Sharing the bedroom or even the parental bed with your baby, the term co-sleeping is debated among early childhood specialists. Should you sleep with your infant or not? Opinions differ.

Many professionals encourage parents to sleep in the same room as their child until they are 5 or 6 months old because the co-sleeping would have multiple benefits. It would, for example, promote breastfeeding since, according to studies, mothers who do not have to get up at night breastfeed 3 times longer than others, but also promote sleep for parents and limit their fatigue since the baby is close at hand to hug and comfort him. Finally, by having a constant eye on the newborn, mothers would be more responsive and attentive to the slightest abnormal signals and symptoms.

This practice would also allow parents and children to forge a strong bond and give the little one a feeling of security. A kind of continuity between his intrauterine life and his arrival with his family, the infant would regain a feeling of fullness.

In his own bed or when sharing his parents’ bed, safety rules must absolutely be followed to the letter:

• A baby should never sleep on a soft mattress, sofa, car seat or carrier and bouncer. He must not remain alone in an adult bed, in the presence of other children or an animal;
• Parents should not sleep with a little one during extreme fatigue, alcohol, drug or medication use. Otherwise, the adult could move and / or roll over the child and not realize it;
• The infant should be lying only on his back (for the night or a nap) and not be in the presence of pillows, sheets or duvets. If you are worried that he will be cold, opt for a sleeping bag or sleeping bag adapted to his age. The temperature of the chamber should also be between 18 and 20 ° C;
• Finally, it is important to ensure that the baby is placed in a secure environment without the risk of falls and that he cannot get stuck and run out of air.

This sudden infant death syndrome causes an unforeseeable respiratory arrest, most often while the baby is sleeping and without any specific medical cause. By sharing the room or the bed of his parents, the newborn is both safer and more in danger than in his own bed and his own room. Safer on the one hand, because his mother is more attentive and may be able to notice a state of suffocation during a night awakening, and on the other hand, more in danger in the event that he could be suffocated by the parent’s bedding or poor sleeping position.

It is therefore essential to respect the safety instructions mentioned in the previous paragraph regarding the bedtime of the baby and why not prepare a cradle or bassinet independent of the parents’ bed. Independent but close to his parents, this version of the co-sleeping seems to present more advantages than disadvantages and limit the risks to his health.

After too long a co-sleeping period, some professionals argue that it would then be difficult for the child to detach from his mother and find his bed and a calm sleep, which is nevertheless necessary for his good development. A period of isolation would follow, complicated for him to live with, especially if the co-sleeping continues beyond the first months of his life.

Married life would also be the big loser of this trend, since the child sometimes stays until he is 1 year old and therefore imposes a very limited sex life on his parents. Finally, the father, sometimes excluded from privileged exchanges between mother and child, could also find that the practice of co-sleeping is an obstacle to forging links with his own child. So before getting started, it is better to discuss it as a couple to make sure that everyone is on the same wavelength.

In Europe this practice is still discreet and even quite taboo, but abroad, many countries recommend co-sleeping for young parents.