Formula before Bed

[taiyasmum]

I have heard that some people give their breastfed babies a bottle of formula milk at the last feedof the day. Apparently this helps them sleep through the night.

I was wondering if anyone does this and if it workd.

Also how does it affect my milk supply and can it interfere with breastfeeding??

Thanks :confused:

[Harmony83]

I think that might be a bit of an old wives tale!! My little one has been formula fed now since 3 months and he used to have so much trouble going down of a night time and wake up several times for a feed!

With the breastfeeding I am not 100% sure but it might reduce your supply a bit as to how much your little one actually takes, but you could express of a night time to keep your supply up if you wanted too... :D

[Sarie]

I bottle fed from day one and when my oldest boy was 3 weeks he started sleeping 9 hours a night our second son did the same from about 7 weeks. I have heard of a supplement feed, but I don't know if it works or not.
Sorry :o

[Benandrewsmum]

Hi Taiyasmum

I gave my breastfed bubba 1 bottle of formula per day for his very last feed at night (about 9pm). He did seem to start sleeping through better when I started this.

However, I do think that it does affect your milk supply, so would only recommend it if you absolutely have to.

Cheers

[JanetF]

It is a bit of a myth. There are some really good reasons to feed your baby to sleep with bm.
1. the hormones in it are designed to relax both you and the baby and help you both sleep. Babies are meant to feed to sleep or we wouldn't have those lovely hormones in there :)
2. giving a bottle of formula occasionally while not necessary or optimal won't seriously affect your supply but skipping a feed every day will lead to supply difficulties and weaning.
3. there are some babies who sleep more solidly after formula but since it's at the cost of their health, and is in part because of the added pressure it puts on their gut to digest it, it's really not worth it, and definitely not necessary.

If you find your baby is very wakeful, there are lots of things you can do to ease the pressure on yourself. Remember that it's normal for babies to wake overnight and a necessary part of their healthy development. We just need to make that as easy on ourselves as possible. Pop into some of the threads on cosleeping to see how much better mamas sleep with the babe in their bed or at least in their bedroom. Good luck! Let us know how you go :)

[bubbles28]

Hi there,
i also thought the same as you and introduced a bottle of formula at night. I thought it would make my son sleep better. It didn't help him at all. Since doing that he has now decided that he prefers the bottle and has almost weaned himself. Now it's a struuggle to get him to BF, he basically screams unless my supply if very full.
So if u want to continue BF, i would think twice about introducing that bottle. It didn't make my son sleep any better, now im suffering the conciquences as i wanted to BF untill he was 12mths(he's now 8mths).
Good luck ;)