Would supplementing with formula help my 4 month old sleep better?

[Anonymous]

After four months of only sleeping in 2 hour intervals, I have to make a change- I feel depressed almost all the time and just can't take it anymore. I produce plenty of milk so undersupply is not the problem, but my baby likes to eat every 2 hours, during day and night. She wakes up hungry to eat every 2 hours all night long.
I am willing to do almost anything to change this because it is making me a bad mom, bad wife, miserable person, etc.
Even though I love breastfeeding and planned to EBF til 6 months, now I am wondering (out of desperation) if that is not working - Do you think giving her formula before bedtime would help her to sleep through the night or at least 6 hours or so?

[Anonymous]

No, I do not believe that giving her formula before bed would help her sleep longer. Babies sleep through the night when they're ready, and many formula fed babies aren't there by 4 months either.

That said, I know that giving her formula during the night instead of nursing would give you a break if your DH were willing to get up to do some of the bottle feedings. It's basically partial weaning -- your body would soon adjust to the new schedule and would stop producing much milk at night. But you could continue to nurse on demand during the day. I know many friends who did this at around 4-5 months.

Also, you might want to call/see Pat Shelley at the Breastfeeding Clinic on K Street. As I mentioned on a different post, she's a fabulous resource and very understanding of mothers' needs/feelings. She's very supportive and not the least judgmental if you decide to supplement.

P.S. I'm sure there are some BF purists who are against supplementing at night and would argue you should suck it up and stick it out until she sleeps longer stretches. But I'm in the camp that believes it's a whole family decision -- your feelings as the mom count, too, and if you're done with the constant night nursing, I think it's more than ok to substitute with formula! Don't make yourself crazy or become a martyr just to maintain some goal of EBF. Life's too short!

[Anonymous]

Hi OP--so sorry you are going through this. We experienced something similar with many many night wakeups at that age. You can certainly try formula but my understanding is that it does not help with sleep--that's a myth. A couple other thoughts:

Eating every two hours all night long at that age is a lot. Have you tried offering a pacifier instead to confirm that she really is hungry (or, better yet, having your husband offer one)? I would do what you can to decrease the number of night feedings to 2 or at most 3. It sounds to me like the baby isn't necessarily hungry, but wakes up and needs to breastfeed to get back to sleep. Have your husband go in and soothe her, rock her, do whatever is necessary to get her back to sleep, if you can stomach that.

Are you pumping? Definitely have your husband give a night bottle so that you get a break.

You could also try giving additional breast milk in a bottle (or formula, it doesn't really matter) before putting her to bed at night--so have her breastfeed, then give her a few more ounces. We tried this and it didn't help, but you never know.

Hope this helps--hang in there. We Ferbered at 6 months and cut out night feedings then, and that's what stopped the wakeups. But I know waiting another two months to get sleep might seem like agony at this point.

[Anonymous]

I started my son on solids at 4 months for the same reason. Breast milk couldn't hold him.

[Anonymous]

I am a Dad and I would say to give your husband a bottle for one of the night feeds. It will make so much of a difference to have a four hour stretch of solid sleep.

And of the choices, I would start solids at 4 months over formula. It is perfectly reasonable to start at 4 months with fortified cereals or the like.

Lastly, are you sure your baby is not eating for comfort instead of need? Two hour spacing is pretty tight for a four month old, especially if your supply is good.

[Anonymous]

We found our 3.5 month old baby slept much better with formula. I think you should try it for one bottle and see if you can get one block of sleep that's more like 4-5 hours. It will really make a difference.

Our son drank every 45 minutes to 3 hours (at the very longest) and mostly can make a 2 hour stretch on breastmilk. I could manage this when I was on maternity leave, but I knew I could never make it back to the office. So we tried formula at the 11:00 pm bottle and it really made a huge difference. Our DS (who is now 5.5 months) started sleeping a 4-5 hour block and now, two months later, sleeps a 5-6 hour blocks.

I say try it. Hang in there. It does get better. You will find something that helps you get a longer block of sleep, so you can regain your sense of well-being.

[Anonymous]

OP,
Try having your husband dreamfeed a bottle before you go to bed, might tank her up so that she doesn't wake up. If it is a pattern rather than hunger it will change it. I'd also try a pacifier. FWIW, my kids sleeping was horrible until just after 4 months, then it seemed to get a lot more organized.

Are you still swaddling? Is there anywhere she likes to sleep - bouncy seat or swing that could buy you some time? I'd start going to bed early and having your husband do one or even two pumped feedings before he goes to bed. If you are not at the 6 hour stretch, you should get there soon.

My baby had reflux symptoms with formula, which was just another wrench in the sleep, if you have a good supply I'd try pumped breastmilk if it's not too hard.

[Anonymous]

For people who ar saying every 2 hours is too frequent for a 4mos old, they are incorrect. I'm on my second baby and he is exactly 4mos old (tomorrow) and still wakes every 2hrs to eat. My first child woke 3xs a night until he was year old, both ar EBF.

I HEAR ya on the insanity. Not sure if you work or not, but I have to get up and go to work each day AND pump at work every 2hrs to keep up. It is exhausting, but each day I'm amazed that I somehow functioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For people who ar saying every 2 hours is too frequent for a 4mos old, they are incorrect. I'm on my second baby and he is exactly 4mos old (tomorrow) and still wakes every 2hrs to eat. My first child woke 3xs a night until he was year old, both ar EBF.

