How Co Sleeping Can Affect A Family

In 1997, anthropologist James Mckenna and his colleagues conducted a study in a sleep laboratory at the University of California's Irvine School of Medicine. The study was to observed thirty-five nursing mother- infant pair sleeping together as well as apart for three consecutive nights. The infants were between eleven to fifteen weeks old. Twenty of the infants had been co sleeping since birth and the other fifteen had been independent sleepers. To observe they used many tools such as polygraph to record mother and infants heart rate, breathing rhythms, body temperature, the nursing cycles and even monitored their brain waves all of this along with watching their test subjects simultaneously on an infrared video monitor. What they found was quite unique, the infant and mother were highly responsive to each other and their movements. The infant and mother changed position of sleeping to face each other. They wake more frequently to nurse, and about twice as much as an independent sleeper and nurse three times longer but still get more sleep co sleeping than independent sleepers,

Dr. James McKenna of Notre Dame University’s Mother Baby Sleep Laboratory said “the bodies of women and their babies are more in sync when they sleep together, which helps the baby sleep better. Babies are designed to feel the presence of their parents. It is only a very recent and very strange cultural innovation that babies would be sleeping apart from their mothers. It is very much a departure from the normal human pattern.” (McKenna, et al., 1994)

The goal of this essay is to look at the pros and cons of co-sleeping through the analysis of the benefits for both the baby and the parents, the evolutionary argument, and the risks and downfalls associated with the practice. Co-sleeping offers health benefits through additional breast milk intake, an improved attachment bond, and improving a child’s ability to fall asleep. However, the negatives include many risks, most of which can be avoided with proper care, but which put an infant in danger of SIDS. These can take the forms of suffocation factors, environmental hazards, and the lesser problem of sleep-dependency. I take the position that co-sleeping is healthy and natural, and that I would rather see it encouraged and not discouraged, but I also recognize that there are a variety of risks involved with the process.

Furthermore, the education provided helped them to understand by each illustration was a reflection of the Safe to Sleep imitative. Modeling safe sleep not only benefited infants during hospitalization but benefited them after their discharge home. Staff were to model safe sleep by placing all infants in cribs supine, on a flat surface, in a sleep sack without a hat, and no addition items in their beds except a pacifier and bulb syringe.

Thesis: Sleep plays an essential part in a person’s health and well-being; the way we feel while awake is dependent upon what happens to your body while asleep.

One of the major points discussed is in sleeping in Houston is the deaths during bed sharing, the police say this is caused by suffocation during bed sharing and parents rolling onto their baby due to fatigue. This is countered in “Co-Sleeping research” By listing points that benefits, the argument for “Co-Sleeping” Such as babies are able to breastfeed during Co-sleeping another point is that the parent and the baby are highly responsive to each other movements also that babies rarely cry during the Co-Sleeping. During the time that I allowed my kids to sleep with, me the cried a lot, Furthermore, my children also breastfeed a lot. They would also wake me up so that they can play around. The children would wake me up to play with them, they

Hello, Abigail! I found your post very interesting, as it brought up some examples that I hadn't thought about. My mother breastfed all of her children, so I didn't really consider the increasing amount of women using milk-formula for their children. Whereas, in many other places breastfeeding is the norm. It is definitely an interesting thing, as breastfeeding is considered healthier and better for the child, yet it seems more and more people are choosing to use formula. I wonder if breastfeeding will make a come-back like co-sleeping currently is doing? Many doctors are worried about the comeback of co-sleeping, as it can be dangerous and they warn against it. By co-sleeping, they are specifically talking about same-bed sleeping, as many

One of the most controversial behaviours parents can do is adjust the babies sleeping environment. There have been multiple arguments on this topic; however, research has shown that a babies sleeping environment can impact their sleeping safety tremendously. Some safety precautions all care givers can do is: placing the baby on their back to sleep, keeping the crib clean and clear of any toys or pillows, don’t overheat the baby with clothes or blankets instead try a sleeping sack, and lastly allow the baby to sleep in the caregivers room for the first six months or until the infant is capable of rolling over on their own. Another way to help prevent SIDS is by using a pacifier. Strangely enough, pacifiers can reduce the risk of SIDS due to the fact that they help prevent a baby from going into a deep sleep. Though, caregivers need to take precaution when doing this if an infant is breast feeding as they should not be introduced to pacifiers until they are nursing well. Consequently, one of the easiest ways to prevent SIDS is to not ignore sicknesses, especially respiratory related issues. In the first year of an infant’s life something as simple as a cough or old can impact them greatly. By taking an infant to a clinic, doctor, or even the emergency room as soon as any signs of sickness strike could save their life. Ultimately, there is no guaranteed that these precautions will work and unfortunately SIDS does happen. Despite that, there are multiple ways for caregivers to cope with this

