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

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

HollyLewis wrote:

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?

You want the research of James McKenna, which is written about extensively by
Meredith Small in the book _Our Babies, Ourselves_ (there is a chapter
specifically about sleep). Unfortunately, I have no idea how to go about
finding actual abstracts or the like on the 'net, but perhaps someone here
does. But go get the Small book and use her annotations.

Em-

Per Holly's suggestion, I looked up McKenna on pubmed and
have a word document with his abstracts. Haven't gone
through it all, but if you want the abstracts, let me know and
I can email it to you. I can get some of the articles in
pdf format (especially in the last 6-7 years).

Mary

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

I don't know what the consequences are, but lately I've noticed at the hospital
where I work, that the social worker will be called in to "warn" parents of the
"dangers" of co-sleeping.

However, nothing seems to be done in the case of the parents who are there with
their sick children and *never* pick them up or interact with them.

Maryilee

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"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

On 20 Feb 2004 17:49:59 GMT, ojunk (Maryilee) wrote:
I don't know what the consequences are, but lately I've noticed at the hospital
where I work, that the social worker will be called in to "warn" parents of the
"dangers" of co-sleeping.

When I had my babies, nothing was ever said to me about keeping them
in bed with me in the hospital, and I noticed the nurses would make a
note on the chart that the baby was in bed with me. A couple of times
I've been told by a nurse that I can put the baby in the bassinet
provided.

However, nothing seems to be done in the case of the parents who are there with
their sick children and *never* pick them up or interact with them.

(
Marie

(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

"Marie" skrev i en meddelelse
...
On 20 Feb 2004 17:49:59 GMT, ojunk (Maryilee) wrote:
I don't know what the consequences are, but lately I've noticed at the
hospital
where I work, that the social worker will be called in to "warn" parents
of the
"dangers" of co-sleeping.

When I had my babies, nothing was ever said to me about keeping them
in bed with me in the hospital, and I noticed the nurses would make a
note on the chart that the baby was in bed with me. A couple of times
I've been told by a nurse that I can put the baby in the bassinet
provided.

At my hospital - 6 years ago - I was told: Put the baby next to you. You'll
both sleep better. You don't need the bassinet.

Tine, Denmark

"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!).

Sounds like a urban legend to me.

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.

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.

I asked this question months ago. At the time no one could find a
recent
peer reviewed study which compared night time death rates in
co-sleepers
vs. crib sleepers, and found lower rates for the co-sleepers. One
woman
claimed she would find the studies, but that was three months ago, and
she
has never posted any.

On the other hand, finding studies showing that co-sleeping is MORE
dangerous is easy. There are lots:

|
Co-Sleeping Safety Data (Update 3: Jan 22, 2004)

This is a annotated bibliography covering the safety of co-sleeping
with
infants. I have included EVERY study, which I can find an on-line
abstract
(or the entire paper is on line) in English, which meets the following
criteria:
1. The research was published in 2000 or later.
2. The research was peer reviewed.
3. The research focused on actual death rates (not suspected causes
or
mechanisms).
4. The research compared death rates for co-sleepers vs.
non-co-sleepers.
5. The research was done in developed (not third world) countries.
This bibliography does NOT include editorials, opinion pieces, or
letters to
the editor. The main sources for these abstracts are PubMed, SCIRUS,
and web
archives of medical journals. If you find any other studies, please
tell me,
so I can add them.


Summary: of the nine studies found, seven found co-sleeping to be more
dangerous
than cot sleeping, and two studies found no added danger from
co-sleeping. No
study found co-sleeping safer than cot sleeping. Not one. Some of
the studies
focused on SIDS, some focused on suffocation, some covered both.

Quotes from the Research:

"The most conservative estimate showed that the risk of
suffocation increased by 20-fold when infants were placed to sleep in
adult
beds rather than in cribs. The public should be clearly informed of
the
attendant risks." [SCHE03]

"Almost all SIDS deaths in Alaska occurred in association with prone
sleeping,
bed sharing, or sleeping outside a crib." [GESS01]

"bed sharing showed an increased risk of dying accidentally, when
compared
with infants sleeping in designated infant containers" [BEAL00]

"Bed-sharing appears to increase the proportion of unexplained deaths,
regardless of the position of the infant." [THOG00]

The Papers:

[BEAL00]
Sudden infant death syndrome in South Australia 1968-97. Part 3: is
bed sharing
safe for infants?
Beal SM, Byard RW
J Paediatr Child Health 2000 Dec 36:552-4
http://reviews.bmn.com/medline/searc...9&refer=scirus
"bed sharing showed an increased risk of dying accidentally, when
compared
with infants sleeping in designated infant containers"

[CARP04]
Sudden unexplained infant death in 20 regions in Europe: case control
study
R G Carpenter, L M Irgens, P S Blair, P D England, P Fleming, J Huber,
G Jorch, P Schreuder
Lancet 2004; 363: 185-91
http://www.thelancet.com
"For mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy, OR for
bed-sharing was
very small (at 2 weeks 2·4 [1·2-4·6]) and only significant during
the
first 8 weeks of life."
One way to phrase this in a one sentence headline is:
Co-sleeping with children under 2 months old was a significant
risk factor for SIDS.

