COSLEEPING

This may be a controversial discussion among parents and/or professionals in regards to safety and health of the child, and on what is best for the child and parents.
For some of you who may be lost, I'm talking about the practice of letting child/children share the parent/s bed during the night.

Its the best decision to cosleep with your infant/child, done with precaution, at least till they are ready to be weaned off parents ' bed. My husand and I still cosleep with our three year old son since birth. I'm pregnant second time and we intend to do the same with our second son. As long as we understand we have to be careful about having a toddler who sleeps perpendicular in the same bed as a new born, we can work it out so the infant is safe and close to us as well.

I coslept with my parents till one day I decided to move to my own bed at around age seven. Worked out good.

There are numerous benefits to cosleep compared to the risks (naturalchild.org). One of the benefits is emotional security. Adjusting to this unknown big wide world full of variety of sensations, feelings and sounds would be a challenge I assume. Holding your baby close during feeding and in time of need is just a few ways he/she learns to rely on you.

The second benefit is convenience for nursing mothers. The child does not have to fully cry in order to get mother's attention. Therefore less disturbance for both mom and dad and baby.
Less disturbance means good night sleep which means everything else falls in to place next morning for everyone. The same would apply for bottle fed babies(naturalchild.org).

The third benefit is rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, SIDS is reduced. It may sound ironic especially when you read about infants being smothered, but when done with precaution cosleeping does stimulate the Babies' senses and reduce the unexplained death of infants in their sleep(naturalchild.org).

Fourth benefit is that research shows that children who coslept with parents grew up to be independent, confident and were comfortable with intimacy in their relationships. The same children also showed less disruptive behavioral issues and were overall happier adults(naturalchild.org).

The risks of cosleeping are smothering of infant especially if the parent or caregiver is under influence of any sort such as alcohol, sleeping drugs, smokes etc that would affect his or her judgement. Obesity and heavy sleepering are also factors that contribute to smothering an infant(naturalchild.org).

The other one is more of inconvenience to the parents. Intimacy and sex is limited to scrapes and left overs. Basically children come first. Over time this does affect some relationships to some degree and sometimes even separation and divorce. But its a situation that communication would help a whole lot(naturalchild.org).

I conclude that Cosleeping like anything in this world is about common sense and weighing risks and benefits before taking a leap. Especially ones's own child. May work for some and may not for others.




Iman Barton


http://www.naturalchild.org/cosleeping