ARGGH!! New AAP recommendation against co-sleeping - Page 2

[MrsT]

I don't ever mention where my baby sleeps to my ped and since she told me to stop feeding my 4 month old bfed baby when he woke at night b/c it was "rewarding" him for waking - I stopped telling her ANYTHING about sleep at all.

I don't get why they are qualified to talk about co-sleeping in the first place since they obviously don't do their own research on it. This whole new recommendation irritates me b/c it makes NO sense. Like pps have mentioned, pacis are boob substitutes!! Why is it okay to give your baby a silicone nipple to suck on, but not the real thing? And what if your baby rolls himself on his side to sleep? And if they are in a crib, how would you even know how they are positioned? (Because even little babies can move- mine's been rolling to his side since he was a few weeks old!!!) IMO, having him in my bed has been safer! He has a human paci, I am able to know his position, I can sense his breathing pattern and he mine, and I wake at the tiniest movements he makes b/c I'm more in tune with him. Ugh.

All this AAP guideline is going to do is make it more difficult to defend my co-sleeping to my friends who previously would just make "oh, you're setting up a bad habit and will never get him out of your bed!" comments. Now they'll add unsafe to their arsenal and use it to champion CIO! :

[natesmamma]

I just heard it on NPR while sitting here at work. A female Dr was being intervied about it. I logged on here immediately to see if there was a post.

I am very disappointed... but I am not going to stop cosleeping.

[aentwood]

So, I basically wanted to throw up when I heard the tickler for the evening news about this. My first thought was "they must have interpreted something wrong...I'll have to get the real story and tell them they've misread the statement." But, alas, it appears they were right.

This is particularly frustrating for me since I am now the Executive Director of a state Chapter of the AAP. This is a new job and it is allowing me to be home with my child while still working on causes I care about, so I am very sensitive to any issues that I don't agree with. I don't want to feel that I am working for something that I don't believe in. Not that my chapter actively promotes all the National policies, but there is that affiliation and assumed agreement, you know? Wouldn't life be easier if you didn't have principles and just did whatever television and popular culture told you to do?

Anyway, you can get the entire AAP statement on their website, but there really isn't any way to put up an "academic"/research disagreement to it without reviewing the literature they cite (which is a lot and I do not have the time to read all 137 studies they cite). SO, I also hope that Mothering or someone will look at their policy recommendations further and talk about the research.

Here is something interesting in their recommendations: "the evidence is growing that bed sharing, AS PRACTICED IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES, is more hazardous than the infant sleeping on a separate sleep surface". So, how is bed sharing practiced in non-US and non-Western countries that doesn't increase the risk of SIDS? Anyone know?

This comes out just as I was about to post something about worrying about our co-sleeping arrangement since my son has now started to slide down the bed at weird angles and ends up with his head within rolling-over distance of my DH or on his side with his face very close to my pillow! Geesh, like I need one more thing to worry about him...doesn't it seem that it is so easy to worry about our babies dying from the second they are born (or even concieved)? I refuse to live in constant fear, but it's hard not to with all the messages being thrown at you.

Anyway, I am rambling. I think I won't answer the telephone until the fallout from this happens and someone comes up with counter-arguments for the AAPs reccommendations. I am sure my family will start calling after they see their evening news! Argh.

[midwestmom]

: : : : : I am so pissed right now that my heart is racing. This is all we need. I don't think that I can even say anymore right now without much profanity.

[vegaenglit]

i always love the "the baby could roll and get trapped in the footboard or headboard" argument. is the baby sleeping at the foot of the bed like thefamily dog? or being used as a pillow? the only time lucien has gotten "trapped" at the foot of the bed was went he was fully awake and squirming off the bed.

and as for the "there are other ways to bond with your baby" BS. i worked for the first year of my sons life. except for on weekends, night co-sleeping was the just about the only real time i had with him. in the morning i was rushing to get out the door, then there was time on the train home from work and maybe an hour when i got home - then he was ready for bed. and co-sleeping was just about the only way i got enough sleep to function at work. there were a few times i woke up and panicked "wheres the baby" but they were few and far inbetween and even in the winter when there were tones of blankets, he was always safe.

and i dont know about this "total ban on cosleeping." are we going to arrest parents for "endangering/neglecting" their child? how does one enforce this ban? who finds out about incidents of co-sleeping? are family and friends supposed to rat out each other?

