When we were buying furniture for the babyroom, we decided that the baby should be sleeping in the nursery. I checked with a few people and they all have done that. In fact: it's standard practice in the Western world. So it appeared to be a no-brainer for us. But since we saw an item on tv about "natural parenting" we started doubting.

One of the aspects of natural parenting is co-sleeping. Having your baby in bed seems logical. You have the baby close to you and it's very handy when you're breast feeding the child. But the closeness also comes with safety issues. Although I couldn't find conclusive data on it, I wouldn't want to risk the baby being smothered by a pillow. Or even worse: being smothered by my own body, when rolling on the baby while sleeping. Although this (alleged) risk is enough to keep the baby out of our bed, there are also some more situations when co-sleeping is unsafe:

• When you used alcohol or drugs (duh!)
• When you are stressed or very tired
• When you're extreme obese
• It is very unhealthy for the baby when you're a smoker. Even if you don't smoke in bed. The evidence isn't solid, but it should raise the chance of a sudden death.
• The blanket shouldn't be too heavy, too warm or too cold
  

Now then. That was the why-I-wouldn't-do-co-sleeping part. I am convinced why I shouldn't do it, but I still want to keep the baby as close as possible. I want to keep an eye on it and the closeness is also good for the baby. I could buy some stuff that could make a co-sleeping situation safer, but there is no law that those tools have to be tested. So you can't be sure that your baby is safer when you use these tools.

So the next best thing is having a crib next to the bed. We bought one that cannot rock. That way my wife cannot unintentionally rock the crib while getting out of the bed because she has to go to the toilet or to breast feed the baby.

• Some helpful tips on making co-sleeping safer
• Co-sleeping, a personal story (from parentingideas.org with more tips on co-sleeping)
• Wikipedia on co-sleeping
  
• Consument en veiligheid (in Dutch, as you can see)
  

Labels: sleeping