The first few months of an infant’s life are difficult simply because they don’t sleep for long stretches of time, need to breastfeed almost constantly, and really enjoy being held. That can be taxing on a family that also has other children and responsibilities, but is just a short stage of the child’s overall life and development. Parents are always interested in finding ways to promote sleep and one method that you have certainly heard about is adding rice cereal to your infant’s bottle to help fill her up so she will sleep longer. Is this truly recommended, though? Some doctors will recommend it and some won’t so how do you know you are doing what’s right for your infant?

Either way you go there is no evidence that doing this will actually work. And since there is nothing to prove that your baby will actually sleep longer there really is no reason to try it. Babies given a full meal just before bed or a bottle of rice cereal won’t necessarily sleep longer because hunger is not the only thing that will wake baby up. Parents should realize that infants are naturally programmed to wake up throughout the night. They simply don’t sleep for long stretches of time, despite this being difficult on parents. Babies won’t sleep through the night whether you give them rice cereal or anything else until their central nervous system has matured to the point that will allow them to sleep through the night. You will also want to keep in mind that “sleeping through the night” is considered sleeping for a stretch of five hours. This is surprising to many parents, but when infants can sleep for 5 hours at a time that is considered excellent!

Don’t let your exhaustion interfere with what’s best for your baby. Breast milk or formula is all your baby needs for the first four to six months of life anyway and by giving your baby rice cereal too early you could be setting the stage for allergies.

Posted in Baby and Toddler

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