I think sttn is more about training and teaching babies how to fall back asleep on their own. (and I don't mean CIO). My 7 month old sleeps 13 hours straight, but if I review the camera footage, he wakes several times and just rolls over because he knows how to fall back asleep without my assistance.

I didn’t notice a big difference in sleep habits, but middle of the night feedings were so much easier when I was breastfeeding. No filling bottles or cleaning them, mixing formula, just roll over and pull down my nightgown.

I go against the grain, but I think it has a lot to do with the temperment of the parent as well. I think sleeping is both nature AND nurture so your best evidence will be parents who breastfed 1 and formula fed 1. Comparing between different sets of parents I perosnally don't think works.

Honestly, it depends a lot on the kid. Some women might have low storage capacities in their breasts and need to feed more often in order for the kid to get the same amount of milk (i.e. they can make the right amount of milk but don't have a lot of storage so have to keep emptying to reach that total number -- and it's not about breast size). But in most cases, it's really the baby's personality and needs.

My first was a terrible breastfeeder, and I ended up pumping as well. He was also a terrible sleeper despite that. I fed all breastmilk bottles, and he was up all the time. Later switched to formula bottles -- same thing. Second was able to BF well but was also up a lot. The good thing was that I was able to nurse him down to sleep again really fast and not make a bottle, so it was way easier. There are pros and cons. I don't think you can say whether it's BFing or FFing in most cases.

Also, a kid sleeping 12 hours by 6 months seems amazing, so don't be surprised if you don't have that happen again. I'd be happy if my 3 year old did that!

I tried both - formula before bed and nurse before bed - and neither made any difference as my baby is a crappy sleeper.

My first was EBF and was my best sleeper as a baby. She was waking only once per night by 6-7 weeks due to nothing I did. My next two babies had formula introduced earlier and were good sleepers but not like my magical first baby.

I had one FF and one BF and both STTN (10 hours+) at 8 weeks.

I truly think it’s temperment of the baby, plus some other issues are at play. Example - babies who get sick a lot in day care, or from an older sibling, or just because of bad luck, are likely to have bad sleep. But I formula fed my DS and he was always up 1-3 times per night until he was about a year old. The wake ups got shorter as he got older, and he didn’t always need a bottle, but yeah - he definitely wasn’t sleeping 12 hours straight until he was well into toddlerhood.

Nope. Both my breastfed babies were sttn before 3 months. I will say though that underfed babies won’t sttn, but bf doesn’t mean underfed.

None of my kids slept through the night until I fully warned them. 15 and 18 months. Formula if you don’t care for better sleep.

In our little moms group of 5 moms, the formula babies aren't sleeping as well as the BF ones. TBH I really think it's the baby temperament rather than the feeding.

I'm back to work so pumping for daytime feeds. My 5 month old sleeps about 10 hours a night, sometimes 11. I wonder whether it has to do with how much milk she takes in during the day, i.e. she eats a lot so doesn't need to wake at night. She feeds twice after waking, generally does 20 ounces of expressed milk 08.30am - 4pm and then 2-3 feeds at late afternoon / evening.

3 formula fed and to EBF. First formula fed was sleeping through the night by 8 weeks old and napped well. Formula fed preemie twins sleeping through the night by 5/6 months (both were only 2 lbs at birth). Breastfed babies never slept through the night until weaned. They also didn’t go as long during the day between feeds. In my own experience, my formula fed babies were far easier to get to sleep and naps.

Both my BF babies were down to one feeding fairly quickly, then STTN at about 6 months.

We never co-slept; I didn’t do the side-lying nursing thing very often.

The theory is that formula fed infants can sleep a little longer because the formula isn’t as easy/quick to digest so it keeps them full longer.

My 3 EBF babies slept six hour stretches by 9 weeks old, though, so it depends more on baby temperament than food type, IME.

Hope I’m not opening up a can of worms here as I really am curious. I wasn’t able to breastfeed my first... I pumped for the first 3 months with 1 bottle of formula to supplement. We then switched to all formula. He was a pretty good sleeper and slept 12 hours by 6 months. I’m about to have baby #2 and will try breastfeeding but am wondering if anyone saw a difference one way or the other regarding sleep and feeding methods. Most of my close friends exclusively breastfed and it seems like they have had a lot more trouble in the sleep department. Any thoughts? Thanks!