Nothing but baby in the crib....

[8circles]

I sacred that this isn't new. I thought it was common knowledge. I did put some of my kids to sleep on their belly.

 

No scared - agree. Darn autocorrect.

Edited October 22, 2011 by momoflaw

[LidiyaDawn]

SIDS chart thingy -- look at the graph…back-sleeping was recommended, people started doing it, and SIDS rates dropped…

[LidiyaDawn]

My husband sleeps deeply but we have a huge king sized bed

 

Ha. Add to my "why we don't co-sleep" list: double bed. He's knocked ME out of it a few times. :tongue_smilie:

[mommaduck]

Ha. Add to my "why we don't co-sleep" list: double bed. He's knocked ME out of it a few times. :tongue_smilie:

One thing I did with my oldest (before I was comfortable with regular co-sleeping) was to take off the drop side of his crib, level the mattress with out mattress, then put the crib between our bed and the wall. This was like an extension to our bed, baby could sleep right there in arms' reach, I could pull him over to nurse and put him easily back to sleep.

[8circles]

SIDS chart thingy -- look at the graph…back-sleeping was recommended, people started doing it, and SIDS rates dropped…

 

But what else was in the crib when they were on their belly? I just don't think thats the biggest factor.

[Stayseeliz]

Ha. Add to my "why we don't co-sleep" list: double bed. He's knocked ME out of it a few times. :tongue_smilie:

 

My husband is 6'3 and the size of a line backer. There is no double bed sleeping for us! Even before kids! We started out in a queen. I didn't co-sleep with #1. I did to an extent with #2. When it came time to replace our mattress when I was pregnant with #3 we found a great deal on a king size bed and never looked back. :) I am not a deep sleeper and she is in my arms. But I do see why some people don't co-sleep.

[Rivka]

How did we all live? My generation grew up with lead-covered extremely wide slats, toys, pillows, blankets -everything but the kitchen sink - in the crib and you hardly ever heard of a SIDS death.

 

How old are you? In 1980, SIDS deaths were three times as likely as they are now - 1.53 deaths per 1000 live births, compared to 0.51 deaths per 1000 live births now.

[kitten18]

How do you get that to happen though? I mean - most of the people that I know would have similar risks in their home when it comes to co-sleeping. It's usually the husbands - they smoke, or they sleep like the dead, or they like to have a few beer before bed, they're exhausted from work… stuff like that. Combine those risks with the fact that men aren't as 'tuned in' to the baby being there and it just seems like it would be riskier more than safe, y'know?

My babies didn't sleep between us, they slept between me and the outside edge of the (king size) bed.

When DS was a baby, we had a bed in his room (in addition to the crib). So when he would wake during the night, I would take him out of the crib and nurse him in the bed and we would sleep together in there.

[justamouse]

I co slept with all of my kids. That way I could nurse them all easily. They slept between me and the edge so that my Dh could get a good night's sleep, and they were always in the crook of my arm. With the twins I kept the crib next to my bed and kept whoever was nursing at the moment with me. I wake up if the neighbor burps, and Dh has always been very alert. No smoking household.

 

We've always had a queen sized bed.

[5kidsforME]

I keep waiting for someone to do a study that children & infants who wear helmets in vehicles are less likely to die in accidents (as I'm sure they would be) and for the recommendation to be that everyone wear helmets in their cars.

 

The world has gone completely neurotic/insane about safety. In another 5-10 years every mother in America will need to be on anti-anxiety medication in order to cope with her awareness of the minutiae of every imaginable peril that might befall her child, and to keep track of all the official recommendations to avoid these scenarios.

 

And you will be put in jail if you don't follow everything to the letter. :glare:

[ktgrok]

How do you get that to happen though? I mean - most of the people that I know would have similar risks in their home when it comes to co-sleeping. It's usually the husbands - they smoke, or they sleep like the dead, or they like to have a few beer before bed, they're exhausted from work… stuff like that. Combine those risks with the fact that men aren't as 'tuned in' to the baby being there and it just seems like it would be riskier more than safe, y'know?

