Article against co sleeping on slate.com

[suprnoodle]

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2012/03/mayim_bialik_s_beyond_the_sling_doesn_t_give_all_the_facts_on_bed_sharing.html

Would love to hear what people think of this. It is obviously biased and one sided (it was sent to me by a "mainstream" mom who likes to provoke)

But I am not very good at rebuttals generally....


Thoughts??

[prone_to_wander]

Arg. All of the reasons the author gave for the dangers of co-sleeping is unsafe co-sleeping. Harder beds, no smoking, no mood-altering drugs, no massive blankets and suffocating pillows. Of course it isn't safe if your baby is snuggled up in a massive blanket beside dad who drank 3 beers before getting into bed. We should be promoting safe co-sleeping since as the author points out, most of parents do it anyways.

[angelarose1]

Incredibly poor argument, she clearly doesn't understand that SIDS is not death by smothering, suffocation, overheating, or any other known cause. The baby stops breathing for reasons unknown, if you know the reason it isn't labeled SIDS. Secondly, doing ANYTHING in an unsafe manner will increase risk of death or harm. Her only real argument is against co-sleeping irresponsibly but she tries to broaden it to co-sleeping altogether. Co-sleeping is safe when done responsibly and that can't be disputed.

[illiterati]

I admit I only quickly skimmed the article but I don't find it as disagreeable as I thought I would based on these comments. It seems like the author concludes at the end that there are some advantages to bed sharing and she condones it when done safely. She seemed to mostly be critiquing Mayim Bialik's book saying it doesn't put enough emphasis on the precautions needed to cosleep safely. And when she says that she condemns it from a public health perspective I maybe see her point, although I feel sheepish saying it. I do agree with the previous poster that she seems to conflate SIDS and explained infant death. Also she does have a pretty snotty tone throughout. And in the interest of full disclosure we cosleep with our 13 month old and have since birth. And yes, it does look a bit like a hostel here with our bed on the floor

[Queenmom2006]

I really wish that the aap would promote safe co sleeping practices. I don't think fear is a good educational tool.

[GoddessKristie]

I'm with AngelaRose1, the author shows a real lack of knowledge by confusing death by suffocation and SIDS for the entire article. Most importantly, this is an editorial piece, She references some organizations, but it's her opinion of what someone else is doing. I would respond with a fact/study-based article. There's a man at Notre Dame who studies co-sleeping for a living. Here is a link to the website, there is a nice collection of articles you could respond with.

http://cosleeping.nd.edu/