New research claims that giving babies solid foods at just three months old will help them sleep. Though this may sound appealing to exhausted new parents, unfortunately there is a large gulf between the headlines and the data.
Much of the published evidence in this area actually shows the opposite, that what a baby eats has nothing to do with their sleep. In 2015 we found that neither breast nor formula milk, timing of solids introduction, nor the amount of solids eaten affected how often babies woke up at six to 12 months.
Another study has found that the common practice of adding rice cereal to a bottle before bed (which should be avoided as it can cause choking) has no impact on sleep at four months old. While a third found that early introduction of solids was associated with less sleep at 12 months old. The recent study is an excellent example of how statistically significant differences and real world differences can be miles apart. The authors themselves note that no difference in waking was seen until five months old, despite one group having solids from three months.
From then, babies in the early introduction group may have technically slept more, but this amounted to an average of just seven minutes more a night. At its maximum (six months old) the difference was 16 minutes. Most babies in the study still woke up once or twice a night whatever they were fed. And given these figures are based on the self-reporting of sleep deprived parents?which often does not m...