 

I always had my son between me and the wall, or a bedrail, with my husband on the other side of me. When the kid was a big toddler I worried less, but in the beginning there were no pillows on that part of the bed, etc. I checked constantly, and slept very lightly.

 

My daughter hates to cosleep, and always has, since day one. This is a blessing, as the way our room is set up it would have been hard to have the bed near a wall, so she would have been between us. and he is a deep sleeper. He actually put a pillow over MY face once, in his sleep, and then settled down to sleep ON MY FACE!!! So no babies in the bed near him! But honestly, there ARE guidelines for how to cosleep safely, and much evidence to show that hearing the parent breathe helps to regulate the infant's own breathing, possibly preventing SIDS.

[SKL]

SIDS chart thingy -- look at the graph…back-sleeping was recommended, people started doing it, and SIDS rates dropped…

 

And ADHD and autism spectrum disorders went through the roof . . . .

[Alice]

Few observations:

*The AAP routinely reviews and revises policy statements. This was one of those times which is why it's in the news. The recommendations aren't that much different from what we've been saying for years.

 

*Babies do sleep better on their tummies, most pediatricians will admit that. No one fully understands SIDS but a major part of the theory is that it has to do with sleep arousal and that by sleeping on their tummy they are in a deeper sleep and so don't full awaken even if they are not getting the oxygen they need. Pacifiers also have been shown to decrease the risk of SIDS and it's also thought to be due to sleep arousal.

 

*One thing I get tired of in medicine are is the argument "I did ________ for my baby and she was fine, therefore clearly _________ is ok." And along with it the "Hey, we all rolled around in the back of the station wagon and were fine!" argument.

 

I agree that overall we've all gone a little nutty with safety. However, that doesn't mean that every safety measure or suggestion is automatically wrong. Statistically speaking even if we knew without a doubt that SIDS was caused 100% of the time by belly sleeping, 99.95 % of the time babies would be fine because the rate of SIDS is only .05% of infants born each year. So even if 100% of the babies who died from SIDS would have been saved by sleeping on their backs, people could say about 99.5 % of babies "well, I put them on their tummy and they were fine". Does that mean tummy sleeping was ok? No, it just means that those babies didn't fall into the .05%. That's why anecdotal evidence doesn't work when making public health recommendations.

 

Obviously, we don't know that SIDS is caused by belly sleeping 100% of the time, but we do see a clear correlation in risk, and that's why the advice.

 

And as for the "well, we did it and it was good enough for us" argument, it's basically the same thing. Yes, I used to roll around in the station wagon without a seatbelt. And I believe I was lucky that I was never in a severe accident. Does that mean seatbelts don't save lives? No. It just means I never needed my life saved by one.

 

*I'll end by admitting that my 2nd and 3rd babies slept on their tummies very early (about 4 months and 3 months) respectively. They both had bad reflux and wouldn't sleep otherwise. I still believe back to sleep is best as a general public health recommendation but realize there are cases where people have to go against the recs. Although I told my husband the first night that my son was on his belly that I felt like the AAP helicopter was going to hover over our house with a searchlight and someone on a megaphone saying "Hand over the baby! And your pediatric license!".

[mommaduck]

Due to having seen so many babies choke on spit up or phlegm, I have to say side sleeping is the safest compromise ;) Co-sleeping is best, if possible and safely done, due to the baby responding to mama's breathing.

 

But I agree that the "I did it and it didn't do anything" is not a good argument.

[Mama2Many4]

I haven't had a chance to read through all the replies yet. There's many here and I'll slowly make my way through them, but I just wanted to mention the crib wedge. All three of my kids slept on a crib wedge due to SEVERE Re-flux. They slept on their backs, but would have choked to death if they were lying flat and spit up. That is certainly an instance I can see for that.

 

Now off to read.

[Cricket]

When my oldest (13) was born, it was recommended to place a wedge in the crib so he slept on his side. There was a fear that a baby on his back could spit up and choke. My youngest is 5. My last two were born at home with a midwife and she co-slept as did I with my last three. I haven't heard any of these recommendations!

