When an ear-piercing cry shatters聽a peaceful night, go ahead and pick the baby up. Comforting an infant under three-months of age can help reduce their tendency to wake up at night as they grow older. Beyond the three-month mark, though, parents鈥� interventions may have little impact on a baby鈥檚 sleeping habits.
It takes time for babies to learn to sleep through the night. To better understand parents鈥� role in the process, Sabrina Voltaire at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, and her colleagues, followed 107 families with newborns for nine months.
Each family recorded the baby鈥檚 night waking frequency daily for one week before the child was three months, six months and nine months old. Researchers also installed cameras in families鈥� bedrooms for one night during the reporting week to observe parents鈥� interventions when babies woke up and cried.
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A prompt response
Voltaire found the babies whose parents responded promptly to their night wakings before they turned three months old experienced a faster decline in their tendency to wake at night. But after the first three months, babies showed a similar pace of sleep development whether or not parents intervened when they woke.
The findings contradict the popular 鈥渃ry it out鈥� approach 鈥� letting babies cry until they fall back to sleep. Many parenting books recommend this method under the assumption that prompt intervention when a baby cries at night may encourage infants to keep waking up. 鈥淪uch an assumption could not be substantiated in this study,鈥� Voltaire and her colleagues write.
Too much intervention also appeared to impede infants鈥� sleep development. Some parents don鈥檛 simply check on their babies at night if they begin to cry, but will聽touch them, rock them, or even pick them up whilst sleeping. Such unnecessary disruptions during the first three months slowed down their progress towards sleeping through the night.
鈥淎lmost all experts agree that sleep training, including 鈥榗ry it out鈥�, is typically inappropriate for babies less than three months of age,鈥� says Jodi Mindell at the Children鈥檚 Hospital of Philadelphia. Mindell, who was not involved in Voltaire鈥檚 study, points out that the study did not make any conclusion regarding sleep training beyond three months of age. 鈥淧arents need to be aware of the appropriateness of their responses to their babies by considering a baby鈥檚 age as well as their developmentally based skills,鈥� she says.
Sleep Medicine
