Giving your baby solid food early will not help him sleep better



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According to a new study, giving babies solid foods as early as three months of age will help them sleep. While this may seem appealing to exhausted new parents, there is unfortunately a big gap between the headlines and the data.

Much of the evidence published in this area shows the opposite, that what a baby eats has nothing to do with his sleep. In 2015, we found that neither bad milk nor formula, the timing of solids introduction, nor the amount of solids consumed changed the waking frequency of babies between six and 12 months.

<p clbad = "canvas-atom 1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Another study found that the common practice of adding rice cereal to a bottle before bedtime (which should be avoided as it can cause choking) has no impact on sleep at the age of four months while a third found that the early introduction of solids was badociated with less sleep at the age of 12 months. "data-reactid =" 33 "> Another study found that the practice The current practice of adding rice cereals to a bottle before bedtime (which should be avoided as it can cause choking) has no impact on sleep at four months. Another third found that the early introduction of solids was badociated with sleep less than 12 months

. The recent study is an excellent example of statistically significant differences between real differences and real world differences. The authors themselves note that no difference in waking was observed before the age of five months, despite a group having three month solids.

From this point on, babies in the early introduction group may have technically slept more only seven minutes more per night. At its peak (six months), the difference was 16 minutes. Most of the babies in the study woke up again once or twice a night, whatever they were fed. And since these numbers are based on the self-reporting of sleep deprived parents – which often does not match sleep records – this does not constitute a basis for making major changes in the practices of sleep. infant feeding.

The early solid foods would help a baby to sleep. First, babies (after the first few weeks) do not wake up just at night because they are hungry. Just like adults, they wake up because they are cold, that they are uncomfortable or that they just want comfort. The difference being that they can not always calm down.

Second, even if it was for hunger, the most sensible solution would be to offer extra milk because it would give more energy, fat and protein than any other food . you can give a baby. The purpose of the test from which these data came was not to increase the overall energy intake, but to test how the introduction of allergens to three against six months affects the development of allergies (which has not been the case).

to give very small quantities of allergenic foods (such as an egg, 25g of fish and 100g of yogurt spread over a week – just a few spoonfuls a day) with rice, cereals, fruits and vegetables . All these foods contain fewer calories than badmilk or formula, but take up more space, which means that babies can even eat a little less when they get used to weaning – a possible explanation. more significant sleep gap at six months. used for food

Sleep Solid

Less than half of the parents in the early introduction group held to the protocol. A variety of reasons have been given, but a major problem with the early introduction of solids is that babies are simply not physiologically ready. At three months, many can only have good control of the head. They will not be able to sit properly. They always have a nauseous reflex that pushes food out of their mouths. The early introduction of solids can be messy, long and demoralizing because babies are simply not equipped to eat solid foods as quickly

Research shows that more than one baby is weaned early, the longer it takes. to eat something other than a few tastes. One study found that if babies received solids before four months, it took them six weeks on average to eat only 100 ml of food a day, but only 12 days for those weaned at the recommended six months.

Food at six months is there for a good reason. There is no growth deficit or nutritional status in waiting for six months to introduce solid foods, but there is an increased risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases among infants fed with solid foods before.

Breast milk (and its badociated antibodies), the introduction of contaminants and can cause digestive difficulties because babies do not develop all the enzymes necessary to properly digest solid foods before the # 39, age four to six months.

Babies in the study were a very specific group. Almost all were badfed up to the age of six months – 97%, compared with only 34% in the UK population. Research shows that badfeeding by the introduction of solid foods is important to reduce the development of allergies, but often the early introduction of solids increases the risk of badfeeding. stop badfeeding.

We must be very careful to generalize these results. The research raises the question: does the early introduction of solids – with all the badociated risks – really carry more weight if it comes with a few minutes of sleep each night? It seems to me that we should ask ourselves why parents struggle so much with sleep and look for better ways to support them instead.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation. Read the original article

<p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "Amy Brown has already received funding from the ESRC, NIHR and Public Health Wales She is the author of three books published by Pinter and Martin Ltd. -" Breastfeeding Uncovered: who really decides how which we are feeding on? " Amy Brown has already received funding from the ESRC, the NIHR and the State of Wales Public Health. "1965" "" data-reactid = "84"> . She is the author of three books published by Pinter and Martin Ltd. – "Breastfeeding Unveiled: Who Really Decides How to Feed Our Babies," "Why Start the Solids" and the Next "The Book On" "Breastfeeding".

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