[Forget-Me-Not]

Those things are not very common at all in my circle. No smoking, no drinking on a regular basis, my dh is a very light sleeper. Co-sleeping was a very safe choice for us.

 

Same here. Once we started putting them in their own bed for part of the night, he often heard them before I did. He'd get up, bring the baby to bed, I'd hook baby up to a boob and we'd all crash out again :D

 

SIDS chart thingy -- look at the graph…back-sleeping was recommended, people started doing it, and SIDS rates dropped…

 

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but it's also important to note that the diagnosis for SIDS has become much more narrow since the B2S campaign started. What once was ruled SIDS may now be called something else. . . like suffocation. So of course it looks like the rate of SIDS has dropped. . . on paper at least.

 

Yeah, if your very young baby is sleeping in a crib, I agree, it should probably be a pretty bare crib. But doing so isn't necessarily going to prevent SIDS. . . It's much more likely that it will prevent *strangulation* or *suffocation*. They like to throw the term 'SIDS' into the mix because it makes headlines and catches attention and strikes terror into the heart of every mother in the country.

Edited October 22, 2011 by LemonPie

[cindergretta]

How do you get that to happen though? I mean - most of the people that I know would have similar risks in their home when it comes to co-sleeping. It's usually the husbands - they smoke, or they sleep like the dead, or they like to have a few beer before bed, they're exhausted from work… stuff like that. Combine those risks with the fact that men aren't as 'tuned in' to the baby being there and it just seems like it would be riskier more than safe, y'know?

 

I don't know families like this - drinking is a rare thing and no one smokes. My dh sleeps soundly but wakes to a baby crying easily. We have co-slept with all of our babies and he loves it. Our 5th could NOT sleep if her head wasn't in his armpit, lol. (She always smelled of BO and deodorant! :lol: ) Many, many dads are tuned in to their babies. :D

 

(We don't own cribs or cradles or bassinettes. We don't use them.)

[SKL]

I don't have cites, but I've seen a variety of writings on this over the years.

 

One website I visited cited research that showed that most "SIDS" deaths involved babies who (per autopsy evidence) had respiratory illnesses at the time. (Here's my own added two cents on that: cough syrup overdose.) Putting a healthy, non-medicated baby to sleep on his/her belly is a completely different thing.

 

A study in Australia showed that the majority of SIDS deaths involved dirty old mattresses and smokers in the baby's close environment. It seems logical that if the mattress is nasty (full of mold, dust, toxins), sleeping face down on it is not so great. Doesn't prove anything about sleeping face down on a decent mattress.

 

The thing about immunizations (it was included twice in the recommendation list): I am not a huge fan of immunizing early and often, but I'd want to look further into the statement that SIDS was 50% less likely in kids who were immunized. Which immunizations made the difference? Did this effect coincide with the BTS program, and if so, doesn't that mean that BTS wasn't responsible for so much of the reduction of SIDS?

 

Then there is the fact stated by others that doctors are not assigning SIDS as a diagnosis as readily now that the incidence is being studied more closely.

 

As for the problems caused by back sleeping, it's been proven that lack of deep sleep correlates with learning and behavior problems. It stands to reason, right? A child who is well-rested is far more ready to learn and less likely to be cranky/squirrely. So I prefer to be skeptical about recommendations to basically keep interrupting my kid's sleep all night long.

 

As for the stuff in the crib - my recommendation would be to put something over your sleeping baby's face and watch what s/he does. If she can move around enough to keep her nose and mouth free of obstructions, then it's safe to have stuff in her crib. Whether you want stuff in there is up to you, but telling parents that mobile kids are going to suffocate on their pillow or teddy bear is fearmongering.

[Annie Laurie]

I don't know families like this - drinking is a rare thing and no one smokes. My dh sleeps soundly but wakes to a baby crying easily. We have co-slept with all of our babies and he loves it. Our 5th could NOT sleep if her head wasn't in his armpit, lol. (She always smelled of BO and deodorant! :lol: ) Many, many dads are tuned in to their babies. :D

 

(We don't own cribs or cradles or bassinettes. We don't use them.)

