Thanks Esther. Do you have the full study? What do they mean by "As  
part of a randomized clinical trial"? There is no way randomizing  
groups to breastfeeding or formula would pass any ethics committee,  
so what was randomized? What was the study actually trying to look at?

I'd be interested to know whether the families were stratified by  
_intention_ to breast or formula feed before birth. There is a large  
and obvious potential confounder, which is that babies who are poor  
sleepers, in the current healthcare and cultural climate in the USA,  
are probably much more likely to end up on formula than "easy" babies  
are.

Lara Hopkins


On 31/08/2007, at 16:13, Esther Grunis, IBCLC wrote:

> J Perinat Neonatal Nurs. 2007 Jul-Sep;21(3):200-6.
>
> Breast-feeding Increases Sleep Duration of New Parents.
> Doan T, Gardiner A, Gay CL, Lee KA.
>
> From the Department of Family Health Care Nursing, School of Nursing,
> University of California at San Francisco.
> OBJECTIVES: This study describes sleep patterns for mothers and  
> fathers
> after the birth of their first child and compares exclusive breast- 
> feeding
> families with parents who used supplementation during the evening  
> or night
> at 3 months postpartum. METHODS: As part of a randomized clinical  
> trial, the
> study utilized infant feeding and sleep data at 3 months postpartum  
> from 133
> new mothers and fathers. Infant feeding type (breast milk or  
> formula) was
> determined from parent diaries. Sleep was measured objectively  
> using wrist
> actigraphy and subjectively using diaries. Lee's General Sleep  
> Disturbance
> Scale was used to estimate perceived sleep disturbance. RESULTS:  
> Parents of
> infants who were breastfed in the evening and/or at night slept an  
> average
> of 40-45 minutes more than parents of infants given formula.  
> Parents of
> infants given formula at night also self-reported more sleep  
> disturbance
> than parents of infants who were exclusively breast-fed at night.
> CONCLUSIONS: Parents who supplement their infant feeding with  
> formula under
> the impression that they will get more sleep should be encouraged to
> continue breast-feeding because sleep loss of more than 30 minutes  
> each
> night can begin to affect daytime functioning, particularly in  
> those parents
> who return to work.
>

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