{"id":1746,"date":"2022-01-02T23:21:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-02T23:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/letmommysleep.com\/blog\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2026-09-11T19:24:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:24:37","slug":"top-3-infant-sleep-myths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/letmommysleep.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/02\/top-3-infant-sleep-myths\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 3 Infant Sleep Myths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three of the most common infant sleep myths \u2014 rice cereal in the bottle, gas drops for soothing, and keeping baby up late \u2014 are not just ineffective, they can work against you. Here’s what the evidence actually says and what works instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Parental Urban Legends <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We hear them at playgroups and baby showers, see them on message boards and read them on medicine bottles.\u00a0 Parental Urban Legends add more confusion to new parents\u2019 already overloaded brains and with no basis in fact, they persist like Mikey and Pop Rocks.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth<\/em> #1. Putting rice cereal in baby\u2019s bottle will help baby sleep longer<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is absolutely no evidence that shows that thickening milk or formula with cereal will make baby sleep longer at night. \u00a0In fact, the most cited study<\/a> on this topic, disproves this parental urban legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our desperation to \u201ctank baby up\u201d and buy an extra hour of rest, it\u2019s often thought that a fuller stomach = more sleep.  This is true when we give baby milk before bed to ensure that s\/he doesn\u2019t wake unnecessarily from hunger, but the addition of rice cereal to thicken a feed does not help baby sleep longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a very real, evidence based movement to completely remove rice cereal from babies\u2019 diet but that is for another post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why it\u2019s become a parental urban legend:<\/strong>  When parents introduce rice cereal in baby\u2019s bottle, it is typically at the 8-12 week mark, when parents are at their wits end with getting up 3-4 times overnight.  The fact is, baby is naturally sleeping longer stretches at this time anyway.  Thickening formula receives the credit for what baby is doing naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to Do to Help Baby Sleep Longer<\/strong>: Time is the real answer to allowing babies to sleep longer stretches at night as the more baby grows, the more food their tummies can hold, keeping hunger from naturally waking them. But there are a few things that actually help newborns and infants sleep more soundly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n