To Cosleep or Not to Cosleep: Infants and Safe Sleep

Infants and Safe Sleep: To Cosleep or Not to Cosleep

What is cosleeping? It’s any situation in which a committed adult caregiver, usually the mother, sleeps within close enough proximity to the infant so that each can respond to each others signals and cues. Cosleeping can include roomsharing, bedsharing, couch or sofa sharing (the latter being a dangerous practice which should be avoided). When talking about cosleeping, be specific about which form you are talking about. (McKenna, 2008)

Approximately 3,500 infants dye every year in the US from sleep-related deaths, including sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Roomsharing and safe bedsharing reduces the chances of an infant dying from SIDS or a sleep accident by half (AAP, 2016). That is huge and shouldn't be taken lightly.

The AAP updated it’s safe sleep recommendations in 2016 to state: "Recommendations call for infants to share their parents' bedroom for at least the first six months and, optimally, for the first year of life, based on the latest evidence.” (AAP, 2016)

AAP recommendations on creating a safe sleep environment include:

• Place the baby on his or her back on a firm sleep surface such as a crib or bassinet with a tight-fitting sheet.

• Avoid use of soft bedding, including crib bumpers, blankets, pillows and soft toys. The crib should be bare.

• Share a bedroom with parents, but not the same sleeping surface, preferably until the baby turns 1 but at least for the first six months. Room-sharing decreases the risk of SIDS by as much as 50 percent.

• Avoid baby's exposure to smoke, alcohol and illicit drugs.

Times to avoid bedsharing:

• When the caregiver is overly exhausted, inebriated or desensitized by drugs.
• When there are other toddlers or children in bed with the infant
• Babies of mothers who smoked during their pregnancy.

Ultimately it comes down to what the parents, or caregivers, are comfortable with. These are guidelines based on history and science, but guidelines none the less.

I for one was happy to see the guidelines change. It makes sense to me from an evolutionary standpoint. What would our caveman ancestors have done? The infants surely wouldn't have been sleeping in the cave next door.

More questions about your infant or cosleeping? Schedule an appointment and let's get the conversation started.

Resources:

1. American Academy of Pediatrics Announces New Safe Sleep Recommendations to Protect Against SIDS, Sleep-Related Infant Deaths. (2016, October 24). Retrieved from https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/american-academy-of-pediatrics-announces-new-safe-sleep-recommendations-to-protect-against-sids.aspx
2. McKenna Ph.D., J. J. (2008, December 21). Cosleeping and Biological Imperatives: Why Human Babies Do Not and Should Not Sleep Alone | Neuroanthropology. Retrieved from https://neuroanthropology.net/2008/12/21/cosleeping-and-biological-imperatives-why-human-babies-do-not-and-should-not-sleep-alone/

Work Song, Part 2: A Vision

“If we will have the wisdom to survive,
to stand like slow growing trees
on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it...
then a long time after we are dead
the lives our lives prepare will live
here, their houses strongly placed
upon the valley sides...
The river will run
clear, as we will never know it...
On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down
the old forest, an old forest will stand,
its rich leaf-fall drifting on its roots.
The veins of forgotten springs will have opened.
Families will be singing in the fields...
Memory,
native to this valley, will spread over it
like a grove, and memory will grow
into legend, legend into song, song
into sacrament. The abundance of this place,
the songs of its people and its birds,
will be health and wisdom and indwelling
light. This is no paradisal dream.
Its hardship is its reality."

— Wendell Berry