to be easier on his stomach. Pumping is a pain but one week I think you can power through. Or ask for some help pump while someone else bottle feeds.

I doubt that it will help to switch (you might have to try several different kinds). But let me ask you this - what position do you have him in? Does he sleep on his back, side, tummy? I know that everyone tells you not to put a baby on the stomach because of the problem of SIDS. But some babies just can't settle on their backs. My doctor finally told me to try putting him on his stomach to see if he would sleep better, and by golly, that made all the difference. At last that child slept. I was careful to make sure the room wasn't too warm, that there was nothing in the crib that could get near his face.

I would try this before changing his formula.

Now, another thing. To be honest, it could be that the problem isn't what he's drinking. It could be that he is just plain used to waking up and having something to snack on. A habit can be hard to break, and unfortunately, you may just have to sleep train him out of it. Talk to your ped about using the Ferber sleep training system. I really think it could help you. I did it with both my children and they slept all night within a week. I was working and I just couldn't be up and down all night, and my ped agreed.

Good luck.

I had a friend that gave her son a bottle of formula for a night feeding (when he would wake 2 hours after sleeping) and she swore it got him to sleep an extra couple of hours. My son was supplemented with formula and I did not see much difference. Both of my youngest were terrible sleepers until after they hit 1 yr. I tried lots of tips that worked for others and it was just the way they were. They both have very strong personalities and are both very stubborn.

Yes, my DD slept much better on formula than breast milk. I think it is more filling and they also eat more from a bottle. At 4 months my DD was sleeping from 10-11 until 5-6 but she was full formula by then. How much does he sleep during the day? If day schedule is same as night schedule for you right now, start differentiating between day and night for him. Day is longer awake, tummy time, stimulus and longer time between feeds. Night is full belly and when he wakes, no lights no noise, just hold, feed if you must and back to bed. Try not to encourage eating or getting up at night if you can avoid it. Good luck!

I can not say for sure one way or the other, but I used both breast milk and formula for both of my babies, and they both slept through the night (from 830 until around 5 or 530) before they were two months old. Could it have been the formula? Maybe, and some have suggested as much. Could it have been my methods for teaching them to self sooth a little for short times? Maybe. Could I just have been lucky twice and got great sleepers? Maybe.

The only way you will know for sure is to try it. If you are concerned about milk production then maybe try pumping during your trial time. You may have to mix formula and breast milk together in the beginning anyways in order to introduce the new taste and get him to accept it.

For all three of my kids I transitioned into Formula only around 4-5 months. I overlapped BF and formula a month or more leading up to that. They always slept better once I eliminated the breastfeeding. Once I went to formula only they'd have a big hearty bottle before bed and be out for the whole night.

I have no scientific data behind this. It's just my experience that I was never able to eliminate the midnight/early morning wake-ups til I eliminated the breastfeeding and went full formula.

Could also be the age, or coincidence around the time I was transitioning them anyway...

(We way overthink the feeding of our newborns in my opinion. For my first child I really struggled with the "is she getting enough" question and the "MUST breastfeed!" mentality until I had to give in to formula. For the other two I was much more relaxed with my own personal BF/formula combo. And now, that stage of their life is a distant memory and I wish I hadn't worried over it so much. It's such a small phase of their relationship with food- believe me there are more nutritional battles to come as they age, don't overthink the formula vs BF one!!).

Formula is slower to digest so some babies do sleep longer if they have bottles instead of breast milk.
With one of mine at around six months I introduced a bottle for last feed. My last baby and I was busy chasing other kids so my milk supply in evening was low. I had to up my water intake and cluster feed in evenings with all my babies to get them to sleep through.
If waking so often just have paediatrician check ears too just to rule out ear infection next visit. Good luck :)