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I suppose it was only a matter of time. Tired parents everywhere have long been hoping for a way to help their babies sleep longer. The infant products market is loaded with gadgets designed to soothe and comfort and lull your baby to sleep. Books promising techniques to encourage sleeping through the night fly off the shelves. Parenting chat boards are filled with heated discussions about co-sleeping and "crying it out." But we can all rest easy now because Enfamil has provided a product that guarantees a RestFull night's sleep.
That's right, the noble formula industry has once again come to our rescue with a magic potion. This formula "thickens gently in baby's tummy and digests slowly" providing a "natural way to help keep your baby feeling satisfied."
So what is this gentle, naturally thickening agent that promises uninterrupted sleep? Rice starch. That's right, they've just saved you the trouble of adding rice cereal to your baby's bottle.
Although research shows no difference in sleep patterns between babies given cereal in a bottle and babies just given formula, millions of parents and grandparents will swear that a little cereal in the bed time bottle makes babies sleep better. And what's wrong with that? Plenty.
First off, SIDS research is clear that the deeper a baby sleeps, the higher is his risk of SIDS. Researchers theorize that one reason the "back to sleep" campaign has been so successful in reducing the SIDS rate is that babies do not sleep as deeply when they are on their backs. Babies who sleep too deeply may not rouse when their breathing is compromised.
Another problem with rice cereal induced sleep is that it doesn't allow the baby's body to regulate the nutrients it needs. A baby's brain grows dramatically in the first year of life and requires round-the-clock nutrition to sustain this growth. A baby that is filled up on empty calories is not taking in the nutrients it needs to sustain healthy brain growth and development.
I know that parents want to hurry up the sleeping through the night milestone. I know because I've been there. I know the mind-numbing fatigue that comes from tending to a baby's night time needs. But the fact is, babies require our care around the clock. There are no shortcuts through infancy. It goes by too fast as it is. When we agreed to have babies we implicitly agreed to do our best to meet the needs of those babies - even if it means we may not be as rested as we'd like.
If you are struggling with your baby's night time needs, check out this article for more appropriate ways to help your child sleep.
For more info:
- Kellymom.com's article on sleeping through the night has wonderful information on what to expect in terms of infant sleep.
- Dr. Sears offers 8 Infant Sleep Facts Every Parent Should Know.
- La Leche League International answers the question "When will my baby sleep through the night?"
Comments
What a bad idea. Parents just need to understand that babies are going to wake up more often than we do, and that it's just for a short season in our lives.
This product needs to be removed from shelves immediately in my opinion.
Great article about an alarming new product - you know, they used to put brandy in babies bottles to help them sleep. Thank goodness we are so much more advanced these days.
Reality check: babies are not scaled down adults. If they were meant to sleep longer than they do, then nature would have arranged it. NORMAL babies wake at night to feed for the first year and even longer.
When I contacted Mead Johnson I was told that RestFull infant formula is actually the exact same formula as Enfamil AR for reflux, just with a different label and new indication for use. The possible increased risk for SIDS was not studied. This bit of deception should not go unnoticed. You can contact the Food and Drug Administration's(FDA)Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. You can contact the Federal Trade Commission and register a complaint about how the labeling of RestFull does not tell consumers that it is the exact same formula as Enfamil AR, nor does the label say anything about the hazards of causing young babies to sleep deeply and longer during the night. Hundreds of letters to both agencies would help get this issue in front of government regulators.
Similac makes the exact formula also, called Similac RS ( which stands for rice starch, not restfull sleep) So I am sure they too will be in line to promote it for helping babies "rest" if the Enfamil marketing takes off.
This is appalling! Babies are not mini-grownups, they aren't designed to be abandoned for a full night. Just wrong, pure wrong.
Great article, but Similac's formula is not for this purpose. It is to "R"educe "S"pit up. I know, my baby was on it for a time. Nothing on my label says they are promoting (tricking people) like Enfamil is.
In a "free market system", which I support, companies will always market products to make a profit - for better or worse. From my college American Heritage class I remember the "buyer beware." We have to be the ever so smart consumer in an open system. I have five children and breastfed them all. I ranged from 4 to 10 mths with each of them. I had the greatest pediatrician with whom my youngest two children still see. He always encouraged me to breastfeed but with a severe health condition I needed a formula sooner than I wanted with my youngest. I will never forget what he told me about the two main infant formula companies, "Enfamil (Mead Johnson) is a marketing company and Similac (Ross Products/Abbott Nutrition) is a research and development company." I must have had a puzzled look because he went on, "Sam, when you want the hippest fashion go to a marketing company; when you want the best nutrition for your child breastfeed. And, if you can't breastfeed turn to Similac."
