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A new study claims that 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 breast milk nor formula, the timing of solids introduction, nor the amount of solids consumed changed the frequency with which babies woke up between six and twelve months of age.
Another study found that the common practice of adding rice cereals to a bottle before bedtime (which should be avoided as this can cause choking) has no impact on sleep at night. Four months old. While one-third found that the early introduction of solids was associated with less sleep at 12 months.
The recent study is an excellent example of how statistically significant differences and real-world differences can be several kilometers apart. The authors themselves note that no difference in waking was observed before the age of five months, although one group had solids starting at three months old. .
From this point on, babies in the early introduction group may have technically slept more, but this averaged only seven more minutes 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 self-reporting of sleep deprived parents – which often does not match sleep records – this is not a basis for making major changes in the practices of sleep. Feeding infants.
There is no physiological reason why the early introduction of 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 to sleep.
Second, even if it was for hunger, the most reasonable solution would be to offer extra milk because it would give more energy, fat and protein than any other food that we can give to 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 allergenic foods to three to six months affects the development of allergies (which was not the case).
Parents were asked to give very small quantities of allergenic foods (such as an egg, 25g of fish and 100g of yogurt spread over a week – a few spoonfuls a day) with rice, cereals, fruits and vegetables. All these foods contain fewer calories than breastmilk 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 adhere 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 the earlier a baby is weaned, the more he has to eat a few tastes. One study found that if babies received solid foods before four months, it took them an average of six weeks to consume only 100 ml of food a day, but only twelve days for weaned babies at the recommended six months
. six-month foods are there for a reason. There is no growth or nutrient status deficit waiting for six months to introduce solid foods, but there is an increased risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory illness in infants receiving solid foods before this date .
The premature introduction of solids may result in reduced intake of breast milk (and associated antibodies), the introduction of contaminants and cause digestive difficulties because not all babies develop the enzymes needed to properly digest solid foods between four and six months.
It should also be noted that the babies in the study were a very specific group. Almost all were breastfed up to the age of six months – 97%, compared with only 34% in the UK population. Research shows that breastfeeding 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 breastfeeding. stop breastfeeding.
Care must be taken to generalize these results. The research raises the question: does the early introduction of solids – with all the associated 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 have so much trouble sleeping and look for better ways to support them instead.
Learn more:
Study finds babies introduced into solids slept earlier and woke up less often
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