 

I don't know about that. It may be the case for some, such as your experience, but even cosleeping proponents (such as Dr. Sears) stress that baby should always sleep by mom, not dad. Dads love their babies just as much as mom, but hormonally and biologically, we are different, and mom is tuned in to the baby in her sleep in a way that dad isn't.

[cindergretta]

I didn't say all dads were tuned in nor did I say dads were as or more tuned in than moms. I simply said that many dads *are* tuned in. It seemed to be implied in this thread that dads are smoking, drinking, heavy sleeping people who can't share a bed with a baby and I know that to not be true, for many, many families in my circle.

[Annie Laurie]

I didn't say all dads were tuned in nor did I say dads were as or more tuned in than moms. I simply said that many dads *are* tuned in. It seemed to be implied in this thread that dads are smoking, drinking, heavy sleeping people who can't share a bed with a baby and I know that to not be true, for many, many families in my circle.

 

I agree with you on that, my dh and I have coslept with almost all of our babies just fine. My dh does not smoke or drink before bed. He does sleep deeply. I keep the baby between me and the rail guard on the side of the bed. I think cosleeping with dad is fine. I just wouldn't put a baby to bed with dad without mom there, personally, or on dad's side with mom tuning out, assuming dad is alert. That was my point.

[desertmum]

My baby slept in a Grobag (baby sleeping bag). On his back and with a dummy -no other toys or wedges. Of course I was a paranoid 1st time mum so I had a movement sensor pad under the mattress which would go off in it didn't sense any movement or breathing in 20 seconds... Ds' crib was in the same room with us for the first 6 months or so.

Edited October 22, 2011 by desertmum
Really bad typo

[MamaBearTeacher]

Originally Posted by LidiyaDawn

SIDS chart thingy -- look at the graph…back-sleeping was recommended, people started doing it, and SIDS rates dropped…

 

 

 

To me it looks like the SIDS rate has a downward trend before the back-sleeping campaign is put in place and well-adopted. Didn`t smoking rates go down significantly during this time tooÉ There is a doctor in New Zealand or Australia who thinks that SIDS is caused by arsenic in crib mattresses and recommends a plastic cover. He thinks more babies die on their stomachs because they are breathing in more arsenic.

 

I followed the rules and put my babies on their backs and now wish I hadn`t, especially with DS1. They wanted to be on their tummies. By 3 months DS1 was rolling over each time I put him down. We actually bought a foam thing designed to prevent that but it didn`t work so we trashed it. We did co-sleep with them up to a certain point and I`m glad because I feel it was a really good thing for our babies.

[Renee in NC]

SIDS chart thingy -- look at the graph…back-sleeping was recommended, people started doing it, and SIDS rates dropped…

 

Correlation does not equal causation. Lots of other things changed since 1988, including the overall infant mortality rate and the ability to better determine *what* a baby died from. SIDS was always a catch-all term for babies who died while sleeping, not an actual diagnosis. What might have been called SIDS in the past is may now be known as a genetic disorder or some other definable cause.

 

Back sleeping only works until the baby can roll over, then it becomes a moot point.

 

My babies never slept in a crib anyway.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Renee in FL

[abbeyej]

How did we all live? My generation grew up with lead-covered extremely wide slats, toys, pillows, blankets -everything but the kitchen sink - in the crib and you hardly ever heard of a SIDS death.

 

It's something else, not a baby blanket, I think.

 

That's not true. Yes, most of us lived. Some of us didn't. Some of us here lost siblings, cousins, etc to SIDS.

 

I do think that there are additional factors involved in some of these deaths. But the major reduction in SIDS cases (since back-to-sleep and more and more discouragement for soft bedding, etc) is pretty hard to argue with.

[SeekingSimplicity]

But blanket sleepers are treated with flame retarding chemicals, which have been linked to health problems too, and I don't want to use them personally.

