Cosleeping

There is a good bit of misinformation out there about "cosleeping" - a mother sleeping with or very close to the infant.  With the proper setup, this is a very healthy, natural sleeping arrangement for the child.  In fact, it's very hard to argue against such an arrangement, as this is what was done for millions of years throughout evolution: the infant sleeping on a mat next to the mother.

All sorts of good things happen when a mother and child sleep close.  Here is a good research paper(pdf) on the topic that provides more detail.  It is my opinion that cosleeping should be the "default" sleeping arrangement recommended by pediatricians.

Comments

[Sheryl]

I totally agree. Cosleeping is the most natural sleeping arrangement there is. It avoids nighttime battles, irrational nighttime fears, facilitates breastfeeding, creates independent children and it is a wonderful opportunity to bond and cuddle with your children an extra 8 hours a day.

[Stephan]

There's some really interesting research on rats suggesting that pups that get more maternal attention are more resistant to psychological stress as adults. They followed it all the way to specific gene expression changes. I think this has huge implications for our habit of putting infants in a separate room in a crib. The PI on this research is Michael Meaney. I may do a post on this at some point

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10550053?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum