Once again, SIDS and co-sleeping is in the news:
Researchers say the results of this study show that sharing a couch to sleep, sleeping in a room alone, and sleeping in bed with parent are also associated with an increased risk of SIDS.
"The safest place for your baby to sleep is in a cot [crib] in your room for the first six months," states researcher David Tappin, MD, MPH, of the University of Glasgow, in a news release.
I say, note the "in your room" part. I'll blog more on this when I see the article in the Journal of Pediatrics, which is not yet online.
UPDATE: I just gained access through the University of Minnesota. As far as I know the article is not available online to non-subscribers, but it may be in your local library. The reference is D. Tappin, R. Ecob, and H. Brooke, "Bedsharing, roomsharing, and sudden infant death syndrome in Scotland: a case-control study." J Pediatrics 147, 32-37 (2005).
It's important to realize that SIDS is by definition a catch-all. From the website of the American SIDS institute, http://www.sids.org:
SIDS is the sudden death of an infant under one year of age which remains
unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including performance of a complete
autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history. (Willinger
et al, 1991).
In other words, any unexplained sudden death of an infant is SIDS. Find an explanation,
and it's not SIDS.
Of course, when I want to know my child's sleeping risks, I don't care whether it's
explainable or not. I only want to know what is the risk of my child dying from
all causes.
The absolute difference in risk (as opposed to the percent increase in risk) would have to be significantly large for me to give up the tangible benefits of co-sleeping. What all these news
reports always miss is some perspective, some comparison of the absolute risks involved
to the absolute risks of other activities (e.g., driving) or the risks of other
choices. For example, how much does it increase our children's risk of death when
we leave them with babysitters? I don't know the answer, but given that almost
all of us do it to some extent, it would be interesting to compare to the increase
in death rates (if there is one) from co-sleeping.
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