A call for help! (co-sleeping research needed)

(crossposted to MKB & MKP)

I found out at my LLL meeting tonight that the SIDS taskforce in town is
mounting an effort to have co-sleeping deemed a hotlineable offense (i.e.
you can be reported to the Division of Family Services *Child Abuse* hotline
for co-sleeping with your baby!). Anyway, as a Breastfeeding Coalition
member in my town I have been invited to attend a meeting of the SIDS
taskforce (along with the LLL leaders). I don't even know where to begin
addressing this proposed co-sleeping issue. My baby is five months old and
my time available to spend doing internet research is severely limited. I
really don't want to go to a meeting with only, "I know I've read
*somewhere* that co-sleeping is good."

So, I'm appealing to the informed participants of this newsgroup: can you
give me reputable sources that indicate that co-sleeping is *not* a SIDS
risk? I know there are articles out there as well about how breastfeeding
can help reduce the risk of SIDS and I would appreciate direction to those
as well.

--
Em
mama to L-baby, 5 months
(feeling a bit lazy asking others to do her legwork for her)

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 04:28:01 GMT, "Em"
wrote:
(crossposted to MKB & MKP)
I found out at my LLL meeting tonight that the SIDS taskforce in town is
mounting an effort to have co-sleeping deemed a hotlineable offense (i.e.
you can be reported to the Division of Family Services *Child Abuse* hotline
for co-sleeping with your baby!). Anyway, as a Breastfeeding Coalition
member in my town I have been invited to attend a meeting of the SIDS
taskforce (along with the LLL leaders). I don't even know where to begin
addressing this proposed co-sleeping issue. My baby is five months old and
my time available to spend doing internet research is severely limited. I
really don't want to go to a meeting with only, "I know I've read
*somewhere* that co-sleeping is good."

OMG! I have no idea how to help you there. I can't imagine it would be
possible to have that come through. What, are they going around to
every country in the world where this is the norm and taking all those
babies away? Where do you live? What a shock!
Marie

"Em" wrote in message
news:l1gZb.362162$na.548892@attbi_s04...
(crossposted to MKB & MKP)

I found out at my LLL meeting tonight that the SIDS taskforce in town is
mounting an effort to have co-sleeping deemed a hotlineable offense (i.e.
you can be reported to the Division of Family Services *Child Abuse*
hotline
for co-sleeping with your baby!). Anyway, as a Breastfeeding Coalition
member in my town I have been invited to attend a meeting of the SIDS
taskforce (along with the LLL leaders). I don't even know where to begin
addressing this proposed co-sleeping issue. My baby is five months old and
my time available to spend doing internet research is severely limited. I
really don't want to go to a meeting with only, "I know I've read
*somewhere* that co-sleeping is good."

So, I'm appealing to the informed participants of this newsgroup: can you
give me reputable sources that indicate that co-sleeping is *not* a SIDS
risk? I know there are articles out there as well about how breastfeeding
can help reduce the risk of SIDS and I would appreciate direction to those
as well.

--
Em
mama to L-baby, 5 months
(feeling a bit lazy asking others to do her legwork for her)

It is all a matter of cultural perspective. In some cultures NOT cosleeping
is considered "child-abuse" so...they need to work on promoting SAFE
co-sleeping practices, not ethnocentric rules/laws!

"Yet in the majority of cultures in the world (and in Western cultures until
perhaps 200 years ago), babies sleep in the same bed with their parents,
typically until they are weaned, a pattern often called cosleeping. Such an
arrangement has many supportive reasons, including lack of alternative space
for the infant to sleep in some cases. More often, cosleeping seems to
reflect a basic collectivist value, one in which contact and interdependence
rather than separateness are emphasized (Harker & Super, 1995). Morelli and
her colleagues (1992) report that the Mayan mothers they interviewed, most
of whom practice cosleeping, considered the U.S. practice of separate
sleeping as tantamount to child neglect. They are shocked and disbelieving
when told that U.S. infants often sleep in a separate room, with no one
nearby.
Morelli also reports that bedtime among the Mayan families she studied
was rarely a time of discord or difficulty between parent and child, as it
so often is in Western families in which infants and toddlers sleep
separately from the adults. Mayan children also rarely used stuffed animals
or other "transitional objects" to comfort themselves as they fell asleep,
while this is common among Western infants and toddlers. Thus, the cultural
assumptions affect not only what we consider "normal" and "right" for
children; they shape the interaction between parent and child, including the
nature of their common disputes or struggles." (From TextBook: The
Developing Child-Helen Bee)

"Lucy" wrote in message
news:MZiZb.575555$ts4.214896@pd7tw3no...

