Awake with your baby at 3am? There's a reason for that ...
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Does it ever seem like everyone else's baby is sleeping through the night while you are still woken several times for night feeds and soothing hugs?
Or do you feel like crying (or screaming!) every time you hear a mum at playgroup boasting about how her baby has slept through the night from six-weeks-old? Especially when your little one is STILL waking up for night feeds.
Don't worry - you're not alone! Research from Swansea University has challenged the idea that babies between six and 12 months should be sleeping through the night.
The study looked at 715 mums and babies, noting whether they were breastfed, how many feeds they had during the day and whether they were having solid food.
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The researchers found that 78% of babies aged 6-12 months woke up during the night at least once, and 61% of these also woke up for at least one night feed.
The study also showed that being formula fed as opposed to breastfed made no difference to sleep patterns. And neither did how many feeds they had during the day, or if they were having solid foods.
Which means, according to researchers, that it's totally normal for babies to wake up in the night.
Dr Amy Brown, Associate Professor in the Department of Public Heath at Swansea University, said, 'The findings are very interesting as they firstly challenge the idea that babies should be sleeping through the night once they are past a few weeks old and secondly that what you feed babies will help their sleep.
'There is a common belief that formula milk or giving more solid foods will help your baby sleep better and this study shows this isn’t true.
'We did find that mothers who were breastfeeding fed their baby more at night but this could be because breastfeeding is a simple way to get your baby back to sleep quickly! The babies who were formula fed still woke up, they just weren’t fed.'
Dr Brown added, 'We hope that our findings are of comfort to new mothers who have a baby who is still waking in the night, in showing them that many other babies are waking too.'
Given our new sleep survey found over half of parents are woken in the night by their babies and children, this is comfort indeed. Coffee, anyone?
