Page 100 - April Issue

in focus: toddler | family ties

Co-sleeping may be more
beneficial to you and your child

than you think

The family bed

For decades, the foremost rule of family sleep,
as promulgated by mainstream parenting
experts, has been that infants and children

should never be allowed to sleep with their
parents.This, we’ve been told, will lead to poor
sleep habits, unhealthy dependencies, ruined
marriages and even infant suffocation. But what

are the benefits of having a family bed?

mother, baby & child April 2011 Roots the school of thought that co- Research
sleeping can be very beneficial
Western society’s deviance from for both mother and child; According to Dr Afridi, there
the still-widespread human children who co-sleep thrive is a lot of research that shows
practice of sleeping with one’s physically and emotionally,” she that co-sleeping babies and
young is a relatively recent says and also in today’s world, mothers both sleep better.
development. Only 150 years where both parents work and “Babies feel nurtured and
ago in the United States, it was don’t get a lot of time with comforted knowing that their
generally assumed that young their children, co-sleeping mother is nearby and mothers
children would sleep with their allows for parents and baby sleep better because they
parents or other relatives. to have the night to form an do not have to wake up and
Most families could not afford attachment bond. Many parents run down the hall to comfort
separate sleep quarters for are concerned that if a baby a baby who is either crying
everyone in the household. sleeps with them, that he/she or squirming in his crib,” she
Additionally, sharing sleep was will get used to it and then it says, “Research also shows
a reliable way to make sure that will be hard for them to have that infants who co-sleep have
the youngest family members them move to their own bed, less of a chance of SIDS.”
stayed warm. Today’s emphasis says Dr Afridi. “This might be In fact, Harvard psychiatrist
on materialism, however, leads true, but just as a baby weans Michael Commons and his
many to equate bed-sharing of the breast, and the bottle, colleagues recently presented
with poverty. and other things in his/her life, the American Association for
she/he will also wean off the the Advancement of Science
Controversy co-sleeping arrangement,” she with research that suggests
says and advises, “Don’t let the that babies who sleep alone
Co-sleeping or sleep sharing is ‘fear’ of what will happen stop are more susceptible to stress
a controversial topic, especially you from sharing your bed with disorders.
in the western world, points your child.”
out Dr Saliha Afridi, Clinical Notre Dame anthropology
Psychologist in The Human professor and leading sleep
Relations Institute. “I am from researcher, James McKenna,

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