I have used and will continue to use restful. Babies who are fatigued from not getting the proper amount of rest are not functioning and growing properly. Most growth occurs during sleep. Without adequate rest, the brain's ability to function quickly deteriorates. Just because the baby is asleep does not mean that you have abandoned them. What an odd school of thought. You should continue to periodically check on your baby regardless. And hey - If your not sleeping well at night guess what, when you do finally get off to sleep it will be a "DEEP SLEEP". ie - babies that are waking 3-4 times a night at 3-4-5-6 months will probably have at least 1 - 2 nights of Deep sleep per week. Also deep sleep is not determined by how long a person is sleeping. I have slept a full 8 hours and not reached a full deep sleep, still hearing everything around me.
Lastly - remember Similac was taken off the shelves for a while for its effects on babies eating habits & promoting obesity. Do your research!
This is a good article. The WIC Nutritionists in Florida are already on a letter writing campaign. This is the same formula as the Enfamil AR which is given to babies with severe, true reflux, and should be given under MD supervision! The fact that you can now buy your Enfamil AR without guilt or worry OTC is just Enfamil telling parents what they should do and how they should feed their baby. This is also saying that babies who wake every 1-4 hours are somehow ABNORMAL and need to be full and fixed. The crap about babies who wake too often don't grow well is just what it is crap.
If you wouldn't put rice cereal in the bottle, then don't use this! Its a slap to our faces cause we spend hours telling parents not to do it, and now we have to tell parents that this is another Enfamil Formula that WIC DOES NOT Provide for you!
Its not nutritionally appropriate and should be used for reflux only! Its not natural, its an inferior food, and Enfamil is a lie! I'm sorry, it is what it is.
We have had our baby on Similac RS for two months. It helps reduce spit up but she is still waking through the night to eat. That's just what babies do. If you don't like getting up in the middle of the night, maybe you should get fixed so you don't have any more kids.
Excellent article! I'm passing it on.
Alicia Bayer, Mankato AP Examiner
www.examiner.com/x-23788-Mankato-Attachment-Parenting-Examiner
Why not just breastfeed..you don't have to worrie about what awful things formula can do to your baby then..and it's free and also reduces the risks of SIDS and Stomach problems ..and before the debate on.."well I tryed to..but just couldn't"..i'm not saying that EVERYONE can breastfeed..but it is only 2-3% of mothers that can't..And That is a very small percentage..so what is everyone elses excuse?..
I am one of the 2-3% of women who simply could not breast feed. I tried for 3 months to fight a breast hypoplasia diagnosis and breast feed my child. Water, herbs, round the clock nursing and pumping with 4 different pumps including a hospital rental, a supplemental nursing system and even domperidone and reglan did very little to increase my supply. I did not give up until despite everything my milk dried up when my child was 3.5 months old. I had a frustrated baby who never got enough milk nursing despite continuing to try and began refusing to latch and he was a wonderful latcher at birth. I had a supportive doctor and lactation consultant. My body just couldn't do it and now a month later it still hurts thinking about it. I wish I could "just breastfeed". My child is on similac advance but he is cuddled and loved while he eats. And he prefers mama to give him his bottle at night rather than daddy and I think it's because we did try nursing for 3.5 months.
I can't get over the faulty logic behind an article that first states that the product could not possibly operate as promised, and then bemoans the damage that would be caused if the product were to actually deliver....if it doesn't actually work, then there is no danger, right? I fed my daughter a couple of ounces of this, and I didn't really notice a huge difference. Then again, she's also slept on her tummy from day one with a big fluffy blanket draped over her and her white-noise giraffe, so what do I know about SIDS? I would be interested to find out how many cases of SIDS occurred while the child's parents were genuinely following the suggested guidelines.
On a personal note, I think its hilarious that you all whine about how tired you are because you place your babies on their backs and would NEVER even THINK about feeding your precious little ones something as "dangerous" as rice-starch-enriched baby formula (aren't you martyrs all breast-feeding anyway?) because it "could" increase the risk of your babies dying, yet you all seem to have LOADS of time to stand around thinking up problems that don't really exist, forming committees and action groups, blogging about your "campaigns" to "educate" otherwise adequate and loving parents about the "dangers" of a restful sleep, a full tummy, or laying on your side or belly to sleep, and attacking companies who are attempted to create products to assuage your ever-evolving "needs" as ego-driven parents. You expend so much energy convincing yourselves and the world that you are superior....and why? What good does it cause? This is why every single piece of equipment that I own for my child is covered front to back with warning labels; because well-intentioned people who want to protect children have been replaced with ego-maniacal safety-Nazis with very little grasp on reality (I've been there, I really have, ladies...blah blah blah)....
You have cranky, hateful, worldly kids with diaper rashes, allergies, over-bites, and braces who have never ever eaten a bug, slept outside, ridden something with wheels (without putting on $200 worth of pads and a helmet first, anyway) or stuffed their faces with cake ("Organic, gluten-free, lactose-free, sugar-free, hormone-free, free-range ONLY for MY little Johnny!") You're brats. All of you. You're so utterly frightened at the prospect of just doing the best you can that you feel the need to judge other parents, compare their methods to your own, and then scare the crap out of those of us who are simply having a better time at parenting than you are.
