Solid foods help babies sleep better

Babies who are given solid foods as well as breast milk from the age of three months show signs of sleeping better than infants fed only with milk until they are six months old, a study from the UK suggests.

The study of 1,303 children between 2009 and 2012 showed that babies given solids earlier than currently recommended improved their sleep patterns.

The results, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, showed that the babies who started earlier on solids slept longer and woke up fewer times in the night.

The effect was slight but notable. The study showed that feeding babies solids brought down the median number of times they woke in the night from 2.01 to 1.74 times.

The duration of sleep also differed, with a peak of 16 minutes more sleep per night by the age of six months.

“In a randomized clinical trial, the early introduction of solids into the infant’s diet was associated with longer sleep duration, less frequent waking at night, and a reduction in reported very serious sleep problems,” the report said.