What's the first thing people ask when you tell them you have a baby? Ok, besides gender, name, etc.
The dreaded question....
"Is he/she sleeping through the night?"
I loathe that question...loathe it.
When my response is "no" I know immediately what is going to follow.
First the look that's half pity, half "you suck as a parent". (And what's with the pressure for your child to sleep through the night anyways? Besides not feeling exhausted...)
Then the other comment that makes me cringe....
"is she eating cereal yet?"
As of today, my answer will be "yes" and is it helping her sleep? NO! Her sleeping is the same as it was weeks ago, in fact, it might even be worse than a few weeks ago.
It's an old wives tale people!! Cereal does not equal sleeping through the night!
A few months ago before I was even thinking of starting solids, I was looking through websites, books, magazines, email lists I'm on, etc. Most of them at some point mentioned that there has been new research going on about how starting solids has nothing to do with how a baby sleeps. They suggest starting solids closer to 6months (instead of 4) because there's really no benefit in doing them before.
I can't tell you how many people have told me that once Avery started cereal, she would sleep better. I work with patients everyday and heard the comment so frequently. I would just nod and smile and keep my thoughts to myself. Maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong. Would an old wives tale be correct or would this new research shine through? Time would tell....
We started Avery on cereal about a week before she was 6months. My gut told me it wouldn't change things, although I was secretly hoping it would. And the result?
Research seems like it's correct in our case. Cereal hasn't done a darn thing to help that child sleep better. She's eating it twice a day now along with some veggies and still waking up overnight like a champ!!
So, if someone tells you to try cereal before bed....you can, but don't get your hopes up too high!
3 comments:
You are so right Nicole. Cereal has nothing to do with them sleeping through the night, and I can tell you that from my own experience.
I will tell you that cereal & solids DOES NOT mean your child will sleep through the night....mine sure doesn't anyway!!!
also interesting to note is that putting cereal in the bottle is one of the leading causes of childhood obesity
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