Poll, sort of...on solids & sleep

[mudder17]

A few of the mothers in my support group have recently started solids, or are getting ready to start solids, and we were wondering about the whole connection between eating cereal and sleeping through the night (or at least sleeping longer stretches). Now, I realize that a lto of that can be coincidental, but I'd be curious what parents here have experienced. I was going to do a poll, but then decided there had to be multiple questions, which could not be answered by the poll. So here goes:

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?
2) Did you start with just cereal?
3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?
4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?
5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?

Just trying to debunk/confirm the myth of solids helping babies sleep longer.... :)


Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya
http://www.babysfirstsite.org/newtickers/ticker/16994.birthday.png

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_garnet_6m.gif Breastfed 6 months and counting

[stillplayswithbarbies]

>1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

8.5 months

>2) Did you start with just cereal?

No, I started with fruits. We didn't start cereal until about 12 months and even then had trouble with it (constipation, fussiness, nightwaking)

>3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping
>longer stretches?

No.

>4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?

8-9 hours a night

>5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?

The same, except it got disrupted when we tried cereal, and again when we started on cow's milk at 13 months. Both times we backed off and tried it again in another month or so.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/borntobebreastfed2.gif

[crayonblue]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?
5 months but then stopped and waited until 7

2) Did you start with just cereal?
yes

3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?
no

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?
4-6 hours at a time

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?
same

[kransden]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids? 6 mos
2) Did you start with just cereal? no - cereal w/breastmilk and sweet potatoes or apples mixed usually. dd didn't like plain cereal
3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches? not one bit
4) How long did your baby sleep before solids? 2-3 hours
5) How long did your baby sleep after solids? 2-3 hours

Karin and Katie 10/24/02

[psophia17]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

4 months exactly

2) Did you start with just cereal?

No - an inch worth of mashed banana, then some pureed melon, then carrots, peas, asparagus, and beyond. We started with cereals, strictly for the iron content and to thicken pureed foods, at 6 mos on the Ped's advice

3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?

Not really - DS started sleeping through the night at about 3 months, once he got his gassiness under control; he didn't really have long naps until 6 months or so, but I think that was because of him having a more active day than cereal introduction

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?

8-9 hours

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?

Same, 8-9 hours. It's been almost 5 months since solids were introduced, and DS now sleeps for 10-12 hours at night and has one 3 hour nap in the morning and a shorter catnap in the afternoon just before dinner.

The myth I keep hearing is that BF babies sleep longer because of their perfect diets...personally I think it's got more to do with the baby than with the diet.

-Petra

DS - Nathan, 12/29/03

[steph2003]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

a week shy of 6 months

2) Did you start with just cereal?

Yes - but we did oatmeal instead of rice

3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?

Nope

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?

10-11 hours

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?
about the same give or take depending on teething!

Weissbluth in his book brings up an interesting point about sleeping patterns being not related to solids or even formula vs. breastfed babies. He says it really depends on the baby & sleep patterns are something that develop as the baby grows older & their brains mature. It has been awhile since I read the book so that isn't word for word but I tend to agree with him in that solids have nothing to do with how long the baby sleeps. Formula takes longer to digest but really it doesn't buy you that much more time - tI tend to agree w/Weissbluth (not that I agree with his whole book by any means!) is that baby's sleep patterns develop over time & usually by 3 months they sleep longer stretches because their brains (and digestive systems!) have started to mature.

[lizajane]

>
>1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

first try, 4 months. second try, 6 months. third try, 8 months (success!)
>2) Did you start with just cereal?

first and second try, yes. third try, homemade pears only

>3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping
>longer stretches?

NO NO NO NO NO. the first two tries it made him WAKE UP. it was horrible. he woudn't nap and he woke at night. at 8 months, with the 1 tsp of pears, it didn't make any difference.

>4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?

10-12 hours (at 4 months old, exclusively breastfed! the LCs were shocked.)