 

 

 

I was just saying that's what they recommended at the time. :001_smile:

[Murphy101]

What I've never understood is the greatest age for SIDS is between 2 and 4 months. What's it matter if you lay them on their back by that point? They are just going to roll over anyways! Do they expect you to roll them back onto their back? Surely not?:001_huh:

 

Idk. I think SIDS is sad and tragic, but I'm not particularly worried about it. Even without the reduced odds, the odds are still very low. And it's called SIDS when they have no idea why the baby died, which means there isn't much that could have been done to prevent it.

 

I never put toys in their beds because I never left them in the bed to play. It was a sleep only place. I did use a blanket, but not lots of them. And they didn't get a pillow until they were about 9 months old. (Usually mine so they'd have the comfort scent of mom near by.)

 

 

ETA: the naked crib advice has been around at least 16 years bc I remember being lectured on it with my first baby.

[SailorMom]

I also rebelled a little by having the mattress wrapped in this kooky New Zealand plastic,

 

I've heard this is the most important thing, and in New Zealand it's huge - but here in the UShardly any one has heard of it.

It stops the fumes from new mattresses and the mold (I think) from old ones escaping the mattress for the baby to breathe.

I'm surprised it hasn't caught on here....

[SailorMom]

I had my sons 15 and almost 14 years ago and NO ONE mentioned naked crib to me. This was in Northern California. We still had bumper pads and blankets - light blankets - but no toys or comforters. No pillows of course. I tried the wedge thing. What a joke. Never stayed. Both of my sons preferred sleeping on their stomachs and as soon as they could, rolled that way.

[LidiyaDawn]

I've heard this is the most important thing, and in New Zealand it's huge - but here in the UShardly any one has heard of it.

It stops the fumes from new mattresses and the mold (I think) from old ones escaping the mattress for the baby to breathe.

I'm surprised it hasn't caught on here....

 

Can someone tell me what this is? What it's called?

[SailorMom]

Can someone tell me what this is? What it's called?

 

 

http://www.eves-best.com/babesafe-mattress-covers.htm

 

 

http://www.eves-best.com/the-cot-death-cover-up.htm

 

Here ya go :)

[lailasmum]

My son has dysautonomia, several people we know with kids with the same condition have been told recently by their specialists that its now thought a large proportion of SIDS is dysautonomia and undiagnosed heart conditions. That may not be new but I keep hearing it recently which makes me think it might be a recent link that is getting talked about.

 

We co-sleep, I am very glad we do since I can keep a closer eye on our kids as babies.

[IlluminatedAttic]

We never bothered with a crib either. Both babies co-slept and my husband is very in tune to them. They usually slept in the crook of my arm at night, but for naps they slept on their tummies as I also believe this is better for them developmentally. We did save up for an organic wool and cotton mattress for our bed when I was pregnant with our firstborn. Since we didn't want a crib, stroller, pak n' play, bottles, etc., we asked friends and relatives for AmEx gift cards instead to put toward that purchase. We also were given a hammock when my dd was born and we used that quite a bit for her for naps as well.

 

I have seen studies that showed evidence that the mother's breathing helps regulate that of the baby. I know that being in the bed with us saved my son's life when he was about five months old. We were visiting family and I awoke suddenly in the middle of the night with a feeling of fear. I immediately checked my son sleeping beside me and he was not breathing. Thankfully we were able to rouse him after a minute of shaking him and calling his name. I have always wondered if fumes from the mattress caused the problem, it was one of those temperpedic mattresses.

[Hope in God]

SIDS chart thingy -- look at the graph…back-sleeping was recommended, people started doing it, and SIDS rates dropped…

 

I didn't read all of the posts so forgive me if this has already been mentioned. I think that the correlation of back to sleep and SIDS related deaths could be explained by other means. The study did not take place in a vacume and I think there were major cultural shifts occuring at during the same years such as a decrease in parents smoking around their babies and possibly a decrease in mother's drinking alcohol while BFing. It seems to me that the SIDS rate began to decrease even before the education campaigns began.

