Risks of co-sleeping

This reference is used to annotate "Good sleep, good learning, good life" (2017) by Piotr Wozniak

Co-sleeping has been anointed by the evolution as the natural way of sleeping with a baby. It is still the prevalent way in less developed countries. It used to be and is the norm in hunter gatherer societies.

Research shows that co-sleeping increases the risk of SIDS. This led to the idea that separating moms from babies is good.

This isn't much different from the claim that going out for a jogging increases the risk of a fatal street accident. As always, we need to weigh up risks and benefits. There are health benefits to jogging. There are similar psychological benefits to co-sleeping (e.g. developing a healthy circadian cycle).

The extreme outcome of the SIDS research is that major programs are dedicated to relegating babies to sleeping in cardboard boxes.

The research says:

Bed-sharing (when the infant sleeps on the same surface as an adult) is both a risk factor for SIDS and a major barrier to safe sleep. A recent meta-analysis confirmed that bed-sharing was a significant risk factor for SIDS (odds ratio [OR] = 2.88; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.99-4.18). Moreover, bed-sharing may predispose to other SIDS risk factors, including overheating, rebreathing, airway obstruction, head covering, and exposure to tobacco smoke

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Quoted excerpts come from the following reference:

Title: Factors Associated With Infant Bed-Sharing

Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5308437/

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21868032/

Backlink: Baby sleep