Thought you all would be interested. Ellen Health - Reuters Infant-Adult Bed Sharing Becoming More Common in US 1 hour, 54 minutes ago Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Charnicia E. Huggins NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Infant-adult bed sharing is growing more popular in the United States, though the jury is still out on whether or not the practice poses any danger to infants, a team of researchers reports. The controversial practice is supported by some experts who believe bed sharing can protect infants from sudden infant death syndrome and develop children's capacity for trust and intimacy, but decried by those who believe it can have implications for the child's psychosexual development and increase the risk of smothering or other physical dangers. A recent 18-year follow-up study found that parent-child bed sharing was not associated with any great positive or negative long-term effects. "The increasing trend shows there is something in the social milieu that makes it acceptable and desirable to do," Dr. Marian Willinger of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland, told Reuters Health. "Because of that we want to make it a safe practice," she added. Willinger and colleagues conducted annual telephone surveys between 1993 and 2000 with nearly 8,500 nighttime infant caregivers across the United States. Overall, almost half (45%) of the infants shared a bed with their caregiver during the two weeks prior to the interview, the investigators report in the January issue of the journal Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Further, infant bed sharing grew increasingly more common during the study period, such that 13% of infants "usually" shared an adult bed at night in 2000, in comparison to just 5.5% in 1993. Most of the infants who "usually" bed shared slept on an adult bed with their parents. Routine infant bed sharing was most common among black and Asian mothers, mothers under the age of 18, families with an annual income that fell below $20,000 and among families with infants younger than 8 weeks, the report indicates. Infant bed sharing was also more common among families in the South than in the Midwest. In contrast, families in the Mid-Atlantic were less likely to report infant bed sharing than those in the Midwest, and parents of low birthweight or preterm infants were also less likely to share their beds with their babies. "Given the desire by some parents to engage in this practice, more research is needed to understand the range of practices and their potential benefits or hazards," the researchers conclude. One potential hazard, for example, may be related to the finding that infants who shared an adult bed were more likely to be covered with quilts. This increases a baby's risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the authors note. "Bed sharing in and of itself is not hazardous," Willinger said. "It is just the environmental conditions associated with it that can make it hazardous." Mothers who sleep on a mattress on the floor should make sure that that there is no space between the floor and the bed that the baby can fall into, or "any situation in which there can be an entrapment if the baby moves or rolls," Willinger said. Still, for right now there is not enough data to tell parents "no," Willinger added, except under certain conditions, such as if the mother smokes, or if the parents have been drinking or taking drugs that make them less alert. SOURCE: Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2003;157:33-39,43-49. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html