Early weaning children tend to sleep deeper and less awake halfway?

Researching the impact of early weaning will be a great key to helping parents improve their sleep, help them sleep more deeply and limit their waking time.

According to a recent finding by King's College scientists and the University of London, UK, early weaning and eating solid foods from before 6 months of age help babies achieve deeper sleep and less awakening. night.

Early weaning helps children achieve deeper sleep and less awake at night.

Through research, scientists want to test hypotheses whether their diet affects their sleeping patterns. And the results were quite surprising when they found that babies who weaned early did not have any problems with sleep compared to babies who still breastfed regularly during the first 6 months.

This finding almost goes against previous claims that babies should only start to eat solid food after they reach 6 months and older.

According to AFP, the study was conducted on more than 1,303 children aged 3 months in England and Wales in the period between 2009 and 2012.

On the one hand, parents of children are encouraged to give solids such as fish or wheat before 6 months of age. While the other half still breastfeeds normally up to 6 months old.

Parents will have to answer the questionnaire until their child is 12 months old and then continue every 3 months until the child is 3 years old. Questions include how often or when babies breastfeed, sleep and how often they eat.

Children who are fed solid foods sleep nearly 2 hours a week at night and are less awake at night.

Statistics show that newborns who eat solids before 6 months of age have an average number of waking times at night, from 2.01 to 1.74 times. Besides, the sleep time of this group of children is also higher than 16.6 minutes every night at 6 months of age.

The team found that the differences between the two groups became more apparent when they were 6 months old. Children who are fed solid foods sleep nearly 2 hours a week at night and are less awake at night. Although the results are not so different, this is a remarkable finding on how to care for babies.

Conclusion of the study, the authors affirmed: "In randomized clinical trials, early feeding of solids is associated with a longer sleep time and less awake in the middle of the night, and a significant reduction. telling sleep related issues ".

Experts say that some foods that parents can make children eat early as potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes or carrots. Unlike weaning, which uses only pureed or diluted foods so that your child's digestive system is adaptive, solid foods include more dense foods or boiled vegetables to feed themselves.

Feeding babies solid food before 17 weeks of age increases the likelihood of obesity and other problems in children.

However, according to Clare Llewellyn, lecturer in the Department of Behavioral and Health Sciences at the University of London, he asserted, although an interesting finding, this study still needs to continue further verification to be able to make A most accurate result.

Llewellyn also warns, giving babies solid foods before 17 weeks of age will increase their chances of becoming obese and other problems in children. Breast milk is an invaluable source of nutrition to help strengthen the immune system of newborns, while contributing to brain development. Therefore, the benefits of breastfeeding for the first 6 months are something that all parents should pay attention to.

The research results have been published in the recent JAMA Pediatrics magazine.