If you're having a hard time or you're scared, then say so. Its ok. I don't actually ENJOY parenting for about 2 hours each day (laundry, and bedtime) so its OK to say that you don't like it. But don't create YET ANOTHER "threat" to the safety and well-being of with this stupid rice-enriched formula, that you have a CHOICE not to buy, just to have something to do. I'm too tired, and my daughter is too happy for me to read one more article about how some brilliant mother has uncovered a marketplace conspiracy to murder our children in their sleep. Do you people realize that over 100,000 children WORLDWIDE actually died of something REAL last night: starvation????
"I would never (__________________) to/for/at/with/without my child"...is the first sign that you're stuck on yourselves and your own perceived parental brilliance. Just hush.
Thank you for this!!!!!!!!! Best comment on this article. =D
Ummm.. Can we be friends? Please? Because I love you for putting these idiots in their place.
THANK YOU! I don't think I could have found the words to express how much this article ticked me off. You did it for me. :)
I too really appreciate you saying what you've said. I spent the first 5 months of my daughters life parenting with the attachment parenting style (co-slept, exclusively breastfed on demand, ran to my dd at any sound of unhappiness). However, after 5 1/2 month I needed a change! Now - I strictly formula feed, she sleeps in her crib in her preferred position (her tummy), and I even let her cry it out at times. I don't think that the attachment parenting style is wrong, and I don't think the way I am parenting now is wrong. What I do think is wrong is the way that many previous posters who are pro 'breastfeeding is the only way' shared their "opinion" of what they think is right and wrong.
So - for all those who are having trouble sharing their opinions without judgement, please follow the three sayings below that I try to live by. If you do, I bet people will be more likely to hear you out.
1. To each his own
2. Whatever works!
3. Try everything once, and sometimes twice before you form an opinion about it (within reason, obviously)
also - I tried the restfull formula last night and guess what!? My daughter didn't die! She slept very peacefully for 11 hours.
I totally agree! My little girl has been using the Enfamil Resfull forumal for about three weeks now. & it actually does make her sleep longer at night. She wakes up two or three times between 7pm & 6am. Once for a bottle, and the rest just to be rocked back to sleep. && We constantly check up on her, & her crib is in our room.
I see no problem with parents wanting their child to sleep through out the night. My little girl is much happier during the day now. Not to mention she stays awake longer and is fully active, and is right where she needs to be with her development skills.
Also, my grandmother will tell you that she had my aunt and mother sleeping COMPLETELY through the night by putting cereal in their last bottle of the night.
My grandmother always tells me that you can't listen to what every Tom, Dick, & Harry tells you. Or what every freakin book tells you. You have to do what is right for you, and what works for your baby.
So untill you show me a report of parents feeding their child Enfamil's Restfull formula and having passed away from a case of SIDS, and they believe that the leading cause of death is said formula, stop acting like Holier-Than-Thou parents who know completely everything, and do everything right and by the book.
Thanks for the comments mentioned in the last 1/4 of this blog. I have tried to bf and did for the first month or so of my little girl's life and I felt terriable that I just couldn't produce what my daughter needed to eat. I have made the transition of formula and supplemental formula and eventually she will be strictly on formula in a few months. My life revolves around pumping it seems like and if I was producing more I wouldn't care but I'm just not and its not worthwhile to my family if I'm pumping 1/2 the day and can't parent my child the way that I want to. So kudos to the moms who do what's best for them and don't feel bullied by self-rightous moms on a power trip!
I a confused - does this product work or doesn't it? On one hand you are saying that it is a waste of money since babies will still to their own sleep pattern no matter what but then you say that if you use this product you baby will sleep so deep that he/she will never wake up. Huh? I get what you are saying but this whole article is chalk full of fallacies on contradictions. FYI - formula in general is believed to 1. stick in a baby stomache so that baby will feel full and 2. be filled with "empty calories" and lacks the "nutrients" that are believed to be required for growth. (hence the reason DHA is added) In fact, for this reason ALL formula is believed to have a link to SIDS which is why breastfeeding is strongly encouraged as a way to lower the risk. Finally, SIDS is not sleep apnea. The deep sleep in which a baby stops breathing that you described is apnea and this is usually linked to genetics or severe respiratory illness. It has nothing to do with what a baby eats.
I use Enfamil AR during the day and RestFull at night, there is a difference, my daughter sleeps better, and it also stays down a little better. I love restfull, the first night we used it she slept ALL night.
I have exclusively breastfed my son for 4 months and decided to go full formula about 3 weeks ago we give him his cereal then a bath and then Enfamil Restfull and he sleeps from 830 at night to 700 in the morning! It truly does work and I am glad that have made it! My son does stay awake more during the day because he slept so well the night before he always wakes up so happy and smiling! Thank you "So Over Your Santimonious Crap" I couldn't agree more!
This is the best thing that ever happened to me, and Im really pissed off now because I cant find it anywhere, My child has slept on his stomach since the day he was born, and never died of SIDS, sorry but who do you people think you are trashing something that ACTUALLY works for some people, no ever said you had to use and or buy it! DUH
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