[CARR01]
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Bedsharing, Parental Weight, and Age at
Death
Cindie Carroll-Pankhurst and Edward A. Mortimer Jr
PEDIATRICS Vol. 107 No. 3 March 2001, pp. 530-536
http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...ode=pediatrics
"By demonstrating that among an urban population at high risk for
SIDS,
bedsharing is strongly associated with a younger age at death,
independent
of any other factors, this study provides evidence of a
relationship
between some SIDS-like deaths and parent-infant bedsharing,
particularly
if the parent is large."

[FERN03]
Sleep Environment and the Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in an
Urban
Population: The Chicago Infant Mortality Study
Fern R. Hauck, Stanislaw M. Herman, Mark Donovan, Solomon Iyasu,
Cathryn Merrick
Moore, Edmund Donoghue, Robert H. Kirschner, and Marian Willinger
Pediatrics 2003; 111: 1207-1214
http://pediatrics.aappublications.or.../111/5/S1/1207
"Several factors related to the sleep environment during last
sleep were
associated with higher risk of SIDS: ... bed sharing overall (OR:
2.7;
95% CI: 1.8–4.2), bed sharing with parent(s) alone (OR: 1.9; 95%
CI:
1.2–3.1), and bed sharing in other combinations (OR: 5.4; 95% CI:
2.8–10.2)"

[GESS01]
Association between sudden infant death syndrome and prone sleep
position,
bed sharing, and sleeping outside an infant crib in Alaska.
Gessner BD, Ives GC, Perham-Hester KA.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
"Almost all SIDS deaths in Alaska occurred in association with
prone
sleeping, bed sharing, or sleeping outside a crib."

[IYAS03]
Risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome among northern plains
Indians.
Iyasu S, Randall LL, Welty TK, Hsia J, Kinney HC, Mandell F, McClain
M, Randall
B, Habbe D, Wilson H, Willinger M. JAMA. 2002 Dec 4;288(21):2717-23.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
Found that infants who died were more likely to co-sleep (59.4%
vs.
55.4%), but this relation was not statistically significant.

[SCHE03]
Where Should Infants Sleep? A Comparison of Risk for Suffocation of
Infants Sleeping in Cribs,
Adult Beds, and Other Sleeping Locations
N. J. Scheers, PhD, George W. Rutherford, MS and James S. Kemp, MD
PEDIATRICS Vol. 112 No. 4 October 2003, pp. 883-889
http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...ode=pediatrics
"Reported deaths of infants who suffocated on sleep surfaces other
than those designed for infants are increasing. The most
conservative
estimate showed that the risk of suffocation increased by 20-fold
when
infants were placed to sleep in adult beds rather than in cribs.
The
public should be clearly informed of the attendant risks."

[THOG00]
Sleep position and bed-sharing in sudden infant deaths: An examination
of
autopsy findings
Jon R. Thogmartin MD, Charles F. Siebert, Jr MD and William A. Pellan
AS
From Palm Beach County Medical Examiner Office, West Palm Beach,
Florida.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...f85336bdc6f88d
The Journal of Pediatrics Volume 138, Issue 2 , February 2001, Pages
212-217
"Bed-sharing appears to increase the proportion of unexplained
deaths,
regardless of the position of the infant."

[WILL03]
Are risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome different at night?
Williams SM, Mitchell EA, Taylor BJ.
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of
Medicine,
University of Otago, New Zealand.
Arch Dis Child. 2002 Oct;87(4):274-8.
"The interactions between time of death and bed sharing, not
sleeping
in a cot or bassinet, ... [several other factors] were also
significant,
or almost so."

Papers Not Listed

[ARNE01]
Changes in the epidemiological pattern of sudden infant death syndrome
in southeast
Norway, 1984-1998: implications for future prevention and research.
Arnestad M, Andersen M, Vege A , Rognum TO
Arch Dis Child 2001 Aug 85:108-15
"For SIDS victims, an increase in the number of infants found dead
while
co-sleeping is seen"
This paper was not included above because it was unclear if the quote
was due
to the popularity of co-sleeping, or if the rate of death was
increasing.

