To sleep or to breastfeed: Associations between feeding method and sleep in infants and children.

AIM: This study aimed to understand the association between feeding method, specifically breastfeeding versus non-breastfeeding, at 6 and 12 months and infant sleep over the first 3 years of life. METHODS: A sample of 444 mother-infant dyads from the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment cohort were analysed. Based on retrospective maternal reports between 3-24 months, infants' breastfeeding status was determined at 6 and 12 months. Nocturnal sleep duration, longest period of consecutive sleep, and total sleep over 24 h were measured by maternal reports at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months. RESULTS: Generalized Estimating Equations revealed no significant association between feeding status, both at 6 and 12 months, and nocturnal sleep duration or total sleep over 24 h between 6-36 months (p > 0.05). However, breastfeeding at both 6 and 12 months was associated with shorter periods of consecutive sleep, at 6 and 12 months (p < 0.05) but not at 24 and 36 months (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that breastfeeding seems to be associated with more infant sleep fragmentation but not with total sleep duration in early infancy. However, this sleep fragmentation does not persist into later infancy and early toddlerhood.

Aiming for transformations in power: lessons from intersectoral CBPR with public housing tenants (Québec, Canada).

Intersectoral collaborations are recommended as effective strategies to reduce health inequalities. People most affected by health inequalities, as are people living in poverty, remain generally absent from such intersectoral collaborations. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects can be leveraged to better understand how to involve people with lived experience to support both individual and community empowerment. In this paper, we offer a critical reflection on a CBPR project conducted in public housing in Québec, Canada, that aimed to develop intersectoral collaboration between tenants and senior executives from four sectors (housing, health, city and community organizations). This single qualitative case study design consisted of fieldwork documents, observations and semi-structured interviews. Using the Emancipatory Power Framework (EPF) and the Limiting Power Framework (LPF), we describe examples of types of power and resistance shown by the tenants, the intersectoral partners and the research team. The discussion presents lessons learned through the study, including the importance for research teams to reflect on their own power, especially when aiming to reduce health inequalities. The paper concludes by describing the limitations of the analyses conducted through the EPF-LPF frameworks and suggestions to increase the transformative power of future studies.