While Evergreen Psychotherapy encourages attachment parenting, there must be limits to it, especially, as a new study points out, bed sharing can be very dangerous and even fatal for children under the age of four.
The study, reported on by Medical Daily, was conducted by researchers from the Children’s National Health Hospital who utilized data from the deaths of 8,207 children throughout the United States between 2004 and 2012, and published their findings, which categorized child death risks by age, in the journal Pediatrics.
They found that bed-sharing for 0 to 4-month old babies is extremely risky and that “in the last 20 years, the number of parents who share their bed with their infant has doubled from seven percent in 1993 to 14 percent in 2010. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies are put to bed in their own sleeping area inside the parent’s room, such as a crib next to the bed, but not on the bed with the parents.”
“Although we always recommend that the infant’s sleep area be clear of pillows, blankets, bumper pads, etc., many parents forget the importance of this message as the baby gets older,” said the study’s co-author Dr. Rachel Moon, a pediatrician and sudden infant death syndrome researcher at Children’s National Health Hospital. “However, these items are equally dangerous as the baby becomes more mobile.”
These are just recommendations and we recognize parents are going to do what they feel is best in their parenting and we support that.
