Well, we do need to look at this topic as "scientifically" as we can --- looking
at the available studies and their potential strengths and weaknesses, since
none of our personal/professional experiences are enough to make such a
large conclusion. When the CDC or CPSC makes some kind of statement about
64 babies this or 78 that, they're only talking a portion because they don't
really know the whole story. While they think they're making cosleeping sound
dangerous, yes, the numbers make it sound far safer than crib sleeping.
I haven't gone through these in detail for a few years now, though not much
has been published since a big breeze of studies in 2005, and though I try to
look at anything newly published for contradictions or new revelations, I have
delved through the available studies in depth a few times over the last
decade. Of course, no measure of cosleeping deaths versus crib deaths has
any meaning unless we know the percentage of cosleepers. Then many of
these cosleep only a percentage of the night. I looked through many of the
available references to such numbers and chose to quote this on my 2002
review on my site: "13% of U.S. infants are routinely cosleeping with nearly
50% sharing bed for part of the nights. National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development 2000 Survey," thinking it to be slightly on the
conservative side, and then created a graph at bottom of page from a study
on cosleeping around the world, in relation to infant death rates (highly
revealing though the total parenting paradigm that goes with cosleeping is at
work, but what's wrong with that? as example: Everyone wants to separate
breastmilk from breastfeeding behavior but doesn't it usually come as a
package deal? What's wrong with the bigger picture? though there is certainly
some interest in the separate details.)
http://www.babyreference.com/Cosleeping&SIDSFactSheet.htm
I dug up some additional numbers for that page such as how many children die
in night fires, rather assuming they're far less likely to die if next to parent
than at other end of home. These would not be included in SIDS comparison
studies but this and other such numbers should truly go into the mix.
Then in 2005, when big announcements were in the media and lots of new
studies coming out, I did another in-depth hunt through them to pull out the
numbers that interested me. They're here:
http://www.babyreference.com/Cosleeping&SIDS%202005%20Review%20of%
20the%20Studies.htm
What is reassuring is that every new study seems to take in account the
factors that were criticized in every earlier study. Accounting for confounding
factors can pile up into its own confounding but I think each open-minded
study (versus a crib or formula industry "study"), is pretty much better than
the one before.
While I'd like to think in terms of greater grandeur, it appears that there may
be some slight increased infant risk for safe cosleeping with tiny newborns and
there's a benefit to cosleeping after say a good 8 pounds of baby --- don't
quote that weight at all please as it's just a wide guesstimate from what is
published and of course is no rule, just an example. And the early cosleeping
can help establish the exclusive bf. And, of course, if you're talking risks, look
at the huge difference between exclusive breast vs exclusive formula feeding
from birth. I call it double the risk for ff in another review of available studies.
The supposed confounders of education, income etc. are nicely attended to
directly in the studies or in parallel studies. These arguments are old and
outdated. I can't wait until someone comes out with a larger, more direct
assessment of this in an industrialized nation with full bf vs full ff.
Best, linda
Linda F. Palmer, DC
author "Baby Matters"
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