Comments on: Will co-sleeping with your infant increase the risk of SIDS?

By: Marie C

Marie C — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:20:08 +0000

Sue and mynaturalbaby, I don’t think there is ever a way to put the mother of young children completely at ease. Biologically and emotionally, you are ON for as long as that child needs you. And I hate to tell you, that is pretty much the rest of your life, although it does get somewhat easier as they get older.

The way I look at it is, there are no guarantees in life. I tried to keep my children as safe I could, I listened to my instincts and made decisions that I could be comfortable with. Things have turned out fine for us. I am certain they will for you too, whatever you decide.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:10:08 +0000

My son is one now and I was worried about SIDS often even as he slept in an attached cot next to the bed, on his back, with no other soft things in the crib. He was swaddled for the first few months (definitely not swaddled by the time he could roll over). I think it is very stressful to have so much conflicting information out there on SIDS and to make mother’s feel like if they do some slight thing wrong they could be responsible for their infants death. I often napped with my son in our bed but never slept well because I was so worried about him. In hindsight I don’t think I needed to worry so much, I wish there was a way to put new mother’s at ease on this topic!

By: mynaturalbaby

mynaturalbaby — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:36:36 +0000

I'm confused by the findings of this study. As a first time Mom to a 16 week old little boy, I was told by a number of midwives that sensible cosleeping did not pose any danger to the baby. Of course, sleeping after drinking, smoking or taking drugs are instances where cosleeping is not recommended, but to me that's a no brainer. I'm creating a safe sleeping environment for my son by eliminating all blankets, comforters and toys from his crib as well as dressing him in a merino sleepsack and putting him on his back at night.

By: Dr Loveless

Dr Loveless — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:18:35 +0000

I’m not really clear on this study. I thought that SIDS is by definition a death without a clear cause. Are we to believe that sleeping next to your mom causes you to spontaneously die, or are these babies whobare sleeping next to an intoxicated parent being asphyxiated?

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:25:59 +0000

Sleeping with your baby in a crib attached to your bed is not “co-sleeping” so let’s get that straight. Second, we don’t know the circumstances surrounding the 17 of deaths you describe which is precisely my point.

By: Marie C

Marie C — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:59:20 +0000

I discovered ‘The Family Bed’ in 1977, when I was pregnant with my first baby. “Doesn’t this sound wonderful?!?” I exclaimed breathlessly to my husband. “No!” he replied with emphasis.

Four children and several years later he looked at me over the sea of little bodies in between us and said “I can’t believe I ever thought this was a choice.”

I believe that research like this is simply another strategy to intimidate parents who are listening to their instincts and keeping their babies as close as possible. The way nature intended, the way we are wired.

Our Western culture is anti-mother/baby, despite appearances otherwise. The message of discouraging marsupial parenting comes through in oblique and subtle ways, implying there is something wrong with the parent who who wants to hold that fleeting bundle close for as long as possible.

By: C

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:40:20 +0000

With all due respect to the ANONYMOUS commenters, at no time do I suggest that all co-sleeping is bad. I simply state that the way most mothers perform co-sleeping does not utilize an attached or nearby crib…the concept of placing your infant next to you on a bed is not in the best interest of the child’s health (mental, physical, spiritual, or otherwise).

I wish the ANONYMOUS commenters could work in my ED last year alone. As the collator of the ED mortalities for the year, I found that, of the 22 infants pronounced dead in our 50,000 patients/yr pediatric ED, 17 were found asphyxiated in a bed with the mother while co-sleeping. Please, tell these mothers that the way that they slept with their child is safe based on historical and “Mommy magazine” experience. Please don’t state that co-sleeping is safe except for “drugs, alcohol and sofas.”

If you want to co-sleep with your infant, fine….just do it safely with a crib that attaches to your bed (an example at http://www.thekidswindow.co.uk/furniture/bedside_cot.htm) [no financial interest to disclose], or at least do it with your figurative eyes wide open.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:10:18 +0000

There is a safe way to co-sleep and an unsafe way to co-sleep. The argument that co-sleeping should be discouraged despite known advantages (increased nocturnal breastfeeding, avoidance of potentially damaging cry-it-out sleep “training”) because it can be performed in an unsafe manner deprives the parents of an opportunity to make an informed decision regarding their child’s well-being. You’ll notice that the article stressed that certain co-sleeping environments were very highly correlated with SIDS – mainly drugs, alcohol and sofas. In the absence of these extraneous factors, co-sleeping can be a safe alternative to traditional crib and cradle sleeping. Excuse the pun, but proclaiming all co-sleeping unsafe when we have additional identifiable and, more importantly, modifiable, risk factors to consider, is like “throwing the baby out with the bath water”. Let’s tell parents how to co-sleep safely if they prefer it instead of forcing upon them an alternative that some babies (and parents) have difficulty adjusting to. It’s no coincidence that with the “Back to Sleep” movement (and, yes, the consequent reduction in SIDS), there has been an explosion in the “Get Your Baby To Sleep” book industry.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:12:24 +0000

Matt, I would suggest you read the actual study and the skeptical commentaries in the following issue to better formulate your opinions of that ‘correlation.’ While provocative and potentially correct, the study demonstrated many of the problems of media (and researchers) overstating preliminary work. Briefly, it was retrospective discovery, of low number, and contained questionable statistical analysis–all major problems that preclude any real conclusions. Taken together with its obscurity in accepted SIDS theory, I would caution you against using the cited media outlet as your indicator of scientific merit in this case.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:41:02 +0000

did any developments occur with that correlation between SIDS and that hearing test?

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/hearing-test-may-predict-sids-13806.html