"Em" wrote in message
news:l1gZb.362162$na.548892@attbi_s04...
(crossposted to MKB & MKP)

I found out at my LLL meeting tonight that the SIDS taskforce in town is
mounting an effort to have co-sleeping deemed a hotlineable offense
(i.e.
you can be reported to the Division of Family Services *Child Abuse*
hotline
for co-sleeping with your baby!).

Aw, for cryin' out loud.

If they do this, they'd better make sure that smoking and formula feeding
are also hotlineable offenses, because those have at least equally strong
associations with SIDS.

(No offense intended to the moms who must use formula, but it *is* a scary
truth, see:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract

or

http://tinyurl.com/2njnp

Also

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q... 04&dopt=Books

or

http://tinyurl.com/2jvbt

Now please, do NOT turn this into a formula vs breast debate. This is a
'SIDS safety issues' thing. If co-sleeping is no more dangerous than having
baby sleep alone in his own room (and it is not, if you look at the
numbers), then it should not be "hotlineable". How about putting baby to
sleep on his tummy? Should THAT be hotlineable? Should women be turned into
CPS for putting baby to sleep on his tummy? How *about* smoking? That's
known to increase the risk of SIDS. This is stupid. But as long as they're
being stupid, how about they be *consistent* and stupid.

--angela

Where in the name of God do you live?
My personal opinion "**** them", pardon my language.
If that's the case, lets report parents who drink even in small
amounts
smoke, take cough medicine, cook their eggs runny, feed their kids
beef
because SOMETIMES kids die from these things.
Sheesh
"Em" wrote in message
news:l1gZb.362162$na.548892@attbi_s04...
(crossposted to MKB & MKP)

I found out at my LLL meeting tonight that the SIDS taskforce in
town is
mounting an effort to have co-sleeping deemed a hotlineable offense
(i.e.
you can be reported to the Division of Family Services *Child Abuse*
hotline
for co-sleeping with your baby!). Anyway, as a Breastfeeding
Coalition
member in my town I have been invited to attend a meeting of the
SIDS
taskforce (along with the LLL leaders). I don't even know where to
begin
addressing this proposed co-sleeping issue. My baby is five months
old and
my time available to spend doing internet research is severely
limited. I
really don't want to go to a meeting with only, "I know I've read
*somewhere* that co-sleeping is good."

So, I'm appealing to the informed participants of this newsgroup:
can you
give me reputable sources that indicate that co-sleeping is *not* a
SIDS
risk? I know there are articles out there as well about how
breastfeeding
can help reduce the risk of SIDS and I would appreciate direction to
those
as well.

--
Em
mama to L-baby, 5 months
(feeling a bit lazy asking others to do her legwork for her)

"Em" wrote in message news:l1gZb.362162$na.548892@attbi_s04...
(crossposted to MKB & MKP)

I found out at my LLL meeting tonight that the SIDS taskforce in town is
mounting an effort to have co-sleeping deemed a hotlineable offense (i.e.
you can be reported to the Division of Family Services *Child Abuse* hotline
for co-sleeping with your baby!). Anyway, as a Breastfeeding Coalition
member in my town I have been invited to attend a meeting of the SIDS
taskforce (along with the LLL leaders). I don't even know where to begin
addressing this proposed co-sleeping issue. My baby is five months old and
my time available to spend doing internet research is severely limited. I
really don't want to go to a meeting with only, "I know I've read
*somewhere* that co-sleeping is good."

So, I'm appealing to the informed participants of this newsgroup: can you
give me reputable sources that indicate that co-sleeping is *not* a SIDS
risk? I know there are articles out there as well about how breastfeeding
can help reduce the risk of SIDS and I would appreciate direction to those
as well.


