Breastfeeding & Sleep

It is a common assumption that a breastfed baby will be likely to wake more in the night. On two separate occasions recently, parents have come to me for advice having been told they need to stop breast feeding if they want to see better sleep from their baby. I find this so disappointing because it simply is not true. To breast feed or not is a completely personal choice and I fully support either choice on this. I feel it is unfair to judge another persons decision as it is what is right for them. However, to suggest that you cannot expect your breastfed baby to sleep well, is just uneducated advice and inappropriate to be telling new mums this. The fact  is, breast fed babies are just as capable of sleeping as well as formula fed babies. Sure, formula milk takes longer to digest and can, in some scenarios, mean longer stretches of sleep. But this is based on the assumption that all wakings are due to hunger! What if your baby is waking for other reasons, not hunger? Just as a breast fed baby is capable of great sleep, a formula fed baby might be a very challenging sleeper. It goes far deeper than the milk type. You can feed your baby in the way that is right for you and your baby and still have a great little sleeper. We talked about this in more depth in this episode so take a look now: Your FREE guide reveals 5 Ways To Help Your Child Sleep. Download this now and you can try some of these tips out tonight!