2023-08-08 02:06:39
The Pediatrics working group of the Spanish Sleep Society wanted to highlight the “intimate” relationship between breastfeeding and sleep: “One conditions the other and vice versa.”
For many years (and still today) it has not been strange to hear the statement “a bottle and sleeping all night”, which came to be the embodiment of a very widespread idea: that children fed with artificial milk slept more and better than those fed with breast milk. “They are urban legends that come from the 60s, 70s and 80s of the last century, which were the golden years of artificial lactation, when it was considered a sign of status that also improved the child’s quality of life. and its development. Scientific evidence, however, shows us that the reality is just the opposite,” says Gonzalo Pin Arboledas, member of the Pediatrics working group of the Spanish Sleep Society (SES).
And what does that scientific evidence say? That breastfed children sleep more and better than children fed with artificial milk. And that lactating mothers also benefit from this relationship, who, although it is generally believed otherwise, sleep about half an hour more per night and have longer periods of deep sleep than mothers who choose formula as a method of feeding their babies. children.
“Breastfeeding has two fundamental advantages. On the one hand, it presents a different composition throughout the day. At night, for example, it has more melatonin content and a series of nucleotides that promote baby sleep. In addition, on the other hand, breastfeeding, through this aforementioned changing composition, favors the child to acquire and consolidate his sleep patterns and biological clock earlier and with fewer complications”, argues Pin Arboledas.
Breastfeeding and sleep: an intimate relationship
Between August 1 and 7, World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated and the Pediatrics working group of the Spanish Sleep Society wanted to take advantage of the event to highlight the “intimate” relationship between breastfeeding and sleep. “One conditions the other and vice versa, and this relationship must be taken from an evolutionary perspective,” explains Gonzalo Pin.
In this sense, the expert points out that from birth and during the first semester of life approximately, the child presents a coordinated biological rhythm of sleep and lactation “that is fed back approximately every 2-4 hours, time slots in which the child it needs periods of feeding and periods of sleep.”
From the sixth month onwards, a series of physiological changes begin to take place in the child (he remains seated, develops sucking-swallowing coordination that allows him to start swallowing another series of foods) that influence the sleep-breastfeeding relationship: “ The maturation that occurs at this time, together with the introduction of complementary feeding, indicate that it is time to take the step between breastfeeding on demand and a “more social” breastfeeding that, at approximately one year of age, should be frame within the circadian rhythm of 24 hours a day“.
According to the expert, it is “very important” that both health professionals and mothers are aware and aware of this evolution that occurs in the relationship between breastfeeding and sleep so that “a dependency that makes breastfeeding go from be a favorer of a good rest to become an element that could hinder sleep. In this way, in addition to favoring the harmonious development of sleep-wake rhythms, we favor the maintenance of breastfeeding within the target time set by the WHO and by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP)”. M.T.T./ L.D.B.(SyM)
#Breastfed #babies #sleep #Health #Medicine