>5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?

first try, ruined naps. second try, ruined night sleep. third try, same 12 hours.
>
>Just trying to debunk/confirm the myth of solids helping
>babies sleep longer.... :)
>
liza's remarks:
babies sleep longer streches when their tummies are big enough to accomodate enough food. my child slept 8 hours at 9 weeks old. he was at least 14 pounds at that point. he did not have ANY formula or ANY cereal. he started sleeping 10-12 hours on his own, with only breastmilk. introducing solids too early will DAMAGE sleep because their digestive systems will not tolerate it. i am still angry at my ped for telling me to feed my big baby solids at 4 months.

[mudder17]

Thanks for your remarks...that's sort of what I was thinking, but so many people were telling me to start with cereal earlier because of iron content, yada, yada, yada, so I decided to find out what you guys thought. I think DD is actually tolerating the oatmeal cereal at 7 months pretty well, but so far I haven't noticed any impact on her sleep patterns--they were briefly worse, if anything!

Ladies, thanks for all of your answers. I never realized that fruits were actually easier to digest than the cereal, but now that I think about it, it actually makes sense (not much in the way of complex carbohydrates like in cereals). I think I'll feel free to try her on pears. Liza, did you cook the pears that DS ate, or did you give it to him raw (but ripe and pureed)?

Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya
http://www.babysfirstsite.org/newtickers/ticker/16994.birthday.png

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_garnet_6m.gif Breastfed 6 months and counting

[fauve01]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?
5.5 months

2) Did you start with just cereal?
yes, and we did rice cereal for about three weeks before trying something new (sweet potatoes, pears, banana, avocado, applesauce, pumpkin--all homemade).


3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?
no~ i really was hoping though!

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?
3-4 hours (breastfed)

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?
same; 3-4 hours.

my baby started sleeping better after 6 months when she got to be 13+ pounds and also started crawling! JMHO, but i really think her sleeping better was a function of her being more tired from all the physical activity and also a bigger stomach!

Anne + DD 10-03

[californiagirl]

She was 6 months, we sort of started on rice cereal but she wouldn't eat it, so now we do mostly finger foods, it did not coincide with sleeping longer stretches, she slept 2-4 hours a stretch both before and after (but up to 7 when she was littler, sob).

[amp]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?
4 mths

2) Did you start with just cereal?
Yes

3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping
longer stretches?
No

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?
2-4 hrs I think

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?
Same. He didn't start sleeping longer stretches until we'd been on solids for a couple of months, and I think it just had to do with being an older baby.

[kijip]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

4 months ( he was huge and clearly ready! We wanted to wait but that was not going to work)

>2) Did you start with just cereal?

Yes, rice but once he got oatmeal it was all over for rice...

>3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping
>longer stretches?

No

>4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?

6-9 hours @ 3 or so months

>5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?

About the same. Jumped to 10-12 hours around 9 months.
>
>Just trying to debunk/confirm the myth of solids helping
>babies sleep longer.... :)

I think that there may be a correlation that as babies eat solids they sleep more but that is not causative- both things are just seperate functions of the baby's age and weight IMO.

[Imperia]

>
>1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

6 months, but she is 8 months and still doesn't really eat them at all regularly

>2) Did you start with just cereal? nope, fruits and veggies. She still hasn't had baby cereal.

>3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping
>longer stretches? Nope, in fact I think it disrupted her patterns.

>4) How long did your baby sleep before solids? 8- 10 hours

>5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?
>About the same, maybe less, definately not more.

[jbowman]

>1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

one week shy of 5 months. I was prepared to wait until 6 months or longer, but she seemed ready (and she was--we have had no problems with solids).

>2) Did you start with just cereal?

yes, rice cereal.

>3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping
>longer stretches?

not at all!

>4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?

very erratically--I can't tell you!

>5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?

very erratically, LOL! She started sleeping 11 hours at night around 6 1/2-7 months. Ellie was ready--it had nothing to do with solids.

