another piece on co-sleeping.
---------------------- Forwarded by Judith S.
Schreiber/BTSA/DEHA/CEH/OPH/DOH on 10/01/99 09:01 AM
---------------------------


Ann Carrol <[log in to unmask]> on 10/01/99 09:00:05 AM

Please respond to "Womens Health Issues:"
      <[log in to unmask]>

To:   [log in to unmask]
cc:    (bcc: Judith S. Schreiber/BTSA/DEHA/CEH/OPH/DOH)
Subject:  more on babies in beds




from reuter's Health.com:

Expert disputes ban on babies in adult beds

NEW YORK, Sep 30 (Reuters Health) -- As reported Wednesday by Reuters
Health, researchers at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have
recommended that parents refrain from letting babies sleep in adult beds
due to suffocation risks. However, one expert believes that the benefits of
bedsharing for both parent and child far outweigh the potential risks.

"Sleeping arrangements are about defining and building relationships,"
explained Dr. James McKenna. "This is about a parent's decision on how he
(or she) can best protect a child and show affection." McKenna, a professor
of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, has been studying
mother-infant bedsharing for over 20 years.

A study by Dr. Suad Nakamura and colleagues at the CPSC, published in the
October issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine,
concludes that "placing children younger than 2 years to sleep in adult
beds exposes them to potentially fatal hazards," including 'overlaying' by
a sleeping parent that could result in suffocation. They recommend that all
children under 2 sleep in "cribs that meet... federal safety standards."

However, according to a University of Notre Dame statement, McKenna and
other experts label the CPSC study "simplistic." They believe that the
study results do not warrant the "sweeping" recommendation that parents
always sleep apart from their infant.

McKenna's own investigation suggests that "even in the deepest stages of
sleep, mothers arouse within seconds of the baby's (making) strange sounds,
sudden movements or touches."

Bedsharing can also be of enormous psychological benefit to parents and
their young children, according to the Indiana investigator. McKenna
reports that as part of his ongoing research he has used nighttime infrared
photography to document "tender gestures of protection and affection that
can only occur when the baby and parent sleep side-by-side."


SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 1999;153:1019-1023.

Ann Carroll
New York State Task Force on Life & the Law

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