Co-Sleeping's Benefits Don't Outweigh the Risks

Six babies. Six deaths this year. And a common denominator: A parent or caretaker is suspected of falling asleep alongside the baby.

No issue sparks such heated debate on parenting as "co-sleeping," rivaled perhaps only by breast-feeding in public.

The co-sleeping debate usually revolves around two positions: Don't do it — ever. And, do it — but safely.

Put us in the first camp — not because we don't know that it can, in fact, be done safely but because, people being people, there is no guarantee that it will be done that way. The rules seem simple, but any number of things can and do go wrong.

The claimed benefits of co-sleeping are compelling. We acknowledge that parents who co-sleep often do so for the noblest and most logical of reasons.

For instance:

Breast-feeding is good. A baby awakening at night right next to mom is likelier to get breast-fed.

Parent and baby sleep cycles mesh better. Mom or dad don't have to get up.

A baby feels safe by having mom or dad nearby. A comforted, nurtured baby sleeps better.

Co-sleeping results in parent-child bonding. This is particularly important for parents who are separated from their child during the day.

Good reasons, all. But those benefits can be achieved by other means that minimize risk to babies.

We come back to the tragedies occurring far too frequently in Milwaukee. The latest occurred Tuesday. A 2-month-old girl was found dead after co-sleeping with her father.

More on this case later.

A common retort from advocates is that deadly co-sleeping cases are significantly different from the norm.

For instance:

Most homes with babies in them also have cribs.

As the argument goes, babies that die are sleeping with their parents in their parents' beds or on sofas or with other children, because low-income families, in particular, may lack cribs or adequate sleep space.

And most parents are responsible enough to know they shouldn't party hearty and then fall asleep with their children — as has occurred in a few of the recent cases, though, from initial reports, not necessarily in the latest and not in all cases.

Yet, we suspect that babies get laid down in the "best" of homes next to mom or dad on sofas, on blankets on the floor and on parents' beds not simply for lack of cribs.

Often, we're guessing, for parental convenience.

We know that older kids take care of younger kids — and fall asleep with them — in the most caring of homes.

We know that drunkenness or drug stupors aren't the norm in most homes, but a whole lot of homes have alcohol in them. It's there with the intent that some adult in the house will imbibe. And alcohol — even consumed in quantities that don't induce drunkenness — acts as a depressant, with varying effects depending on weight, tolerance and metabolism and with varying degrees of judgment impairment.

We know that parents who read this and others, otherwise counseled, will still co-sleep — unthinkingly, because they believe they have no alternative, or with good intentions.

Don't do it and remove all chance that a baby will be accidentally suffocated. We would add if you do co-sleep, make sure there isn't enough space between headboards, frames and mattresses so that a baby's head can get stuck; waterbeds are always a bad idea.

No crib?

The Hope Network, as we've previously reported, provides cribs to homes in need. You can see what the Hope Network has to offer at http://www.hopenetworkinc.org.

When it comes to babies, let them sleep on their backs, with their heads uncovered and alone in their cribs. This is the safest bet.

Yes, co-sleeping can be done safely. But with such risk, why take such chances?

Back to that latest case. A Journal Sentinel article on Thursday reported that the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare determined that another child suffered a brain injury last year as a result of being shaken by one of the dead child's parents. No criminal charges were filed.

Why? Was there adequate follow-up with the family? Good questions that should be answered.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.

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