Being a new parent is never easy for anyone. Apart from the obvious need to take care of a newborn child, your sleep can significantly be affected.
Key Takeaways
- Co-sleeping refers to sharing a sleep surface with your infant, often in the same bed or room, and is a personal choice that varies by family.
- While co-sleeping can offer benefits like convenience and fostering a bond, it also comes with risks, including increased chances of SIDS, sleep disruption, and over-dependence on parents.
- Consider alternatives like sidecar setups, keeping a bassinet nearby, or transitioning your child to their own room to ensure a safe, restful sleep for both you and your little one.
Co-sleeping with an infant can be a divisive topic. Some parents swear by it, and others won’t even consider it. If it’s your first time hearing about co-sleeping, don’t be surprised, it’s more prevalent than you think, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Whether or not you decide to try co-sleeping comes down to your parenting preferences. Let’s take a look at benefits and drawbacks or skip to the section you’re curious about.
Jump to a section:
- What Is Co-Sleeping?
- The Benefits of Co-Sleeping
- The Drawbacks of Co-Sleeping
- What Are the Alternatives to Co-Sleeping?
What Is Co-Sleeping?
Co-sleeping means sharing a sleep surface with your infant, though it’s often used interchangeably with the term bed-sharing.
Co-sleeping can be intentional, like when parents set up a shared sleep space with their baby, or unintentional, such as falling asleep in a chair while feeding their baby.
You may also hear about room sharing. This is a sleeping practice that involves your baby sleeping in the same room but in their own bed or cot while parents sleep in their own bed.
The Benefits of Co-Sleeping
Despite being a controversial subject matter, co-sleeping arrangements remain popular due to the advantages it brings to parents and their infants.
Below are some of the reasons why some parents advocate for co-sleeping, or bed-sharing, with their children.
It Can Be Convenient
Parents often find themselves waking up through the night to comfort a crying baby, especially when prepping food or milk for night feedings. If your baby sleeps in another room or a separate bed, that means getting out of bed each time.
One of the top benefits of co-sleeping with your toddler is they’re always within arm’s reach, making it much easier to soothe or breastfeed during the night.
Encourages Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding provides newborns with the best nutrition, and it’s great to provide them whenever you can. Co-sleeping beside your child allows you to nurse them without having to completely disrupt your sleep. This helps build a healthy, natural rhythm between the two of you—especially when feedings roll around every 2-3 hours.
Foster Connection Between Mother and Baby
A newborn shares a natural physiological connection with their mother after spending nine months in the womb. The rhythms of her heartbeat and breathing are soothingly familiar to them.
Sharing a big co-sleeping mattress or cradling your little bub as they sleep can provide that same comforting rhythm, helping them feel secure and sleep more peacefully.
Sharing a Bed Can Strengthen Family Bonds
Co-sleeping often fosters a deeper sense of closeness between parents and children, as the extra time spent together—even while sleeping—can help build a stronger bond.
Beyond the emotional connection, co-sleeping can make nighttime routines smoother, reducing disruptions and helping everyone wake up feeling more refreshed. This shared sleep arrangement may also encourage healthier sleep habits for both parents and children.
The Drawbacks of Co-Sleeping
So, is co-sleeping bad? While there are many benefits of sharing a bed with your child, there are also risks and potential complications.
Here are some reasons why it’s discouraged to share a bed with newborns:
The Risk of SIDS and Other Complications
Sharing a sleep surface with your baby—whether it’s a bed, couch, or armchair—can increase the risk of Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI). This risk elevates when they sleep on soft sleep surfaces like old adult mattresses or waterbeds, which aren’t designed with an infant’s safety in mind.
Another risk factor that can occur is the accidental suffocation of a child. Bedding for adults is not designed for infants to sleep on, and bedding that is too soft can restrict an infant’s airways, leading to a lack of oxygen.
Lastly, the risk of injuring the child is also present, especially when the parents often move and toss around in bed. This risk is enhanced when parents sleep in smaller beds as there is a potential for the child to fall off the bed if they are near the edge. If you know yourself to be someone who moves around a lot during sleep, then it’s best to avoid co-sleeping to reduce untoward incidences and for your young child’s wellbeing.
Over-Dependence on Parents
Newborns need significantly more sleep than adults, and they may struggle to rest well if they’re not in the family bed or near their parents. This reliance creates sleep challenges in using their cot or bassinet during the day.
More than that, as they grow more accustomed to having a shared sleep space, this may lead to long-term separation anxiety, which may make future transitions more difficult.
Finding the right balance in your little one’s sleep routine is key—this can help ease sleep training and reduce sleep issues for both you and your child.
Sleep Distraction
If you want to sleep well, you need to create the right environment. Sleeping with a child in the same bed could make it harder to fully relax and get undisrupted sleep, as you’ll constantly be aware of your baby next to you.
Of course, having an infant in your adult bed will make you think about your sleeping arrangements, your position in bed, and your movements. It’s better to give yourself and your baby the freedom when sleeping and avoid bed-sharing altogether.
What Are the Alternatives to Co-Sleeping?
If you want to stay close to your baby without risks associated with bed-sharing, there are safer options to consider:
- Room Sharing with a Sidecar Setup: Place a cot or bassinet next to your bed with one side removed, creating a sidecar-style arrangement. This keeps your baby close while providing a separate sleep space.
- Keeping a Bassinet Nearby: Many parents keep a bassinet close to their bed so they can transfer their baby during the night for easier access and peace of mind.
- Separate Rooms for Kids: As your toddler grows, transitioning them to their own room builds independence and healthy sleep habits. A single mattress or king single mattress offers the support they need for a comfortable night’s rest.
- Hiring a Caregiver: If accessible, some parents opt for a caregiver to monitor their infant at night, ensuring the baby is cared for while the parents enjoy uninterrupted rest.
By exploring these alternatives, you can maintain closeness with your little bub while promoting safe and restful sleep for the whole family.
So What Is Best?
There’s no absolute answer on whether you should be co-sleeping with your children or not; it is something that is decided within the family.
If room-sharing feels like the safer and better option for your family, Ecosa has you covered with our cot mattress, designed to support safe and restful sleep for your little ones.