One practice that I disagree with would be the concept of co-sleeping in the family bed. In our culture this practice consists of children sleeping with their parents, this practice is common. The reality that is faced amongst many American households is the idea of the family bed has been taken hold by the children. Since there are many mothers who are working long hours and away from their children they believe that they should make up time because of their missed attachment time. So they decide to share their beds. Another reason they share the bed is because they believe there's no other feeling like the feeling of having their baby snuggled next to them in bed to heighten the feeling of closeness. Sharing a bed can also make breastfeeding

Everyday I wake up feeling like a ton of bricks have just hit me. I have had to go to work with a busted lip. I have even awakened to find bruises on different parts of my body. Although it may sound as if I sleep on a construction site, I actually sleep in my queen size bed along with my three and six year old sons. I began co-sleeping with each of them at birth. It made life much easier during the infant phase of their lives. But that phase has been long gone. I believe that I was able to bond even more with my children through co sleeping. But now I find myself too often tired and unable to concentrate on tasks. While parents who co sleep feel closer to their children, co sleeping is a common issue for parents.

W. Bradford Wilcox and Philip N. Cohen have different perspective on cohabitation and parenting. Wilcox is against cohabiting couples raising children. Wilcox has sort of defined the types of cohabiting couples, but it appears to have been lost in his argument (Cohen, “Cohabitation Dustup Followup Thoughts”). Cohen describes the two types of cohabiting family. The biological or adoptive parents who are unmarried are one type of cohabitating couple (Cohen, “Cohabitation Dustup Followup Thoughts”). The other type is one biological parent (normally a woman) and a partner who is not the actual parent to the child called step-cohabitating arrangements (Cohen, “Cohabitation Dustup Followup Thoughts”). Cohen has written two blog posts discussing and rebuking Wilcox stance.

The significantly powerful influence of breastfeeding on infants’ lives is undeniable; thus, breastfeeding should be promoted and supported. Ample evidence has recognized the important role that bed-sharing plays in fostering breastfeeding. A study conducted by McKenna, Mosko, and Richard (1997) examined the association between breastfeeding and bed-sharing by monitoring the duration and frequency of breastfeeding between co-sleeping infants and solitary sleeping infants. The results showed that bed-sharing was related to extended duration of breastfeeding with co-slept infants being breastfed three times longer amid the night compared to solitary sleeping infants, demonstrating that bed-sharing was positively correlated to breastfeeding, as the frequency of bed-sharing increases, breastfeeding also increases. One explanation for bed-sharing encouraging breastfeeding is that bed-sharing enabled mothers to detect their infants’ subtle changes and movements that

A major disadvantage of the air crib is that the parents might spend less time soothing the baby when it cries. According to developmentalists, babies cannot be spoiled in their first year of life (Santrock, pg 180). So it follows that any time spent soothing the baby could only support the infant’s emotional stability. Along this line of thought, developing proper attachment between the baby and the parents is rather important. So again, one of the main questions is how much time a caregiver needs to spend with an infant for them to develop this

     Finally, sleep is lost and never will be regained. During the first year of a baby’s life, parents, especially mothers, lose 700 or more hours of sleep. That is a lot. No wonder parents look like a walking zombie. When babies do sleep through the night, parents still wake up to check on them to make sure that they are comfortable and everything is all right. Unfortunately, babies aren’t the only cause for loss of sleep. Teenagers are to. They go out and stay

In the independent model of parenting lots of praise is given. When I become a parent I plan to praise my child when they do tasks on their own. Praise will give the child confidence and perseverance to continue to do well. Children who never get praised may end up feeling like a disappointment or failure to their parents. It’s important for children to find their voice and not always have a parent speak up for them like in the interdependence model. I also believe it’s extremely important for a child to sleep in their own room. “The Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend co-sleeping because Western beds are not designed for that'd infant deaths are attributed to parents’ rolling over on the child.” (Brooks, 2013) Co-sleeping is not only