Co-sleeping

[Melanie]

I was adamant that I would never co sleep with Thea but that went out of the window the night she was born when the midwife set us up to feed laying in bed. I think co sleeping and breastfeeding sort of go together.

We never had any problems putting Thea in her own bed and she now sleeps happily all night in her own cot in her own room.

She slept through from being 7 weeks old and having her in bed with us ment if she wanted a feed it was there and she helped herself. It worked well for us and i wouldnt hesitate to do it again.

 

[floppit]

I was just browsing and saw this.

I'm inclined towant to try co sleeping but I have to admit my best mate is a nurse and really warned me off. I guess as I've known her 25 years I trust her and usually she's more level headed than emotive or scare tactic sort of person.

Reading this though I thought I might see what gives for myself in terms of lit reviews and stuff so I did a google scholar search of recent articles on co sleeping and SIDS. Don't know if this helps but I though it was useful.

I found the abstract to this:
An 8 year study of risk factors for SIDS: bed-sharing versus non-bed-sharing Archives of Disease in Childhood 2006;91:318-323

They had a pretty useful summary here:

Conclusion: Risk factors for SIDS vary according to the infant’s sleeping environment. The increased risk associated with maternal smoking, high tog value of clothing and bedding, and low z scores of weight for gestation at birth is augmented further by bed-sharing. These factors should be taken into account when considering sleeping arrangements for young infants.

http://fetalneonatal.com/cgi/content/abstract/91/4/318

Anyway - I figure I'll wait to see if I go full term, if bub gets a good z score and if hubby stays quit on the cigs before looking into it again.

Maybe if everything is in favour I'll hunt round a second time to find out more.

 

[Sandi4Paul]

Ok i am sticking my oar in, i am not a mum (yet) but come from new Zealand where we have the second highest rate of SIDS in the developed word (or is whole wold? can't remember).

So there is quite a lot of research done (i myself took part in that at the tender age of 10 days old) and one of the recommendations is to avond co sleeping.

But as noone knows what causes SIDS and it is mostly circumstantial evidence there may be more to the story. All i know is it is tradtional for some cultural groups in NZ to co-sleep and there is a higher chance of SIDS in those groups, but for different reasons they are often more likely to be smokers too.


Do what you think is best.

Sandi