Someone wrote:
>>choosing to arrange sleeping quarters
the American way is a healthy choice.

NO IT ISN'T!!!  NOT UNLESS YOU CONSIDER SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME A
HEALTHY THING TO HAVE HAPPEN TO YOUR CHILD.

Someone else wrote:
>>I don't think they knew they were on their own as babies I was in
there so fast.

Maybe they didn't know it in any conscious sense, but their body's
physiology certainly "knew it" because the architecture of their sleep
patterns was totally different than it would have been if they were sleeping
with you -- they were spending more time in very deep sleep and less time in
lighter sleep stages; they were getting much less frequent nursing than they
would have if they were sleeping with you; their respiratory rates and heart
rates were different than they would have been if they were sleeping with
you.  Chances are they would not have aroused to full awake states if
co-sleeping.
As I have stated so often, in so many ways, about so many aspects of
breastfeeding and co-sleeping, every parent should be free to decided
whatever they want about how they raise their children BUT they should make
these decisions based on accurate and complete information, not based on
soothing platitudes from well-meaning friends or health care professionals
that contradict the scientific research literature.  Solitary sleeping is
not how babies were designed to sleep.  Bottles full of formula is not how
babies were designed to feed.  Co-sleeping can be a hassle sometimes, no
doubt about it.  Breastfeeding can be a hassle sometimes, no doubt about it.
Every parenting choice has costs to mother and child, benefits to mother and
child, and we must assess the relative cost/benefit ratio with accurate and
complete information in order to decide what is right for us and our families.

The point is, knowing the negative health consequences for your baby of
choosing to solitary sleep or use formula, if you still choose to do so,
then guilt is part of the *cost* in the cost/benefit ratio of your choice.



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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352