Just like the title says... curious about your personal experience.
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Nope, it didn't help for my son. My MIL was pressuring me so much to give him cereal in his bottle like she did for her kids. I didn't do what she told me to do obviously, but food and formula never helped our kiddo sleep. He just liked his middle of the night bottles no matter what he'd had before.
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Yes for LO1. The second we started giving him formula for his night bottle at 7 weeks, he started sleeping through the night. It may have been coincidence, but I'm not sure about that!
With LO2, he's always been underweight. He's in the 5th percentile, and more consistent solids finally got him sleeping through the night. He eats 3 solid meals/day and still around 35 ounces. Because he was so underweight at his 6 month appointment (dropped to second percentile then), our ped told us to keep him well fed! Even now at 8+ months, he's around 17 pounds.
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Not with DD. She naturally STTN around 8-9 months.
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In my completely unscientific and anecdotal experience, formula fed babies do seem to sleep longer stretches earlier than EBF babies. My combo-fed-but-mostly-formula-fed son slept 8 hours at six weeks. He went on to have the usual regressions with lots of waking up at four months, eight months, a year, etc. - but he was sleeping more or less through the night much earlier than the vast majority of my friends' EBF babies. (And friends with FF babies seemed to have similar experiences to ours.) But then the four month sleep regression comes and everything goes to hell for every baby, so I definitely wouldn't make decisions about whether to BF or FF based on sleep alone.
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Yes, it did for our twins. The short time that I BF, the babies were waking up so soon. Though, I'm pretty sure at that early stage, the babies probably weren't that efficient in getting the milk out. I did end up getting pumped BM and would supplement with formula. I do know that BM is usually around 20 calories and my babies were small and were on preemie formula which was at 24 calories. I think preemie formula on it's own is 22 calories. We need to add extra powder to bump the calories higher.
I think higher calories is what is getting our kids to sleep. Though, the main reason for the more calories is get them to gain weight. They have been off the preemie chart for a couple months now. Still on the small side, though.
Some people do pump BM and fortify with a couple teaspons of formula to increase the calories... but I would ask your Dr before doing that. My babies are in less than 20 percentile for weight.
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Nope. We EBF until around 4 months when he started daycare. Then he got a combo of formula and BM at daycare and BM at home. We started solids at 5.5 months. Stopped BF completely at 10 months. He did not start sleeping through the night until 12 months, and even then it wasn't consistent.
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@bluestriped bee: yeah I'd probably get a definite "no" on that since DS is 90th percentile
It's just that he's 4 months and waking every 1-2 hours for the past month so I'm just thinking of any and all solutions.
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Sounds like the 4 month sleep regression. Mine just had to grow out of it
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@kes18: agreed!
@DesertDreams88: Hopefully it passes soon! -
@DesertDreams88: It could also have to do with how well your baby metabolizes the milk. That's what my guess would be. Just like we all have different metabolisms, your baby has a different rate than a sibling or another baby.
Yeah, there is that 4 month sleep regression and maybe early signs of teething.
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@kes18: @simplyfelicity: I totally agree it's the 4-month regression, but it's been four or five total weeks now, so I am getting tired...
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@DesertDreams88: Mine lasted 6-8 weeks (approx 3.5-5.5 mo). It was rough. She just got over it one day! Hope it's over soon!
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@DesertDreams88: Oh man, I went through that also, it sucked so bad so I feel for you!
We tried giving a bottle of formula before bed but it never made a difference. Tried starting food a little early and it got worse. I think moving DS from the rock & play to the crib helped b/c he had more room, and eventually I had to NOT offer milk at some of those wakings and then he'd quit waking up at that time.
DS didn't sleep through the night till he weaned.
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Nope. DD wakes up 2-3 times a night just like she did before starting solids.
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Nile I think it's a myth. Dropping naps helped with nighttime sleep.
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My 10 month old started solids at 6 months and we recently started giving him one bottle of formula a day (his iron levels at his 9 month appointment were low). He still wakes up 1x a night to eat and we have only been able to get it down to once a night through sleep training. At 3 months he would give us 5 hr stretches here and there but from 4-8ish months (f$&k you 4 month sleep regression) he was waking up 3x a night. From what I understand, the 4 month sleep regression is a permanent change to their sleeping pattern. So we finally sleep trained around 8 months.
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Nope. We are combo feeding with formula during the day and breast-feeding at night now and it has not changed to sleep at all to be getting formula. And my first son certainly did not have improved sleep from starting solids at all.
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My three all STTN before they had had solids. All were EBF and STTN by 12 weeks.
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Nope. LO has been on solids for 6mos & she still wakes once a night to nurse.
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@oliviaoblivia: tell us your secrets sorceress!
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@peaches1038: they were all enormous babies. 10, almost 9, and almost 11 pounds. It's easier to STTN when you skip being a newborn.
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I think it helped for us, either that or it was a huge coincidence. But admittedly we did a lot of things at once. At 7m we sleep trained and switched to EFF. I also started waiting 10 minutes before feeding him. At 8m he was really ramping up on solids and formula and started sleeping 11-12 hours by 9m. It could be coincidence, it could be timing, but I felt like he was really ready because he was eating so well during the day.
It makes a big difference when they're getting only 4oz bottles of (quickly digested) breastmilk, versus 8oz bottles of formula plus meals of solids. But it's not like if you feed an EBF baby one bottle of formula at night that they're suddenly going to sleep all night. And you also have to wean them from the habit of waking and getting food.
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Negatory. My son didn't sttn until 20 months no matter what I did!
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DS wasn't getting enough milk, so a bottle before bed helped him sleep through the night. With DD, whatever wakes her up isn't hunger... I think it's a combo of teething and developmental stuff. So neither bottles nor solids help her sleep.
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It helped, it didn't solve. LO is 6months and up about once a night, 4 nights out of 7. It went down to 4 from 7 when we started purees
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@oliviaoblivia: When you skip being a newborn, that is awesome.
DS was just over 9lbs, EBF and was a terrible sleeper, he's gotten better over time but at 3 we still get the odd week at a time where he wakes up at night. His sleep had the biggest improvement when he weaned at 20 months.
Everyone said once he started eating he would sleep better at night. Oh just a couple spoonfuls of cereal before bed they said. Not for this guy. He started solids just around 5 months and it made no difference with sleep.
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No, my son didn't start sttn until 12 months and even then it only lasted a few months.
My DD is 10.5 months and used to consistently sleep 8-10 hours straight but never 12 straight hours... now she is up 1-2 times/night.
It's just that he's 4 months and waking every 1-2 hours for the past month so I'm just thinking of any and all solutions.
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