[Renee in NC]

I have seen studies that showed evidence that the mother's breathing helps regulate that of the baby. I know that being in the bed with us saved my son's life when he was about five months old. We were visiting family and I awoke suddenly in the middle of the night with a feeling of fear. I immediately checked my son sleeping beside me and he was not breathing. Thankfully we were able to rouse him after a minute of shaking him and calling his name. I have always wondered if fumes from the mattress caused the problem, it was one of those temperpedic mattresses.

 

Same thing happened here - I woke one night in the middle of the night just *knowing* something was wrong. Dc #6 was not breathing. I did manage to get her roused/breathing by taking her clothes off. Someone had put a blanket sleeper on over a long-sleeved onsie in a warm house. I think she overheated. She did eventually get seen by a doctor and she was fine, but what if she hadn't been in the bed with me?:001_huh:

[TracyP]

I have a bigger problem with the back-sleeping advice, which forces kids to be light sleepers, which in turn creates learning and behavior issues. Again, based on bad science.

:iagree:

 

The NICU put my 3rd on his belly to sleep. When I kinda freaked, they said actually babies breathe better, sleep sounder and digest their food better on their bellies. Because he had breathing and digestion issues they determined this to be the best. They told me it wasn't dangerous if they were on a firm mattress with no blankets.

 

I am a fan of the naked crib but I laid my babies on their tummies.

:iagree:

 

About a month (or two?) ago, NPR or MNPR had a report stating that SIDS does not even exist. Recent studies have shown that the babies had either an underlying condition or an unsafe sleeping environment.

[delaney]

Sigh. I am so glad I am out of the baby stage now. I am 0-6 for back sleepers. All slept in the bed with us and they all survived b/c I am a VERY light sleeper and they didn't so much as twitch without me knowing it.

Also, I am confused as to why they call what appears to be suffocation with SIDS. If a blanket or animal causes it then it is not just random and sudden. I truly believe that SIDS will strike no matter what you do b/c there is something behind it.

[Laurie4b]

How do you get that to happen though? I mean - most of the people that I know would have similar risks in their home when it comes to co-sleeping. It's usually the husbands - they smoke, or they sleep like the dead, or they like to have a few beer before bed, they're exhausted from work… stuff like that. Combine those risks with the fact that men aren't as 'tuned in' to the baby being there and it just seems like it would be riskier more than safe, y'know?

 

I don't agree at all with your characterizations of husbands, except that they may be less tuned in than the mothers.

 

We co-slept with all of ours. As I was the one more tuned in -not to mention the one who had the equipment to nurse them--the babies slept in the crook of my arm on the side away from my dh. No problem.

 

By the way, somewhere between ds #1 and ds #2, the recommendation was that SIDS was less likely with co-sleeping than when babies were in cribs. Then it switched back. I think as long as no alcohol or drugs (including nicotine) are involved, that co-sleeping is very safe.

[kat19]

My son(now 3) had blankets and a pillow in his crib(he had reflux issues so slept in his boppy)...He bassinet or crib was always in our room so I wasn't too worried about it.

[desertmum]

I was terrified of falling asleep on top of ds. By the time ed was 3 months he was rolling unto on his tummy. I used to gently flip him over on his back only to find him back on his tummy again after a few minutes. Finally I asked the health visitor and she said if ds could flip over like that there was nothing I could do and that ds was pretty much over the worst period for SIDS anyway.

[desertmum]

I forgot to add that after four months of using the baby monitor connected to a sensor pad under the mattress the thing gave off so many false alarms that I disconnected the darn thing... (Baby used to scoot to the far end of the mattress where the sensor couldn't pick up his breathing).

[Forget-Me-Not]

I was terrified of falling asleep on top of ds.

 

Yet you manage to not fall out of the bed every night while you're asleep, right? It's because you're aware of the edge of the bed, even while in a deep sleep. Studies have shown mothers are usually just as aware of their own babies asleep in the bed with them (barring, drugs, alcohol or other impairment disclaimer blah blah blah). :001_smile:

[BatmansWife]

We ditched the crib altogether.

