Why it’s all right if baby doesn’t sleep through

IT is the milestone every sleep-deprived new parent prays for.

But if a child is still not sleeping through the night by the age of one, it does not make them unusual or at risk of developmental problems, according to a study.

It found 43 per cent of infants are still not sleeping an uninterrupted eight hours a night by their first birthday. More than a quarter cannot even manage six hours without waking up.

Experts say sleeping through the night is seen as the ‘gold standard’ for babies between six and 12 months, with parents trying sleep-training tricks to reach that goal. But the US research, which studied almost 400 infants, also found more than half of six-month-olds failed to get eight straight hours of sleep.

And children who did not sleep six or eight consecutive hours had no additional problems with language, development or thinking skills.

The researchers, led by Dr MarieHelene Pennestri, of McGill University in Canada, state: ‘The transition to parenthood is a vulnerable period of life, and it could be reassuring for parents to learn that in a typically developing cohort, up to 37.6 per cent of infants do not sleep six consecutive hours at age six months and up to 27.9 per cent do not at age 12 months.’

The NHS says some babies will sleep for eight hours or longer between three and six months, but that teething pains and hunger may wake older infants.

The findings were published in the journal Paediatrics.