Anyone that BF give a formula bottle before bed?

merifrances

DD has been exclusively breast fed...except for a couple formula bottles when she was about a week old.  She is not sleeping well at night, and I am considering giving her a bottle of formula before bed to see if it will keep her full longer and possible sleep better.  I have to go back to work on Monday, and I won't be able to manage on 4 hours of sleep.  Has anyone tried this and did it help?

IlliniQT

I have wondered this myself...my LO sleeps pretty well but it would be nice to be able to have a "feeding" off and I haven't been able to pump much yet for other people to give him BM.  My biggest concern is if this will turn his stomach upside down, I'll be curious to see the responses.

ShandaLea

I tried it with DD#1 but it didn't help.  Does she cluster feed in the evenings?  Cluster feeding is what really helped us with her sleeping more at night

hepcats

Formula takes longer to digest so in theory yes that should help. Many posters to this board use this method to not only assist with sleep but also to help get LO used to taking a bottle. However, as PP said, cluster feeding also helps. It shouldn't turn their stomach upside down, especially if it's only 1 bottle per day.

Cookiecake7

I supplement one bottle a day with formula at the doctor's orders since my daughter was 4 weeks early. We usually have the formula bottle right before bedtime in the hope it will keep her full longer and also that way my hub can feed her while I pump. We stopped using the powdered formula and splurge on the liquid formula because it makes her spit up quite a bit less. Unfortunately, I only get maybe an extra 30 minutes of sleep with formula instead of breast milk. So now we only do it because the doctor recommended it. She does cluster feed at night so it gives my boobs a little break which is nice also.

flows912

For 2 weeks we tried to give LO a formula bottle at night and at best it would let him sleep an extra half hour. After talking with his pedi we decided it wasn't worth it and did away with the formula bottle.

absent*minded

We give a bottle with an extra 1-1.5 ounces of milk before bed and it seems to be helping. We feed roughly 3am 6am 9am 12pm 3pm then 5pm 7pm 9pm (with extra 1-1.5oz) and he sleeps 5-6 hours.

tokenhoser

Replacing a feed with formula will decrease your supply if you do it for more than a couple days. This could be an experiment you can't take back (unless you replace the feed with a pumping session).

futuremrsmcnichols

We only give DD formula at night, during the hours of 12am-8am and then she gets BM that I pump during the day. I was worried like last week that the formula was messing with her stomach because she went 2 days without pooping, but she poops after each feeding now, so it does not mess with her stomach. I still pump at night, but only when we are up for a feeding, which is usually every 3.5 hours. I do this to help build up my freezer stash because I know that once I go back to work, my milk supply will most likely go away because I have a pretty physically demanding job that isn't very conducive to getting breaks, esp. 3-4 20 minute breaks in a 12 hour period,  so I want to have a good stash of frozen milk before then. You could always give it a try. If formula didn't mess with her stomach before, it shouldn't now.

darmca

Kellymom as a great article about this.

To summarize:

There's no evidence that it will help.

Formula requires a baby's digestive system to work overtime as baby tries to digest something not specific to the human body. Formula is harder to digest than human milk; thus formula-fed babies tend to go longer between feedings. While this may seem like a benefit, it's probably not something we want for our babies' bodies unless there are no other alternatives.

Recent research suggests that longer stretches of deep sleep are associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and babies who sleep longer/deeper may be more vulnerable to SIDS

 

Five_letter

My daughter wakes up once a night in the middle of the night. That bottle is her formula bottle so that I don't have to nurse or pump. It doesn't seem to make a difference with how long she sleeps though, it's more of a convenience for me.

Maryland Baby

My DH was absolutely convinced that LO wasn't sleeping through the night because she was BF. My step daughter was formula fed and apparently she slept through from very early on. Aside from the fact I am getting tired of hearing that! :S i let him give LO formula a few times and it absolutely did NOT help. Pumping and giver her extra breast milk during her cluster feeds helps the most! She gets gassy, doesn't poop for days after formula and doesn't make any difference to her sleeping more!!!!! but I let him try and he's still not satisfied.. 

merifrances

maybe i'll just pump and give her a couple extra ounces at bedtime after she nurses.

Cjohn1211

My pedi said that it does not matter what they eat before bed - sleeping longer only happens when the LO is neurologicaly ready.

thequeeenbee

We fed DS formula before bed when he was nursing and it seemed to help him get approx. 30 minutes to a hour more sleep.

O2BaMom

DH gives DS a bottle of formula before bed (I had to bed early to get extra zzz's) and it's helped DS sleep better, last night he did two 3.5hr stretches!

Worth it to me!

sugar1869

I have been supplementing with formula since LO was born.  I had trouble BFing in the beginning, so I really didn't have a choice.  I give her a bottle of formula with about an ounce of formula extra at about 8 or 9 at night. She will usually sleep until between 2 or 330 in the morning.  At this feeding I breast feed her and then she will wake up after 6.  In my opinion I think that it helps.  As for keeping your supply up, I pump after I have put her to bed.  On occasion, she will wake up before 2  to be fed again, but will then sleep till 5 or 6.

Good luck!