How old were your babies when they started sleeping through the night and when did you introduce Rice cereal to their diet?
Most of my grandkids started sleeping through the night around 20 months.
The government will not give cereal of any kind to a child younger than 6 month. They start adding the cereal on the WIC vouchers then. I think the later you start them on it the better for them.
If you're wondering if there's a correlation, there isn't. My twins started sleeping through at 12 weeks and started rice cereal at 4 months. My daughter started sleeping through at 7 weeks, but changed her mind when I went back to work (refused the bottle). She's now six months and still wakes up at least once a night. We started her at three months on rice cereal, then held off once she began taking the bottle. At five months we reintroduced rice cereal.
both of my sons were put on rice cereal before 4 weeks. Weeks, not months. My sons are 9 years apart, had different drs, & both ended up with the same schedule. Both drs cited "big boys, big appetites" for their reasoning. I was a.o.k. with this, because all of the other babies in our family followed the same track.
In today's world, this is unheard of. But out of the 20+ kids whom I've witnessed....not a single one of them have gastric issues nor food allergies. Disclaimer: other than my son's peanut allergy which I consider quite separate.
I simply think babies are happier when they are fed simple foods.
I gave all my kids cereal from 2-3 weeks on. BUT, they didn't sleep through the night. They did wake up less often and was fine with just a few ounces of formula and went back to sleep easy. My kids were all big eaters and each of them were on solids very early.
My kids never had food allergies as children. But we are starting to have a few allergies popping up now that they are adults. I don't think it's because of the food they ate as babies. People have far more food allergies since they changed all the food rules for babies. I swear that doctors seem to get things backwards so often. Take the fat issue.. We have gotten fatter and fatter as a nation since we went through the low fat food diets.
Whatever you do will be okay.
My daughter's great grandmother gave her mashed potatoes and gravy when she was two days..yes days.. old. After I started breathing again I noticed that my daughter loved them. So she was on not just cereal, but a small amount of very soft solids the day I got her home from the hospital. She was sleeping through the night at 4 weeks old, and she has no food allergies or gastro issues. She's a perfectly healthy average weight 15 year old.
Giving babies cereal to help them sleep through the night is a myth. Please check this link to learn more: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/tipcerealinbottle.htm
With my son right around 4 weeks as he was eating an 8 oz bottle and he started sleeping thru the night at the same time. My daughter was around 3 or 4 weeks as well, although she wasnt eating 8oz yet.
My first son slept through the night at 4 1/2 months while my second son did not until about 16 months, even now at 24 months he has been waking up to play almost every morning at 2AM. Both started rice cereal in small amounts at about 5 months and I don't believe that it has anything to do with babies sleeping through the night, they'll do it when they're ready.
Came home from the hospital "sleeping through the night" (the technical definition is a 5 hour stretch) and we NEVER did rice cereal, we did oatmeal at about 5 1/2months
My son slept "thru the night" (meaning 6 hours at a stretch) by 12 weeks. My daughter did so by 6 1/2 weeks. Neither was consuming any sort of solid food yet. Son was exclusively breastfed. Daughter was breastfed for about a month, then switched to formula.
Personally, I credit the "On Becoming Babywise" order of "1)feeding, 2)awake time, 3)sleep" on getting them to become such great sleepers.
They are 13 and 10 now and healthy kiddos of average/normal height and weight. :)
At the time, the recommendation was to introduce rice cereal (mixed up in a small amount of breast milk- via a spoon, not in a bottle) at 4 months. So that is what we did. With our daughter, I can't remember if the recommendation had changed or not, but I think we did about the same thing. I was less in a rush with her, though. Not being a first time mommy any longer. ;)
12 weeks mostly- and 6 months for food
My son slept through the night at 4 1/2 months. I started cereal around then but I think it was just because he had a milk allergy that I didn't know about and he was getting less breastmilk and his tummy was more full.
Don't listen to anectdotal "He was fine" stories. Do what your doctor and research says.
No cereal until 6 months. None of my kids slept through the night before 14 months.
Kids will sleep through the night when THEY are ready. My daughter was 3 mos, son was about 6 (colicky). Daughter was exclusively breastfed for 6 mos - supplemented formula til 9, and had cereal at 8 mos. Son had cereal at 7 , and was on formula for milk protien intolerance. They are all different. On those really tough nights, I'd try to "enjoy" them as they won't always be so tiny and sweet... soft music in the bedroom, and the two of us would eat or rock until sleep came again.
My son has a sleep disorder so that did not happen until we discovered that (around 2.5) - I did not introduce rice cereal or anything other than breast/formula as needed until 6 almost 7 months old.
I introduced the rice cereal to Emily's diet when an 8 ounce bottle wasn't enough to keep her full for a full 4 hours. I think that happened around 6-8 weeks. That is exactly when she started sleeping throught the night. 10 hours at a time even! It was brilliant.
Good luck! :)
**Edit-It may have been a tad longer than that but not much. I'm pretty sure by the 2 month mark she was sleeping through the night. We tried to get her on a feeding schedule. We would give her enough formula to keep her little belly full for 4 hours. Once she was hungry after only 2.5-3 hours we would up the formula in her bottle. Once we hit 8 ounces and she was still hungry after only 3hours, we added cereal. That is when she started sleeping all night for us. And just in case this sounds a little off, my DD has always been between 50-75th percentile for weight and always 75-90th percentile for height so it's not like she is a super chunk or anything. She's not 4 years old, 42 inches tall and 42 pounds. :)
My oldest didn't sleep through the night until about 16 months! He was almost exclusively breastfed. I gave him rice cereal when he was 5 months old. He loved it, and it wasn't long before we started stage 1 foods. He was a great eater.
My youngest was much younger (5 or 6 months?) when he began sleeping through the night. He was breastfed until 4 months and then formula fed. I also gave him rice cereal at 5 months, and he was not interested. I tried a few more times, but he had almost no interest in food until he was 9 months old. He's been eating like a champ ever since.
My boys are, obviously, very different kids. I'm not at all convinced that rice cereal or any other food really has an impact on whether or not a baby sleeps through the night. I really believe that they are hardwired one way or another. When our kids woke in the middle of the night, we fed them. As they got older, we just let them climb in to our bed, and we all went back to sleep.
Hope this answers your question.
My daughter started sleeping better when we switched to the gentlease formula. She started sleeping 12 hour nights around 14 weeks. During the day she eats every 2-3 hours then we have a bedtime ritual of bath, books, songs, bottle and pacifier and she is out. She is almost five months old and dr. said we could start cereal any time.