One of the posters mentioned culture factor for cosleeping. In my case
I'm having to cosleep because that's the ONLY way my dd will go to
sleep. I tried every trick there is to make her sleep in the crib but
she just won't. For some moms like me, cosleeping is not a choice,
it's the only option. I love her dearly but honestly, I would've been
lot happier if she sleeps in the crib but she doesn't. The minute I
move an inch away from her, she wakes up no matter what time of the
night it is. I take all precautions to avoid SIDS but there's no way I
can do without cosleeping.

Hope these help if not exactly what you need:


http://www.mothering.com/editorials/editorial113.shtml

Also some info on this page

http://www.mothering.com/action-alerts/index.shtml

I think there is a more in depth Mothering article but I can't find it.

-- Dagny

"Em" wrote in message news:l1gZb.362162$na.548892@attbi_s04...

So, I'm appealing to the informed participants of this newsgroup: can you
give me reputable sources that indicate that co-sleeping is *not* a SIDS
risk?

From the perspective of a co-sleeping mama who loves it, unfortunately
I can't. You can quote James McKenna, who shows that co-sleeping
babies' breathing is more in sync with their moms and attempt to
extrapolate that therefore SIDS rates will be lower. You can quote
Dr. Sears, whose research standards are, shall we say, very much his
own. But you can't find hard data that supports the idea that
co-sleeping is protective against SIDS. So far all the hard data
shows the opposite.

Though moms and babies probably are evolved to sleep together, this
evolution didn't take place in the context of foam or innerspring
mattresses and pillows and blankets for warmth. Probably the safest
sleeping arrangement is mom and baby on a straw mat in a tropical
climate where no more than a light blanket is needed. At the same
time, making it a hotlineable offense is plain silly. Either those
proposing it are doing so as a publicity stunt or they're not too
bright.

Kate
and the Bug, 8 months

(ted) wrote in message

One of the posters mentioned culture factor for cosleeping. In my case
I'm having to cosleep because that's the ONLY way my dd will go to
sleep. I tried every trick there is to make her sleep in the crib but
she just won't. For some moms like me, cosleeping is not a choice,
it's the only option. I love her dearly but honestly, I would've been
lot happier if she sleeps in the crib but she doesn't. The minute I
move an inch away from her, she wakes up no matter what time of the
night it is. I take all precautions to avoid SIDS but there's no way I
can do without cosleeping.


same here. my 1 year old is the lightest sleeper ever. the only way
she will sleep is in my bed (although she is sleeping a little deeper
now that we've taken her bottle.) i don't have to cuddle with her or
touch her, but somehow she knows she is in my bed. we're about to
have a newborn, and i don't know what to do to solve this.

but the thought that anyone would call this a form of child abuse?
you can buy cosleeper units, both that kind that go in your bed and
the kind that attach onto it. there are articles all over the net
(i'm thinking particularly of ivillage.com) about the pros and cons.
studies have shown that it doesn't increase the risk of sids when the
appropriate precautions are taken, any more than allowing a child to
sleep on their stomach. let's face it, tummy sleeping is the only way
some babies will sleep.

whoever said that cosleeping is a cultural thing is correct. and
there are many many many more people here that do it than will admit
it because they're afraid of what other people will think - they're
baby's spoiled, they can't control their kids, etc. but to think that
someone would be so uncomfortable with what is one of the most natural
things in the world to try to label it child abuse is in my opinion
utter ridiculousness.

rsitter
mother of megan, 10, riley, 1, and chloe due in 5 1/2 weeks.

Em wrote:

(crossposted to MKB & MKP)

I found out at my LLL meeting tonight that the SIDS taskforce in town is
mounting an effort to have co-sleeping deemed a hotlineable offense (i.e.
you can be reported to the Division of Family Services *Child Abuse* hotline
for co-sleeping with your baby!).

Forget the research issue - what about invasion of one's privacy? Like
another poster suggested, then people should be reported for smoking in
the house of an infant.

Contact the ACLU

Jeanne