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The Negative Effects of Co-Sleeping

Along with perceived positive attributes of co-sleeping -- including convenience of proximity for the nursing mother, bonding and nearness to the infant during the night -- there are serious risks to co-sleeping that you must consider before deciding if co-sleeping is best for your baby.

  1. Fatal Furniture

    • If you place your infant in an adult bed, the child could be strangled or suffocated by the furniture. Babies can become wedged or trapped in between the headboard and mattress or between the bed and the wall. If a baby is sleeping on a waterbed, a soft mattress or a soft pillow, she can suffocate if she sleeps face down and doesn't turn around. Most adult beds are not configured for infants and the baby can get her head trapped between the bed frames.

    Deadly Bedmates

    • The American Academy of Pediatrics and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission strongly advise parents not to sleep with their babies in adult beds because it puts the infant at risk of injury or death. The parent or sibling -- or whoever else is in bed with the infant -- can roll atop or up against the baby, covering the child's mouth and nose, which suffocates the infant. Toddlers shouldn't be allowed to co-sleep with an infant because the toddler will not be as conscious of the infant's presence as an adult would be and he could roll over or up against the baby, which can result in suffocation.

    Danger When Parents are Under the Influence

    • Adults who have been drinking alcohol or using drugs should not sleep with their infant because this lessens their awareness of the child. An adult whose judgment is impaired by alcohol or drugs shouldn't be dealing with any child -- let alone sleeping with him -- because he may be sleeping sounder than he normally would, due to alcohol consumption or the effects of the drug. He probably won't be as alert or responsive as he would be if he were sober. If you roll over on your infant or pass out atop the baby, you could be charged with criminally negligent homicide.

    Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

    • The relationship between sudden infant death syndrome -- SIDS -- and co-sleeping is not clear. Some believe this practice increases the risk of SIDS while others disagree, noting that both the baby and the parents wake up more often during the night when they are co-sleeping, which lessens the chance of SIDS. After all, if the baby does stop breathing in his sleep, his parents would be more likely to notice it and attempt to revive him.

      According to James McKenna, Ph.D., director of the Mother and Baby Behavior Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, as long as a parent keeps in mind when she enters the bed and when she is asleep that there is a baby in bed -- and understands what could endanger the baby -- co-sleeping shouldn't be a safety risk. However, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a 1999 report that stated co-sleeping puts infants at risk.

    Sleep Association Problem

    • The baby begins associating sleep with his parents so he may not want to sleep alone when it's time to take a nap unless one or the other parent sleeps with them. Any parent who has allowed her infant or child to sleep in the parents' bed knows that the child becomes accustomed to it. It is difficult to turn this child away from this habit, even long after he is old enough to sleep on his own.

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