Now we wonder why we ever bought one to begin with.

Big waste of money.

 

Same with us. We were given a crib to borrow for baby #1. The mattress smelled so badly of pee that I had dh buy a new crib mattress. Well, we never ended up using the crib anyway (we still have our crib mattress). Someone also nicely let me borrow a beautiful cradle. It was a tall one and the bed of it hooked onto the legs so it could rock. It had beautiful white bumpers. Never used that thing either....as soon as I laid baby in it she'd wake from the motion. That first year was quite a sleepless one for me. Dh ended up buying a rocker recliner and I slept in that holding dd almost every night. The second I'd lay her down she'd wake up. Sleeping in the recliner holding her was the only way I could get sleep. After quite a few months of this I was finally able to keep her sleeping when I laid her down, so she slept with us.

 

With baby #2, he slept between dh and I too....which meant child #1 moved....not out..but down on the bed. She slept kind of between our legs, on top of our blankets, with her own blanket. This was funny because sometimes baby #2 would kick and kick and be kicking child #1 on the top of the head....she would just sleep through it. Before long she was a big girl and had her own little bed in our room (we had only 1 bedroom anyway at the time).

 

For baby # 3, dh took the crib mattress and made a platform on legs. This was snug against the corner of the room with our bed pushed up against it. Baby could sleep right next to me but in her own bed; it worked out great.

 

I put each baby to sleep on their side. Baby #2 and #3 used the wedge pillow. I don't think they had that with baby #1...seems like I used a rolled up blanket and put it behind her back.

 

Yet you manage to not fall out of the bed every night while you're asleep, right? It's because you're aware of the edge of the bed, even while in a deep sleep. Studies have shown mothers are usually just as aware of their own babies asleep in the bed with them (barring, drugs, alcohol or other impairment disclaimer blah blah blah). :001_smile:

 

Possibly when some people roll over they roll completely over onto the area next to them. As for me, and dh, if we roll over....we reposition ourselves right away so that we are in the same spot. If that makes any sense. :001_smile:

Edited October 22, 2011 by ~AprilMay~

[LidiyaDawn]

How do you get that to happen though? I mean - most of the people that I know would have similar risks in their home when it comes to co-sleeping. It's usually the husbands - they smoke, or they sleep like the dead, or they like to have a few beer before bed, they're exhausted from work… stuff like that. Combine those risks with the fact that men aren't as 'tuned in' to the baby being there and it just seems like it would be riskier more than safe, y'know?

 

I don't agree at all with your characterizations of husbands, except that they may be less tuned in than the mothers.

 

.

 

Okay why do people keep calling it this or saying that I'm 'implying' that all men are this why? I never said ALL MEN blahblahblah. I said "Most of the people that I know would have yapyap" … and "it's usually the husbands" .. meaning the husbands in the families that I know.

 

I'm just speaking from my experience. My friends, family, social circle, whatever. Most of the men do smoke, most of the men do drink (I didn't say excessively - I'm talking a few beers after a long day at work), and from the grumbling I hear most of them also sleep like the dead and snore like a workhorse with a rat up its nose.

 

Maybe it's my background. Mix of low income/working class/whatever and military. Maybe that/those 'environments' tend to have different guys in them. I don't know.. [and I didn't say ALL here either]

 

Anyway. I never said ALL men.. but there are, obviously (cuz I'm seeing 'em!) many families for whom a suggestion to co-sleep would be a very bad idea.. if co-sleeping was the "normal suggestion" (ie: instead of the safe crib campaigns, we had co-sleep campaigns) then what happens there? You have a LOT of families who do something that their environment is not at all suited for.. they try, they get it half arsed because they just don't meet the "safe cosleeping" criteria.. y'know?

 

For those that did it, yay, glad it worked! I just don't think it's something that should be encouraged flat across the board… make sense?

