Media misreporting
So the news drove me crazy the other day. I was driving to work and the newsreader was announcing the latest warning to parents.
"Parents warned that 50% of cot deaths are caused by parents sharing a bed with their baby"
Now, I will freely admit that I'm not a medical professional. I also try to keep an open mind about new child-rearing advice, because I know how frustrating it is to hear parents say "back in our day...." and effectively brush off the latest childcare advice, even if it makes sense (should I mention the whole "we used to chew our cot bars that were covered in lead-based paint and we were fine!" nonsense here?)
But this one, I've heard it before. There are always studies into cot death, and the media over report the dangers of co-sleeping. I found myself yelling at the headline every time it was repeated and couldn't wait to get into work to read more into the study. I started up my company laptop, made a coffee and sat down to read up on it before I was due to start work.
As expected, all the news stories led with the warning about sharing a bed with your baby. Supposedly a big factor in 50% of cot deaths studied. But then I got into the detail (including hunting out the research findings themselves).
That 50% included falling asleep with your baby on the sofa. Which with a tiny baby is pretty crazy as the risk of them falling off the sofa, or even worse, being smothered, are much much higher. Of course, the media didn't differentiate between the two and just lumped it all into "sharing a bed with a baby".
Futhermore, many of the deaths where co-sleeping or sleeping on the sofa had other factors, chiefly the parent taking drugs or being intoxicated. This wasn't heavily reported, but changes the playing field in a major way. The media, as usual, are trying to make parents feel guilty for doing something that is completely natural, when in fact many of the major risks factors - being on a sofa, taking drugs, being drunk - are usually absent when they do it.
My advice to anyone that asks stays the same - co-sleeping is practised all over the world, and there is nothing to be ashamed about in practising it. You get a better nights sleep, the child feels more secure and, from my experience and talking to other parents who have done it, the baby moves into their own cot much easier. They know at night that their parents aren't far away. People's protests to me when they heard we were co-sleeping, and that Archie would never 'learn to sleep on his own' have turned out to be bullshit. We take him to bed at 8pm, kiss him good night and lie him down in his own cot, and most times he's asleep before we've left the room. I know other people with one year olds that have had them in their cot since day one and they still have endless battles settling their child to sleep every night.
And what is more crazy - sharing your bed with a child in a way which we've done since the dawn of time, or forcing a child that has been safe and snug in the womb for nine months to sleep in their own cot at night just because it's what we 'expect' in the Western world?
"Parents warned that 50% of cot deaths are caused by parents sharing a bed with their baby"
Now, I will freely admit that I'm not a medical professional. I also try to keep an open mind about new child-rearing advice, because I know how frustrating it is to hear parents say "back in our day...." and effectively brush off the latest childcare advice, even if it makes sense (should I mention the whole "we used to chew our cot bars that were covered in lead-based paint and we were fine!" nonsense here?)
But this one, I've heard it before. There are always studies into cot death, and the media over report the dangers of co-sleeping. I found myself yelling at the headline every time it was repeated and couldn't wait to get into work to read more into the study. I started up my company laptop, made a coffee and sat down to read up on it before I was due to start work.
As expected, all the news stories led with the warning about sharing a bed with your baby. Supposedly a big factor in 50% of cot deaths studied. But then I got into the detail (including hunting out the research findings themselves).
That 50% included falling asleep with your baby on the sofa. Which with a tiny baby is pretty crazy as the risk of them falling off the sofa, or even worse, being smothered, are much much higher. Of course, the media didn't differentiate between the two and just lumped it all into "sharing a bed with a baby".
Futhermore, many of the deaths where co-sleeping or sleeping on the sofa had other factors, chiefly the parent taking drugs or being intoxicated. This wasn't heavily reported, but changes the playing field in a major way. The media, as usual, are trying to make parents feel guilty for doing something that is completely natural, when in fact many of the major risks factors - being on a sofa, taking drugs, being drunk - are usually absent when they do it.
My advice to anyone that asks stays the same - co-sleeping is practised all over the world, and there is nothing to be ashamed about in practising it. You get a better nights sleep, the child feels more secure and, from my experience and talking to other parents who have done it, the baby moves into their own cot much easier. They know at night that their parents aren't far away. People's protests to me when they heard we were co-sleeping, and that Archie would never 'learn to sleep on his own' have turned out to be bullshit. We take him to bed at 8pm, kiss him good night and lie him down in his own cot, and most times he's asleep before we've left the room. I know other people with one year olds that have had them in their cot since day one and they still have endless battles settling their child to sleep every night.
And what is more crazy - sharing your bed with a child in a way which we've done since the dawn of time, or forcing a child that has been safe and snug in the womb for nine months to sleep in their own cot at night just because it's what we 'expect' in the Western world?