Co-sleeping

There are a lot of people for and against co-sleeping. In the US a new study launched are saying that there has been a dramatic rise in accidental strangulation and suffocation in bed since 1984. Although the study is not blaming co-sleeping there are a number of experts who do put the blame there. How does this effect you?

Co-sleeping has reached wide acclaim in the last couple of years as parents are taking babies in their beds a lot more than was previously the case. The main reasons for these are bonding and ease of breastfeeding. In some cases parents also opted for this solution in fear of SIDS. In general this is not all together bad, although it can disrupt the parents sleeping patterns, and lead to you not getting a good night's rest.

If you do have your child sleeping with you in your bed, then you need to take precautions to ensure his/her safety. A couple of these tips might help:

• Place your baby on their back when putting them to sleep as this reduces the risk of SIDS.
• Do no cover you baby's head when they are sleeping.
• Ensure you headboard or foot board have no gaps or cut-outs where your baby can get caught in.
• Your mattress should fit firmly onto the frame to make sure that there are no gaps between the mattress and frame where your baby can get trapped.
• Don't place your baby into an adult bed alone.
• Don't use pillows, duvets or quilts where babies are (co-)sleeping.
• Don't co-sleep when on medication.
• Don't place your bed close to lose hanging fabric, or cords which could strangle your baby.

It has been found as part of this study that SIDS did decrease during this period, which were ascribed to the "back to sleep" campaign which urges parents to put their infants to sleep on their back and not on their stomach.

Regardless of which avenue you choose make sure to keep your baby as safe as possible.

Source:
Kids Health – retrieved 9 February 2009 from: http://kidshealth.org/research/assb.html