New research suggests that if your baby cries too much
or can't sleep through the night, it might have something
to do with how often you hold her.
Babies held for a whopping 15 hours to 16 hours a day cried
the most at night and had more trouble sleeping when they
were 3 months old, while those held the least were heavier
criers at two weeks and five weeks. Parents who took an
in-between approach, meanwhile, had quieter babies in both
early and later weeks in the first months of life.
The approaches each have "different costs and benefits,"
said study author Ian St. James-Roberts, a researcher at
the University of London.
St. James-Roberts and colleagues studied three groups of
parents -- 275 total -- who treated their babies differently
in the first weeks of life.
One group of parents chose to stay very close to their
babies at the age of 10 days, holding them 80 percent of
the time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and responding immediately
to crying. Many of these parents slept with their babies.
The second group of parents lived in London and was the
most distant from their babies: They held them an average
of 8.5 hours a day. According to St. James-Roberts, this
is similar to the behavior of American parents.
The third group, made up of parents from Copenhagen, Denmark,
held their babies an average of 9.75 hours.
The researchers then examined the crying and sleeping habits
of the babies.
The study findings appear in the June 2006 issue of Pediatrics.
The London babies fussed and cried 50 percent more each
24 hours than the other two groups at 10 days and five weeks.
The study authors wrote that this supports suspicions that
British child-rearing habits lead to more crying in infants.
At 12 weeks, the parents who held their infants the most
were more likely to report that they slept for five hours
or more a night without waking or crying. They reported
an average of five nights of smooth sleeping in the previous
week. The parents who held their babies the least reported
an average of 4.6 nights of carefree sleep, vs. a lower
3.4 average nights among the mid-range group.
Overall, the study authors report that babies still cried
quite a lot no matter what their parents did. This adds
"to evidence that bouts of unsoothable crying, which
are common in early infancy, are not much affected by variations
in parenting, providing reassurance that this aspect of
infant crying is not parents' fault."
Dr. George J. Cohen, a pediatrician and editor-in-chief
of the American Academy of Pediatrics' "Guide to Your
Child's Sleep," said the findings sound reasonable,
although the research only looked at select groups of babies
and parents and "may not be universally applicable."
What to do? Be flexible about your baby's sleeping patterns,
Cohen advised. "Parents' most common 'mistakes' are
not knowing the variety of normal patterns and therefore
trying to push the baby into sleep patterns that the baby
may not be ready for," he said.
Also, he said, while "different parenting styles may
produce different infant behaviors," babies still have
individual differences. "Parents should not blame themselves
if their infants seem not to adapt to parent desires for
sleeping," he added.
