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by vel0city 870 days ago
> The problem is we cosleep with our baby, and laying on my back is the safest position.

No, the safest position is not having an infant in your bed with you while sleeping.

1 comments

"the safest position ... cosleeping with our baby"

Also, it really depends on what they mean by baby. An infant: probably shouldn't cosleep. A baby older than two to four months: probably fine if you have a large enough bed or side bed and take the proper precautions such as enough space for the baby, a flat surface with no sheets bunched up, no pillows or anything that can fall on them, etc. Some cultures promote sleep sharing yet have lower instances of SIDS than the U.S., and it's perhaps not clear how the studies arrived at it being so unsafe. Plus, as a parent, you are quite aware of the baby's presence. I think parents probably sleep worse during cosleeping, but the baby sleeps and bonds better.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/05/21/6012896...

> Overall, the two studies suggest bed-sharing — when no other hazards are present — raises the risk of SIDS by about threefold.
Cosleeping is very common in Japan, and yet, they have much lower SIDS rates than the U.S. does.
Japan:

> Current SIDS ratio is 0.44/1,000 live birth.

https://www.nature.com/articles/pr1999959z

US:

> 38.4 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020

https://www.cdc.gov/sids/data.htm

38.4 / 100 = .384

You're saying 0.384 > 0.44 ?

Either way, the person I was replying to has a diagnosed sleep disorder. You're really going to say it's a good idea for someone with a sleep disorder to sleep in the same bed as a child?

No.

The safest place for the child to sleep is in their own crib. You may choose to ignore those risks, it's not against the law or anything, but no matter how you slice it cosleeping is a riskier behavior than not cosleeping.

That data doesn't seem comparable. See https://www.ncemch.org/suid-sids/statistics/ for a direct comparison. The U.S., overall, has some of the worst statistics for infant health across developed nations.

Is cosleeping more dangerous than a crib? Yes. The question is by how much given precautions, bed arrangement, health and age of the baby, and several other factors. Of course that's up to the parents to decide, and it's usually an evolving situation.