[WILL01]
Scott Med J. 2001 Apr;46(2):43-7.
Sudden unexpected infant deaths in Dundee, 1882-1891: overlying or
SIDS?
Williams FL, Lang GA, Mage DT.
"It might be prudent to inform parents that co-sleeping is a risk
factor
for SIDS and that it should therefore be avoided."
Although this study technically fulfills all the requirements, it's
focus on
deaths over 100 years ago caused me not to list it above.

[MUKA99]
Leg Med (Tokyo). 1999 Sep;1(1):18-24.
Sleeping environments as risk factors of sudden infant death syndrome
in Japan.
Mukai T, Tamaki N, Sato Y, Ohno Y, Miyazaki T, Nagamori H, Hara S,
Endo T.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Tokyo Medical University, 160-8402,
Tokyo,
Japan
"In addition, the co-sleeping habit, which was not uncommon in
Japan, seems
to contribute to certain deaths of infants whose causes of death
were
controversial. In the investigation of SIDS, therefore, the
sleeping
environments, such as bedclothes and the co-sleeping habit, as
well as
the sleeping position should be taken into consideration as risk
factors."
This study was published one year before my cut-off, so it is not
included
above. However because many people claim data from Japan shows the
safety of
co-sleeping, including it here.

Some Famous Papers That Didn't Make It (and Why)

The McKenna papers are very popular on AP and co-sleeping web sites,
but none are included for two reasons: they are all way too old, and
none of them measured actualy death rates in children. Really! These
papers which supposedly justify co-sleeping as an anti-SIDS method
NEVER studied babies who died of SIDS!

A more serious problem with McKenna's work is that it was based on
a discredited theory of SIDS. The modern view of McKenna work is
that is shows a serious problem with co-sleeping. That co-sleeping
infants are under stress. For example:

[HUNS02]
The sleep of co-sleeping infants when they are not co-sleeping:
evidence
that co-sleeping is stressful
Hunsley M, Thoman EB Dev Psychobiol. 2002
Jan;40(1):14-22.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
"Each of these differences indicates a markedly lower arousal
level in the long-term co-sleeping infants. This sleep pattern
has been repeatedly found to be an indicator of stress. We infer
that a major source of stress for these infants is the experience
of sleep disturbance documented for infants when they were
co-sleeping.
Based on extensive evidence for long-term effects of early
stress, we
conclude that co-sleeping should have significant implications
for
infants' neurobehavioral development."

The famous 1999 study by the Consumer Product Safty Commission (a US
government department responsible for regulating cribs and beds) is
not
included here because it was published one year before the cut off.
It found
serious risk associated with co-sleeping, just as all the studies here
did.

Many people ask about Dr. Sears's research, but I can not find a
single
peer-reviewed paper every published by Dr. Sears. I have looked at
some of
his web pages, and although they often state that co-sleeping is
protective of
SIDS, the papers he cites are typically very hold (mid 1980s to
1990s). He
cites papers my McKenna and others in the same lab: Moska, and
Richard, which
did not study infants with SIDS at all.

Other web pages I've seen have vague references to "New Zealand
studies" or
"British studies", which are not specific enough to track down. I
suspect
they refer to very old research, but it is impossible to tell.

General Background Information

Odds ratios (OR) are a way of measuring extra risk. An equally risky
activity would have an OR of 1.0 Something three times as dangerous
would have an OR of 3.0. For various reasons, odds ratios of less
than 2.0 are not usually considered significant.

For comparison, the OR for getting lung cancer if you smoke is 20.0.

Joshua Levy

"Mary W." wrote in message
HollyLewis wrote:

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?

You want the research of James McKenna, which is written about
extensively by
Meredith Small in the book _Our Babies, Ourselves_ (there is a chapter
specifically about sleep). Unfortunately, I have no idea how to go
about
finding actual abstracts or the like on the 'net, but perhaps someone
here
does. But go get the Small book and use her annotations.

Em-

Per Holly's suggestion, I looked up McKenna on pubmed and
have a word document with his abstracts. Haven't gone
through it all, but if you want the abstracts, let me know and
I can email it to you. I can get some of the articles in
pdf format (especially in the last 6-7 years).

Thanks, Mary. I would like the info. The address in the header works if you
take out the spam block.

Thanks to all who are posting info. I don't have much time to respond, but
I'm reading all posts and appreciate it so much!

--
Em
mama to L-baby, 5 months