Is your baby having trouble sleeping through the night? Here are 3 ways food may be affecting your baby's z's.
FRUIT AND SLEEP -
1. Fruit in the later part of the day or after dinner, can result in a bowel movement around 5am. If your baby does poop at 5am, this window is also where the drive to sleep is especially weak, so going back to sleep would be pretty much impossible. If you are stuck with a little one having a bowel movement at this time, move fruits to earlier in the day to see if it helps. There is also one vegetable that I have noticed can cause the same issue and that is sweet potatoes. I'm not an expert in nutrition/ diet, but it must be something to do with the amount of sugars in these foods, that ferment or break down over night, resulting in this issue.
GOING FROM ONE EXTREME TO ANOTHER -
2. Lack of fibre in a diet can result in constipation especially as you transition your baby from a liquid diet to one with some solid food in. Sore tummies can affect both overnight sleep and the onset of sleep. Maintaining good fluid intake in the day is necessary to avoid getting backed up day or night. Fibre absorbs water as it passes through the digestive system, making the passing of bowel movements easier.
Most children don't drink massive amounts of water in one go, but small sips throughout the day is suggested. Especially when you introduce foods, it's good practice to offer water with any foods to just normalize its presence.
AVOID ISSUES WITH SLEEP WHEN INTRODUCING NEW FOODS -
3. Slow and steady is best! Although getting your baby to test and taste out new foods is exciting, if you go hell for leather, you will likely cause an issue in your babies gut, which will cause either tummy ache or a little trumpet trousers over night. It's also harder to know which foods, if any, are aggravating your infant.
It's always good practice to add new foods into your child's repertoire early in the day (think lunch) and not right before your little one goes to bed (dinner). If they are going to have a reaction to something, you want to know about it by observing them. Reactions can be both mild to severe and in some cases life threatening. -The range of symptoms can swing from a small rash around the mouth without any other discomfort to the more troubling signs of vomiting, swollen lips and or eyes, explosive pooping and difficulty breathing.
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