Cosleeping and Your Baby
Making Cosleeping as Safe as Possible
If you do choose to share your bed with your baby, make sure to follow these precautions:
- Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS.
- Always leave your child’s head uncovered while sleeping.
- Make sure your bed’s headboard and footboard don’t have openings or cutouts that could trap your baby’s head.
- Make sure your mattress fits snugly in the bed frame so that your baby won’t become trapped in between the frame and the mattress.
- Don’t place a baby to sleep in an adult bed alone.
- Don’t use pillows, comforters, quilts, and other soft or plush items on the bed.
- Don’t drink alcohol or use medications or drugs that may keep you from waking and may cause you to roll over onto, and therefore suffocate, your baby.
- Don’t place your bed near draperies or blinds where your child could be strangled by cords.
Transitioning Out of the Parent’s Bed
Most medical experts say the safest place to put an infant to sleep is in a crib that meets current standards and has no soft bedding. But if you’ve been cosleeping with your little one and would like to stop, talk to your doctor about making a plan for when your baby will sleep in a crib.
Transitioning to the crib by 6 months is usually easier — for both parents and baby — before the cosleeping habit is ingrained and other developmental issues (such as separation anxiety) come into play. Eventually, though, the cosleeping routine will likely be broken at some point, either naturally because the child wants to or by the parents’ choice.
But there are ways that you can still keep your little one close by, just not in your bed. You could:
- Put a bassinet, play yard, or crib next to your bed. This can help you maintain that desired closeness, which can be especially important if you’re breastfeeding. The AAP says that having an infant sleep in a separate crib, bassinet, or play yard in the same room as the mother reduces the risk of SIDS.
- Buy a device that looks like a bassinet or play yard minus one side, which attaches to your bed to allow you to be next to each other while eliminating the possibility of rolling over onto your infant.
Of course, where your child sleeps — whether it’s in your bed or a crib — is a personal decision. As you’re weighing the pros and cons, talk to your child’s doctor about the risks, possible personal benefits, and your family’s own sleeping arrangements.
Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD
Date reviewed: May 2008
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