Babies Sleep Better When They Start Eating Solid Food, Study says

Both the UK National Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeed until about 6 months of age and then begin to introduce solid foods. Yet, an alternative feeding plan is also safe for babies, new research suggests.

Introducing a child to solid baby foods after just 3 months was associated with a small but significant improvement in nighttime sleep and slightly fewer wakings throughout the week compared with babies who began eating solids later, according to a study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

For Dr. Gideon Lack, senior author of the study and a professor and head of the Department of Paediatric Allergy at King's College London, the study's single most important finding was the "more than 50% reduction in the number of families reporting severe sleep disturbances in their babies." "Lack of sleep can be pretty devastating for babies and their families," he said.