[rozzie'sma]

I don't care about the AAP. They don't know what they are talking about. It's just sad so many people need someone to tell them how to parent. Kids were a lot better off before they became a cash cow

[BetsyPage]

I almost think that "purposeful" co-sleeping is being grouped together with "fell asleep with baby in unsafe place- accidental co-sleeping." These are two different issues. I assume that where co-sleeping is the norm, people intuitively practice culturally-appropriate safe co-sleeping... Don't many families in other cultures sleep on mats on the floor & have less bedding, for example? The basic principles behind this can easily be translated to US-style sleeping. Throwing out co-sleeping for all because some people don't do it safely is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[RedWine]

Further proof that the AAP is useless. There are so many flaws with the research and conclusions that I don't know where to begin. But it doesn't matter to our family anyway -- we've never followed the (woefully ignorant) AAP guidelines on anything, why would we start now?

[MoMommy]

AHHHHHH!! This is infuriating! I'm so sad for the babies/families who will miss out on the closeness provided by co-sleeping. Apparently my grandma already called my mom this morning to get her to talk me out of sleeping with my dd. Sorry, nope!

[RedWine]

I hereby declare my Magic Eight Ball to be more intelligent and more informed than the AAP.

[bamamom]

arg they must not know how to cosleep

[Nature]

OMG... that article and the reccomendations sicken me. Literally. My husband and I are appauled that they would change their positions to "ban" co-sleeping. Pfffftttt on them.

[natashaccat]

This makes me so sad, I feel so helpless to fight this ignorance. What can a layman do? Why can't they get their heads around safe vs unsafe co-sleeping?

[plantmama]

Ick...
I hope my ped. doesn't remember that we cosleep so she won't give us crap for it next visit.
I remember being convinced that we could not have a family bed before ds was born because we would roll over on him, so we got a cosleeper, but he rarely slept in it. You just KNOW where your baby is. We also had our bed set up with a body pillow against the wall and the cosleeper against the other side. Now we have our bed on the floor. If you want to have a family bed it's possible to make it safe for everyone by making these adjustments. Wouldn't it be nice if the AAP could make these kind of suggestions instead of instituting a catagorical "ban" on cosleeping???
What does the ban mean anyway? That they will report you for endangering your child if you tell them you cosleep???
I read this article this morning and knew there would be something here on it. Glad to know we're not alone.

[counterGOPI]

Originally Posted by bamamom

arg they must not know how to cosleep

thats why i want to make sure im doing it correctly, can someone please help me out?
<3,
nicole

[counterGOPI]

p.s. we actually have a good ped that encourages our co-sleeping

[kate~mom]

Originally Posted by natesmamma

I just heard it on NPR while sitting here at work. A female Dr was being intervied about it. I logged on here immediately to see if there was a post.

i heard the very end of this when i got into my car - and it sounded a little bit like it was in favor of cosleeping - the quote i heard was something like "may be better off than babies who sleep away from their parents." i was excited and was going to stream the whole segment. not worth it huh? :

[ajsgirl]

counterGOPI,

I just read this on the askdrsears.com website...

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/t102200.asp

It gives good recommendations, do's and don'ts for safe cosleeping. HTH!

As for my feelings, I just want to vomit, for all the reasons prevous posters have already listed. 'Nuf said. :Puke

[KnitterMama]

Yeah ... well what do you expect from an organization most of whose members are simultaneously responsible for a baby's health but know nothing about breastfeeding?



They suck.

[KnitterMama]

Wasn't trying to be snarky at the OP.