Co-Sleeping

However, what’s often overlooked is that in countries where co-sleeping is routinely practiced, families almost never sleep in beds with soft mattresses and bulky covers. A baby may be less likely to smother when the family sleeps on a floor mat with only a light coverlet.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) opposes bed sharing by infant and adults, particularly if there is more than one adult in the bed. Many cases of infant suffocation have been reported due to bed sharing. However, the USCPSC recognizes that many mothers co-sleep with their infants to facilitate breastfeeding and that fathers also are often present in the beds.

Studies in countries where most adults need regular sleep to maintain fixed work schedules have shown that parents and children alike sleep more soundly in beds of their own. And further studies have shown that children who do not get enough sleep over a prolonged period become irritable and emotional, and find it hard to concentrate. These effects can show up in lower test scores by the time children reach school age.

Many advocates of breastfeeding on demand insist that all babies should sleep with their mothers and nurse at will during the night. Some parents prefer this arrangement, while others find that with an extra body in the bed, it’s hard to get enough rest. A side-car arrangement – the crib placed next to the parent’s bed – may be more comfortable.

For most families, a crib in the parents’ room or an adjacent room allows plenty of togetherness with fewer interruptions in sleep. Some families use an intercom to let them listen for sounds from their sleeping infants. Co-sleeping may hamper the child’s attempts to develop his own resources for getting to sleep, such as thumbsucking or cuddling a transitional object.

Safety risks aside, the reasons given for co-sleeping in individual cases may give cause for concern. If a parent sleeps with the child to offset loneliness, counseling may be helpful. Occasionally, a co-sleeping child becomes the buffer between partners in a troubled marriage. Again, counseling could help to identify and resolve the problem. If the parents simply prefer to have the child sleep in their bed they may encounter resistance that requires their pediatrician’s intervention when the time inevitably comes to reclaim their bed for themselves and have their child sleep in a bed of her own.

Excerpted from “Guide to Your Child’s Sleep” Villard 1999

© Copyright 2003 American Academy of Pediatrics