Bottle fed baby not sleeping

amother

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 12:21 pm

My baby is exclusively bottle fed. When I made this decision I was told that there are benefits to bottle feeding such as baby doing a longer stretch in the night. My baby is 4 weeks old and is not going any longer at night then his other feeds. Should I try give him a bit more by his last feed to try and stretch it out? I was really looking forward to my longer nights! TIA

imaima

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 12:37 pm

amother OP wrote:

I don’t think it will happen by 4 weeks!

amother

Linen

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 12:39 pm

Your baby is 4 weeks! Please do not allow anyone to convince you its normal for babies to sleep through the night. Just feed him on demand and enjoy him. it goes by so fast

stillnewlywed

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 1:37 pm

Give it another month and you'll probably get a 5 hour stretch in the beginning of the night. 4 week olds eat around the clock regardless of how they are fed.

amother

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 2:19 pm

amother Linen wrote:

Your baby is 4 weeks! Please do not allow anyone to convince you its normal for babies to sleep through the night. Just feed him on demand and enjoy him. it goes by so fast

Not even a little bit longer?

stillnewlywed

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 2:24 pm

amother OP wrote:

Not even a little bit longer?

What kind of stretch are you getting now?

amother

Papayawhip

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 3:51 pm

My bottle fed babies slept thru the night (at least a 5-6 hour stretch) almost immediately.
So did my friends
(Don’t let all the breastfeeding moms tell you otherwise)

amother

Hyssop

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 3:57 pm

amother Papayawhip wrote:

My bottle fed babies slept thru the night (at least a 5-6 hour stretch) almost immediately.
So did my friends
(Don’t let all the breastfeeding moms tell you otherwise)

Ok but then you have a bottle fed baby with a small tummy who still, at 4(!) Weeks, wants to be fed more often.

So what are you going to do?
I'm all for fed is best, but you gotta feed a hungry baby.

gootlfriends

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 4:08 pm

The babies who do stretches at 4 weeks would do it no matter how they are fed. That's my experience. I have done formula, bottle fed breast milk and nursing. My only kid who did a stretch at 4 weeks was bottle fed breastmilk and was always a good sleeper as a newborn. None of my other kids did long stretches before 6 weeks. And over overfeeding them hurts their belly and will either cause a blow out or lots of spit up. They are still tiny.

mizle10

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 4:11 pm

I’ve bottle fed most of my babies. By around 2 months they’re getting a decent night stretch (4-5 hours) but I don’t expect it at 4 weeks. Giving more formula at that age will just hurt their tiny tummy.

amother

Papayawhip

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 4:11 pm

Yup, I agree , perfectly normal for four week old baby to still wake up to eat at night, even if bottle fed.

But my experience has been that the bottle fed babies sleep thru the night sooner and longer stretches than breastfed babies.

rkay

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 8:00 pm

My bottle fed baby started sleeping through the night at around 8 weeks. By 4 weeks though, still getting up every 2 hours... give it time, it will happen!

amother

Linen

Mon, Aug 22 2022, 8:03 pm

amother OP wrote:

Not even a little bit longer?

My baby woke up every 2 hours to eat, she was hungry so I fed her. She only started sleeping through the night @12 months.

The baby stage is harder for some babies than others. But they all have the same basic needs- closeness and comfort, which are needs not preferences.

Our culture is obsessed with convenience...biologically normal baby behavior doesnt fit into normal and healthy baby attachment

amother

Wed, Aug 24 2022, 9:54 am

amother Papayawhip wrote:

My bottle fed babies slept thru the night (at least a 5-6 hour stretch) almost immediately.
So did my friends
(Don’t let all the breastfeeding moms tell you otherwise)

OMG how? Please give me some tips.

amother

Vanilla

Wed, Aug 24 2022, 10:57 am

Start teaching baby the difference between night and day. To do that, I didn’t swaddle baby by day naps, I kept it very light, and make sure to wake up baby after 3 hrs. At night, swaddled, kept it very dark and didn’t wake baby. After 2-3 days of doing that, baby now knows difference and I swaddle by all naps, keep it dark during day too, etc

amother

Navyblue

Wed, Aug 24 2022, 10:59 am

amother OP wrote:

OMG how? Please give me some tips.

I exclusively bottle feed my babies. Some babies sleep better and some don't! I don't think there are any real tips or tricks.