‘Babies given solid food sooner sleep better’
Babies given solid food plus breast milk from three months sleep better than those who are solely breastfed, according to a new study.
Of¿cial advice is to breastfeed exclusively for the ¿rst six months of life, bbc.com reported.
Experts say women should still heed this recommendation, although it is under review.
In the study, in JAMA Pediatrics, giving solids earlier than six months had bene¿ts for mum and baby.
The babies had fewer sleep problems and mothers reported improved quality of life.
The study, by King’s College, London, and St. George’s, University of London, surveyed 1,303 threemonth-olds, and divided them into two groups.
One group was solely breastfed for six months, the other group was given solid foods in addition to breast milk from the age of three months.
Parents then ¿lled in online questionnaires every month until their baby was 12 months old, and then every three months until they were three years old.
The study showed that infants in the group who ate solids as well as breast milk slept longer, woke less frequently and had far fewer serious sleep problems than those who were exclusively breastfed until about six months.
Mothers know best
The NHS and World Health Organization currently advise to wait until around six months before introducing solid foods, but these guidelines are currently under review.
Despite the of¿cial advice, 75 percent of British mothers introduced solid food before ¿ve months, with a quarter (26 percent) citing infant night time waking as the reason for their decision, according to the Infant Feeding Survey of 2010.
Prof. Gideon Lack from King’s College, London, said, “The results of this research support the widely held parental view that early introduction of solids improves sleep.
“While the of¿cial guidance is that starting solid foods won’t make babies more likely to sleep through the night, this study suggests that this advice needs to be re-examined in light of the evidence we have gathered.”
The differences between the groups peaked at six months, with the group fed solids early sleeping for a quarter of an hour longer per night (almost two hours longer per week) and waking less frequently — 1.74 times a night rather than twice a night.
Coauthor of the study Dr. Michael Perkin, from St. George’s, University of London, pointed out that small differences generated large bene¿ts for parents. “Given that infant sleep directly affects parental quality of life, even a small improvement can have important bene¿ts.” More signi¿cantly, the group of babies on early solids reported half the rate of the type of serious sleep problems, such as crying and irritability, which make it less likely that parents are going to get back to sleep.
Responding to the study, Prof. Mary Fewtrell, nutrition lead at the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, pointed out that guidelines for infant feeding are currently being reviewed.
She said, “These are interesting ¿ndings from a large randomized controlled trial.
“At the RCPCH, we recommend that mothers should be supported to breastfeed their healthy-term infant exclusively for up to six months, with solid foods not introduced before four months.”
Which foods to feed your baby
● First foods can include mashed or soft cooked fruit and vegetables — such as parsnip, potato, yam, sweet potato, carrot, apple or pear.
● Soft fruits, like peach or melon, or baby rice or baby cereal mixed with your baby’s usual milk.
● Some babies like to start with mashed foods. Other babies need a little longer to get used to new textures so may prefer smooth or blended foods on a spoon at ¿rst.
● Keep offering different foods. It can take lots of attempts before your baby will accept a new food or texture.