Descriptive figures for differences in parenting and infant night-time distress in the first three months of age

Abstract

AimTo provide descriptive figures for infant distress and associated parenting at night in normal London home environments during the first three months of age.BackgroundMost western infants develop long night-time sleep periods by four months of age. However, 30% of infants in many countries sleep for short periods and cry out on waking in the night: the most common type of infant sleep behaviour problem. Preventive interventions may help families and improve services. There is evidence that ‘limit-setting’ parenting, which is common in western cultures, supports the development of settled infant night-time behaviour. However, a recent review has challenged this and argued that this form of parenting risks distressing infants. This study describes limit-setting parenting as practiced in London, compares it with ‘infant-cued’ parenting and measures the associated infant distress.MethodsLongitudinal infrared video, diary and questionnaire observations comparing a General-Community (n=101) group and subgroups with a Bed-Sharing (n=19) group on measures of infant and parenting behaviours at night.FindingsGeneral-Community parents took longer to detect and respond to infant waking and signalling, and to begin feeding, compared with the highly infant-cued care provided by Bed-Sharing parents. The average latency in General-Community parents’ responding to infant night-time waking was 3.5 min, during which infants fuss/cried for around 1 min. Compared with Bed-Sharing parenting, General-Community parenting was associated with increased infant distress of around 30 min/night at two weeks, reducing to 12 min/night by three months of age. However, differences in infant distress between General-Community subgroups adopting limit-setting versus infant-cued parenting were not large or statistically significant at any age. The figures provide descriptive evidence about limit-setting parenting which may counter some doubts about this form of parenting and help parents and professionals to make choices.

Video evidence that parenting methods predict which infants develop long night-time sleep periods by three months of age

“…Table 1 in St James-Roberts et al . ( 2016 ) provides detailed recruitment, participant demographic and missing data for General-Community and Bed-Sharing groups.…”

“…Analyses in a linked report examine whether limit-setting parenting is associated with infant distress at night (St James-Roberts et al ., 2016 ). In summary, infants in the limit-setting group had around 30 min more distress per night at two weeks (2W), reducing to 12–13 min per night by three months (3M) of age, compared with Bed-Sharing infants.…”

The Possums Infant Sleep Program: parents' perspectives on a novel parent-infant sleep intervention in Australia

“…[16][17][18][19][20] It may even be claimed that parents who provide cued care are vulnerable personalities with 'intrusive' parenting styles who struggle with 'limit-setting'. 21,22 However, this anticipatory guidance results in anxiety, stress and self-doubt even amongst parents who have not previously perceived a problem with their infant's sleep. [23][24][25] We and others suggest that the dominance of the FWB lens influences the questions posed and the interpretation of data in infant sleep research.…”

The association between baby care books that promote strict care routines and infant feeding, night‐time care, and maternal–infant interactions

“…This is not just limited to bed sharing. Infants who sleep in a different room are less likely to be breastfed, albeit causality cannot be determined; infants who are not breastfed may be easier to place in another room, or placing infants in another room may damage breastfeeding (St James‐Roberts, Roberts, Hovish, & Owen, ).…”