Do Babies Need Solid Foods to Sleep?

Many parents (myself included) know of the woes that come from a child who seemingly refuses to sleep. Whether it’s the daytime naps or night time sleeps, he just would NOT stay down! At six months of age, I was overjoyed to try starting him on solid foods, in hopes that this would keep him sleeping longer at night.

But did the solids help? Yes and no. After stuffing my son full of mashed bananas and apples and pears, he would usually enter into a “food coma” within the hour. Dinner time was at 5pm, he’d crash at 6pm, and then unfortunately be wide awake yet again between 9 and 10pm and ready for another feeding. I began to realize that unless I felt like overfeeding my son every night at 10pm (which is an unhealthy habit for them to get into in the first place), feeding him solids as a sleep remedy was not really doing either of us a favor.

Yes, being sleep deprived as long as you probably have been at this point is really wearing on you and yes, you’ll do just about anything at this point to get your child to sleep for more than a couple hours – I’ve been there! But the most important thing for us to do right now is to foster healthy behaviors in our child and to be consistent. I promise you, if you are keeping the same bedtime routine each night, your child will (eventually) sleep through the night.

Sleep Help

Here are some other things that parents try to get their child to sleep

• Warm baths followed by a massage and a warm, snuggly sleeper
• Co-sleeping (controversial, I know; but I do this and it works wonderfully)
• Feed your baby often throughout the day, rather than stuffing them full at night (keeping feedings to every 2-3 hours will keep their tummies full until the next morning)
• Go for a car ride! My sister could not get her little girl to sleep unless she drove her around for a good 10 to 20 minutes
• Cuddle up and sing to your child

Fact of the matter is every child has a different preference on how to go to bed. I have known children who absolutely love to be alone in their crib and will sleep for 12 hours straight, and then there are children like mine who won’t sleep any where but mommy and daddy’s bed. Start by figuring out what your child’s needs are and what is keeping him or her from falling asleep. Form a plan for how you can accommodate them (i.e. some children need to fall asleep on a parent and then be put to bed rather than being placed in their crib while they’re awake). Most importantly, don’t give up. You will see changes faster than you think!

photo by Ronny Satzke