Experts have warned against a “bizarre” social media trend encouraging parents to feed their babies with spoonfuls of butter to help them sleep.
Clips of so-called “butter before bed” has trended on TikTok and Instagram and has racked up millions of views, with influencers posting videos of them giving chunks of butter to their young ones.
It appears to have started in the US, when “paediatric natural doctor” Elana Roumell said butter before bed helped ensure her son slept throughout the night, with the video viewed over 200,000 times.
Child nutritionists and sleep experts have argued however that there is no evidence that butter helps babies sleep, and that it could potentially pose a choking risk.
Charlotte Stirling-Reed, a leading baby nutritionist, said that social media platforms are “rife with misinformation” and that butter, which is high in salt and saturated fat, is not recommended.
“Additionally, the texture and slipperiness of butter can pose a choking risk for babies who are still developing their eating skills. Incorporating butter into cooking or spreading a thin layer on toast is perfectly fine. However, offering large chunks of butter directly from a spoon is not advisable,” she said.
She also stressed that it was “perfectly normal” for babies to wake during the night and that there were no specific foods that had been proven to help parents tackle this issue.
The NHS advises parents to start introducing their children to solid foods at the age of around six months old.Daisy Ferns, the founder of the Parenting Experts Academy, said it is important parents do not trust “quick fixes” posted on social media.
She added there was no scientific evidence to support this idea, and could have the opposite effect as it makes “the digestive system work harder overnight”.
“The vast majority of childhood sleep challenges stem from behavioural, developmental, or routine-related factors rather than simple environmental ‘hacks’. Even if a trick like this seems to help in the short term — although I wouldn’t recommend trying it — it won’t address the root causes of disrupted sleep.”
