Sharing the Bed with Baby

The issue of co-sleeping with baby is one that doesn’t come up in our household. For us, it just isn’t something we would be comfortable with. When he comes home with us the little one will sleep in our room in his own bassinet until he’s old enough to go into his own crib.

Other parents decide that the best place for baby is in bed with them. Parents worldwide share their adult beds with their infants and find the practice increases their closeness to their child, makes feeding easier, and helps sync their sleep patterns with the baby’s.

Experts Say No

In North America, the practice is generally frowned upon by those “in the know”. The reasons given by the likes of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) include:

Bed-sharing increases the risk of SIDS when one or both adults is a smoker

Bed-sharing increases the risk of suffocation because the baby can become wedged between the mattress and headboard/nightstand

Bed-sharing increases the risk of suffocation because the adult can roll onto the baby during sleep

· Co-sleeping increases the risk of strangulation when the baby is placed in a bed containing a headboard with bars or gaps wide enough for part of their body to become entangled

Experts Say Maybe

Interestingly, I was able to find a report from the AAP that suggests research data neither condemns nor endorses bed-sharing. You need a subscription to view the full report, but you can find a link to it below.

In short, research data indicates there are risks associated with bed sharing, while conflicting research indicates the practice is safe.

Does Common Sense Say Yes?

Let’s consider the issue from a practical standpoint. The number of babies born in North America over the last 10 years is in the millions. The number of babies who are known to have died as a result of bed-sharing is in the hundreds. Just looking at the numbers, I wouldn’t be inclined to see this issue as a danger to my child, particularly given the positive developmental opportunities that exist here.

However, if even one baby were to be hurt, I know that I wouldn’t want it to be mine so regardless of the numbers and arguments, every parent has to decide what they feel is best. But I offer this list of preventative measures to help keep baby safe:

1. Don’t smoke. The health advantages of quitting notwithstanding, I won’t go on about the risk to the child or repeat the ‘quit now message’ we’ve heard so much it lost all meaning. Just don’t smoke – if you do smoke, don’t co-sleep.
2. Always place baby on her back.
3. Never co-sleep in a waterbed.
4. Make sure your headboard (and footboard, if you have one) is of solid construction and doesn’t feature holes for baby to become stuck in.
5. Make sure your bed frame is tight and secure, and there are no spaces large enough for baby to fall into. The two-finger rule that applies to car seat installation applies here.
6. Never sleep next to your child if you have consumed any kind of drug, including cold medicine and alcohol. Your body will not be as intuitively aware of the baby’s presence in your sleep and you risk smothering your child.
7. Keep pillows and soft blankets away from baby as these pose a choking hazard.
8. Get your doctor on-board with your plan. Even if your pediatrician is against bed sharing, s/he may be comfortable enough to give the green-light if you can convince him that your setup is sound.

A Middle Ground – Side sleepers

I would suggest the use of side sleeper (sometimes known as “Co Sleeper”) beds as the middle ground for parents who are considering co-sleeping with their infants but are concerned about the possible risks. These products are essentially a bassinet with three rails that attach to the side of the adult bed. Babies and parents gain the benefits that come from bonding and sharing a sleeping space, while also enjoying the protection of personal sleep environments that are tailored to their softness requirements.

Arm’s Reach (http://www.armsreach.com/) is one company that specializes in the construction of co-sleepers, Baby Bunk is another (http://www.babybunk.com/).

Useful/Source Links:

http://aapgrandrounds.aappublications.org/cgi/content/extract/8/4/46

http://www.armsreach.com/

http://www.babybunk.com/

Tactile Pacifiers

We put our kids in all manner of embarrassing outfits. Our parents did the same to us. Do we remember? I hope not…

Here’s another pacifier to perpetuate the madness : the lil’ vampire pacifier.

A Beginning

A new month, a new blog.

Welcome to the Parent’s Nook, a blog about the trials and tribulations of parenthood. I hope to fill this site with a wealth of information over the coming months that other parents and parents-to-be will find useful. For the time being, I offer this “first-post” cliché article.

By way of introductions, I’d like to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about myself (I promise to keep that to a minimum!) and where I come from when approaching content for this site.

As of writing, I am a father-to-be. The little one is due to arrive at any moment now, and both I and my wife are simultaneously elated, terrified, prepared, and totally clueless when faced with what the coming years has in store for us. My wife is from a large family with a lot of children, I am not.

I noticed that almost as soon as my wife announced she was pregnant, all kind of lost relatives and otherwise strangers began to crawl out of the woodwork and offer ‘advice’ on how to conduct our new selves – the least polite among them simply point out all the ways in which we are wrong about absolutely everything. When you throw in the conflicting media messages about child safety, nutrition, BPA problems in the bottles, and industry-wide recalls on every kind of equipment, it becomes difficult to filter out what is really good advice and what is fluff.

This blog is my escape from all of that bustle. I will disseminate what I have learned and the conclusions I have come to at the end of the day. I am not a doctor, a professional childcare giver, nor anyone else with authority in these matters. I’m just a new parent figuring out the job like anyone else.

Thanks for reading through with me. I hope you will choose to come back and find some value in my writing here. I welcome comments, criticisms, complaints – please do leave your mark anywhere in the site.

Happy Parenting!