[LidiyaDawn]

http://www.eves-best.com/babesafe-mattress-covers.htm

 

 

http://www.eves-best.com/the-cot-death-cover-up.htm

 

Here ya go :)

 

Thanks!

[LidiyaDawn]

Okay peoples.. I didn't MAKE that graph thing. :tongue_smilie:

 

I don't know what causes SIDS. I know that they say X, Y, and Z are risk factors.. so I do what I can to eliminate those. Our newbie is happy as pie laying on his back in his "naked" crib (in his snuggy, with a soft cotton fitted sheet) at night (for that matter, he sleeps on his back for day naps too - he's doing it right now, spread out like a starfish) … he certainly doesn't "sleep lightly" -- he sleeps through the night and wakes happy as a peach. :D

 

edit: he's 4.5 months old and has been rolling for a while…he spends a LOT of time on his tummy during the day. I think he really likes sleeping on his back - he'd easily flip over if he didn't.

Edited October 22, 2011 by LidiyaDawn

[cindergretta]

 

 

For those that did it, yay, glad it worked! I just don't think it's something that should be encouraged flat across the board… make sense?

 

I think it should be. Encouraging safe co-sleeping across the board makes as much sense to me as encouraging safe sleeping environments across the board. Throughout history and across cultures, babies sleeping with parents always has been the norm. It is a "new" concept, and "westernized" concept to have babies sleep away from parents, particularly in separate rooms.

 

Fwiw, in independent polling, a majority of parents "admit" to co-sleeping to solve night time parenting issues - hunger, nightwares/terrors, etc. But it is so "looked down on," that many are afraid to speak up and let the world know that their child/ren sleep or slept in their bed.

[Annie Laurie]

But it is so "looked down on," that many are afraid to speak up and let the world know that their child/ren sleep or slept in their bed.

 

Yep. When we visited my grandparents and I had a 1 yr old and a 2 1/2 yr old, my grandma had borrowed a pack n play for the baby and had a small cot, like a toddler bed, for the 2 yr old. My 2 yr old decided he liked the pack n play better so I let him sleep in there and may grandma asked where the baby was going to sleep then. I told her that the baby sleeps with us (dh and I) anyway. My grandma was horrified and said in a worried voice "Oh, that is so dangerous!"

 

She raised 7 kids and she knows what she's doing on many things, and she means well, but she is from a generation that just accepted what doctors told them and truly believes babies can die from cosleeping. I told her there is a safe way to do it but I don't think she believed me.

[LidiyaDawn]

I think it should be. Encouraging safe co-sleeping across the board makes as much sense to me as encouraging safe sleeping environments across the board. Throughout history and across cultures, babies sleeping with parents always has been the norm. It is a "new" concept, and "westernized" concept to have babies sleep away from parents, particularly in separate rooms.

 

Fwiw, in independent polling, a majority of parents "admit" to co-sleeping to solve night time parenting issues - hunger, nightwares/terrors, etc. But it is so "looked down on," that many are afraid to speak up and let the world know that their child/ren sleep or slept in their bed.

 

Just to be clear, I wasn't saying not to encourage "safe co-sleeping" … Y'know what I mean? If you're going to co-sleep, then heck yeah do it as safely as possible! I meant that I don't think ALL families should be encouraged to co-sleep, because it just isn't possible that they'll all do it safely. The chances of something going wrong will be a lot higher in the sorts of environments I described - environments that exist in many places. (and the ones that I'm talking about are good parents who love their kids - they just have bad co-sleeping environments and the things that make it bad aren't likely to change.) ….

 

People who seek out co-sleeping info tend to be people who don't do those things anyway though, I suppose.

 

If you co-sleep, do it safely. If you can't do it safely, use a crib.

 

Hey - why do people use "western" like it's such a terrible thing? What makes our societies ways so awful and "eastern" (or whatever other cultures) way of doing things better?

 

I actually like the way certain things are done in other cultures - mixed generation homes, for example - but I don't think our OWN needs to be vilified for being what it is.. western. Y'know?