I HEAR ya on the insanity. Not sure if you work or not, but I have to get up and go to work each day AND pump at work every 2hrs to keep up. It is exhausting, but each day I'm amazed that I somehow functioned.

Just because your baby eats every 2 hours, doesn't mean its normal. They really should be able to sleep more than 2 hours at night by 4 months.

OP, try some cereal - its worth a shot!

[Anonymous]

Mentioning this since no one else did. I haven't tried it and don't know if it'll work (feeding every 2 hours at 4 months isn't all that strange), but there's a new formula produced by Enfamily that's supposed to help babies sleep longer. It's called Restfull I think. Not sure what's different about it, but maybe it takes longer to break down?

[Anonymous]

From personal experience (take what you want from it): babies can start to sleep through the night when they are about 12-13 lbs. Ours hit that mark at around 2.5-3 months and would start sleeping about 8 hours at a time (it was GLORIOUS). I never had sufficient supply to breastfeed exclusively, so, we would BF morning and day, but start supplementing with formula in the evenings (say, with the 5pm feeding and then again before bed). When we did supplement during the day, I would notice that DS could go slightly longer between feedings if he had formula, than if he had breastmilk. I have no idea if this is all in my head (I know some EBF moms whose babies starting sleeping through the night at 8 weeks!!!), but I do believe that formula because it is slightly thicker than BM, will stay in their bellies longer than BM.

Your baby could also be comfort feeding through. Have you tried reducing your nighttime feeding times and cutting them back by 1-2 minutes at a time until you can cut them out entirely?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For people who ar saying every 2 hours is too frequent for a 4mos old, they are incorrect. I'm on my second baby and he is exactly 4mos old (tomorrow) and still wakes every 2hrs to eat. My first child woke 3xs a night until he was year old, both ar EBF.

I HEAR ya on the insanity. Not sure if you work or not, but I have to get up and go to work each day AND pump at work every 2hrs to keep up. It is exhausting, but each day I'm amazed that I somehow functioned.

Just because your baby eats every 2 hours, doesn't mean its normal. They really should be able to sleep more than 2 hours at night by 4 months.

OP, try some cereal - its worth a shot!

Actually it is normal. There is a huge range of normal for sleep and eating every 2 hours, especially for an EFB baby is on the scale of normal. It is a baby not a controlled scientific experiment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For people who ar saying every 2 hours is too frequent for a 4mos old, they are incorrect. I'm on my second baby and he is exactly 4mos old (tomorrow) and still wakes every 2hrs to eat. My first child woke 3xs a night until he was year old, both ar EBF.

I HEAR ya on the insanity. Not sure if you work or not, but I have to get up and go to work each day AND pump at work every 2hrs to keep up. It is exhausting, but each day I'm amazed that I somehow functioned.

Just because your baby eats every 2 hours, doesn't mean its normal. They really should be able to sleep more than 2 hours at night by 4 months.

OP, try some cereal - its worth a shot!

Actually it is normal. There is a huge range of normal for sleep and eating every 2 hours, especially for an EFB baby is on the scale of normal. It is a baby not a controlled scientific experiment.

Thank you to PP and other PPs who posted similar remarks - Not the OP, but I'm another mother dealing with this. DS is 5 months and 14 pounds. He wakes up at least 2-3 times a night to eat. I've been reading sleep training books to start implementing good habits and I've been thinking I'm the only parent that can't get their kid to sleep eight hours at a time. I'm lucky to get 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For people who ar saying every 2 hours is too frequent for a 4mos old, they are incorrect. I'm on my second baby and he is exactly 4mos old (tomorrow) and still wakes every 2hrs to eat. My first child woke 3xs a night until he was year old, both ar EBF.

I HEAR ya on the insanity. Not sure if you work or not, but I have to get up and go to work each day AND pump at work every 2hrs to keep up. It is exhausting, but each day I'm amazed that I somehow functioned.

Just because your baby eats every 2 hours, doesn't mean its normal. They really should be able to sleep more than 2 hours at night by 4 months.

OP, try some cereal - its worth a shot!

Actually it is normal. There is a huge range of normal for sleep and eating every 2 hours, especially for an EFB baby is on the scale of normal. It is a baby not a controlled scientific experiment.

It's normal in the sense that tons of babies wake every 2 hours at night and want to eat when they're 4 months old, because they have learned to be hungry at that time out of habit. But at that age, they do not NEED to eat every two hours all night long, the way they do when they are newborns. A healthy, full-term baby is physically capable of eating 2-3 times at night by this age, even though many (including ours) need to be coaxed to do so. Lots and lots of babies use feeding as a way to get back to sleep at this age.

[Anonymous]

Nothing but time helped my son sleep longer at night. Not formula, not solids, not hitting a certain weight. Nothing. And it was infuriating, after a while, to hear people (who probably did mean well) telling me that all I needed to do was X. Because I'd tried that and it didn't help.

I agree with those who suggested having your husband get up for at least one feeding at night. Maybe even every other one, so you can each sleep in 4-hour blocks. When you're used to sleeping in 2-hour increments (or even less), 4 hours feels like a full night. And 6 is a thing of magnificence.

And it may not feel now like this will ever end, but it will. I promise.