Question:
The woman who operates the coffee cart at my office has several
children of her own and was one of 9 kids. The nanny who raised
her and some of her children (before dying at the ripe age of
94) gave her this tip for getting babies and small children to
sleep better at night, and Marta swears by it:
"Cut a head of iceberg lettuce in half. Bring water to a boil in
a 5-8 qt saucepan. After the water boils, drop in the half head
of lettuce and turn off the heat. Let the lettuce sit in the
boiling water until it cools to body temperature or slightly
below. While the lettuce water is cooling, bathe the child. At
the end of the bath, remove the lettuce and pour the lettuce
water over the child(head and all) as a final rinse. Baby/child
will zonk right out and sleep very well."
Anyone *ever* heard of this before? Anyone want to try it? If
you get to it before I do, let me know what happens :->!
Answer:
I've never heard of this one before.... I wonder what the link would be
between the lettuce extract and sleep though?
I'm curious to see what other responses come in!
Lettuce is a home remedy for insomnia. Most "natural" sleeping tablets eg
Natrasleep contain valerian which is an extract of lettuce.
I can't see what good pouring the extract *over* the baby would do (that is
what she recommended, isn't it?). I'd be more inclined to give the baby a
teaspoonful to drink.
And don't you think that a nice warm bath before bed would make
the baby sleepy? That always works for me, I take a hot shower
before bed, and crawl into bed and zonk right out. Interesting
theory, though.
Really? I never knew that. (happy first trimester hormones kicking in
here... I could sleep on a rock)
I'd agree with you that maybe giving a little of the liquid via an evening
bottle instead of pouring over head might be more effective.
A baby can very easily absorb extracts through their skin. In fact, I
would be concerned about the alcohol content of the extract--unless it
was prescribed by a competent physician for a real medical condition.
A warm bath would accomplish the same thing. So would a couple of
teaspoons of warm milk.
I'd definitely heard this one before - not necessarily in conjuction with
babies, but that lettuce is a sleep-inducer (I think I saw it in a self-help
book for insomnia - to eat a turkey and lettuce sandwich right before
bed).
Maybe, if breastfeeding, we could try eating lots and lots of lettuce
ourselves! Then at least, even if it doesn't get through to the baby, we'll
still have a good night's sleep! :-)
