iSleep
More often then not, it is absolutely wonderful to snuggle to sleep with your child: sharing your bed won’t last forever, so why not embrace him or her and enjoy? Well, at least with younger ones, one must be VERY careful of suffocation risks, as a recent study warns today:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rates of sudden infant death from suffocation or strangulation have quadrupled in the past 20 years in the United States, most apparently from parents sleeping with their babies, government researchers reported on Monday.
Black male babies are the most affected but it is not clear why, the researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The trend is clear despite successful campaigns to prevent sudden infant death syndrome by putting babies to sleep on their backs instead of their tummies, the CDC reports in the journal Pediatrics.
“Infant mortality rates attributable to accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed have quadrupled since 1984. Most of the deaths that could be determined were by “overlay” — the parent rolling over onto the child. Prevention efforts should target those at highest risk and focus on helping parents and caregivers provide safer sleep environments. “The study’s evidence shows that babies should be laid to sleep alone, on a flat mattress, with no loose pillows or blankets and in a crib with bars designed to prevent entrapment.”
I would argue that we mostly know our sleep habits, how actively we move, etc. and should have a built-in awareness of the child sharing our bed, even when asleep. Is joint sleeping a [calculated] risk [!?] worth taking?
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