[californiamom]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?
5.5 months

2) Did you start with just cereal?
Yes, rice cereal. But it made her constipated so we switched to organic whole grain cereal by Earth's Best (she also eats oatmeal cereal in daycare). After a coupke of weeks feeding her cereal we started her on yellow vegetables, then on green vegetables, then on fruits.

3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?
Not when we started cereal alone. But by the time she was eating 3 solid foods meals a day I did notice she was sleeping longer, but it could just as well have been pure coincidence because we were also doing some sleep training...

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?
6 to 8 hours

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?
8 to 10 hours, sometimes she goes 12 hours. For the past couple of weeks, though, she has been waking up around 4:00 every now and then, and I either nurse her or DH gives her a bottle of EBM

[MorganMom]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids?
6mos exactly

2) Did you start with just cereal?
Nope, mashed banana first, then avocados. DS hated rice cereal but tolerated oat and barley cereals. I was really bad about giving him solids and so he only got them once a day every couple of days till he was 8 or 9 mos old. Then we got into it more and he liked more textured things- chuncy fruit, cheerios, etc. We made homemade babyfood so nothing was really smooth like the canned stuff.

3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?
Heck no. He still nursed every 2 hrs AROUND THE CLOCK. Finally one night at 11 mos, he just slept right thru- can you say ENGORGED for mom???? LOL

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?
2 hr stretches at night, 1 hr naps during the day (2-3)

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?
Same. Solids didn't make a whit of difference.

BTW my kiddo was a big baby- 9 lbs at birth and 25lbs at 8 mos so I think the whole "they'll sleep thru the night when they reach a certain size" idea is a bunch of hooey too.

And the idea that feeding cereal to make sure baby gets enough iron is outdated. Check out these links:

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/vitamins.html

[RwnMayfair]

>1) How old was your baby when you started solids?

6 months - he was starting to try and steal things off of people's plates, so we decided to go ahead and try them.

>2) Did you start with just cereal?

Yes, though within a week or so we started on things like bananas and sweet potatoes. We generally waited about 3 to 4 days between new foods.

>3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches?

Nope, it didn't make any difference in his sleep. He started sleeping longer stretches before he started solids, and starting solids didn't seem to change it any.

>4) How long did your baby sleep before solids?

Within a week or two of being born, he was sleeping 5 to 6 hours straight at night. By about 3 months, he started sleeping about 8 hours straight.

>5) How long did your baby sleep after solids?

He now sleeps around 10 to 12 hours straight. He moved up from just 8 hours straight to at least 8 to 10 hours straight at about 5 or 6 months.

I honestly don't think the solids made any impact on his sleeping at all. Every now and then he has a bad night where he'll wake up, but he's generally been what we've considered a very good sleeper almost since he was born. Between that and his good disposition, I have severe fears of being doomed with any siblings. ;) (I'm crossing my fingers, but everyone always has to tell me that he's just so good that any others are bound to be terrors who never sleep and that doesn't help my fears!)

So in our experience, I don't think solids affected how well he sleeps at all.

-Melissa

Taran, November 20, 2003

http://lilypie.com/baby1/041120/0/15/0/-5/.png
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_amber_9m.gif

[urbanmama]

1) How old was your baby when you started solids? 6.5 months

2) Did you start with just cereal? Yes

3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping longer stretches? No

4) How long did your baby sleep before solids? 11-12 hours

5) How long did your baby sleep after solids? 11-12 hours

[barbarhow]

>1) How old was your baby when you started solids? 6 months

>2) Did you start with just cereal? Yes. Rice then switched to oatmeal

>3) Did eating cereal/solids coincide with your baby sleeping
>longer stretches? Absolutely Not

>4) How long did your baby sleep before solids? 6-8 hours-then bf then another 4+ hours

>5) How long did your baby sleep after solids? The same
>

Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03, a Red Sox fan
expecting #2, a Yankee fan, around 5/9/05!