CO-SLEEPERS?

[clairedoran]

Hi ladies,

I have co-slept with my eldest daughter since the day she was born, she was never
happy to sleep alone. She is now almost 5 and still ends up in our bed most nights!
We've been lucky with Erin as she prefers to be in her cot, but I would have co-slept
again had she wanted to.

However this week in Liverpool, this very tragic story has made the papers
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpoo ... -22617922/

It is the last part that that says:
The inquest was told health visitor Lisa Beckett-Quinn had informed the family of dangers to babies, including bed sharing, when she visited after the births of each of their three children.

But she did not visit the bedrooms because that was not standard practice.

Coroner Andre Rebello said he would write to Liverpool PCT about health visitors and the possibility of inspecting childrens’ sleeping arrangements as part of their visits.

Does this mean we could be told not to sleep with our babies at all? I wonder what a possible inspection
would involve xx

 

[Sherlock]

So sad for the family.

But, they can't stop people from co sleeping if they chose. Its not practical or viable to do so. Also inspecting the sleeping arrangements is not something HV's are going to be legally able to do. Think about the implications and legal aspect they would have to go through to make this a legal requirement.

As it is you don't have to allow the HV into your home. And they are not there to 'inspect' things.

Also that story does not mention if the baby was under the parents bedding, in a baby sleeping bag or covered in baby blankets etc. There could be any number of reasons this happened. Or it could just be a tragic case of SIDS with no obvious cause.

The advice for co sleeping is to have baby on top of adult bedding and to make sure that they cannot be covered by it or be too close to pillows etc.

When we co sleep with Galen he is always always always on top of our bedding in his sleeping bag. I sleep with his head in line with my boobs and have the covers down over me around my middle. Sometimes I pull them up further if its really chilly. I would never put him under our blankets for the safety reasons that if he wriggles down and under or I turn over and pull them over him etc. And to prevent overheating from our thicker heavier duvet. Our is a 9 or 13 tog and babys only need 2.5 - 3 tog when small as a rule.

 

[BabyMagic]

When I did my paediatric first aid course the instructor told that as part of her previous job she had to often go homes to investigate SIDS cases. She said in all cases where a bed was shared there had been some alcohol, sleeping pills etc in the picture, but the cases were still reported as SIDS.

Obviously this is only one woman's experience, but if you follow the guidelines you should be fine. Equally they say, that a four month old should sleep in the same room with their parents, yet many people ignore this guideline too. Yes, maybe something may happen to a baby if they are not in the same room, but again that is very rare.

My heart goes out to the family who lost their baby though. So sad - a shame to hear that their house was cold.