page_title: Attachment parenting
section_title: Co-sleeping
hierarchical_section_title: Attachment parenting / In practice / The 7 Baby Bs / Co-sleeping
context_page_description: Attachment parenting is a parenting philosophy that proposes methods aiming to promote the attachment of parent and infant not only by maximal parental empathy and responsiveness but also by continuous bodily closeness and touch. The term attachment parenting was coined by the American pediatrician William Sears. There is no conclusive body of research that shows Sears’ approach to be superior to "mainstream parenting".
context_section_description: William Sears states that any sleeping arrangement that a family practices is acceptable as long as it works; but he advises mother to sleep close to the child. He thinks of co-sleeping as the ideal arrangement and refers to it as the nighttime equivalent of babywearing: co-sleeping supports, in his opinion, the mother-child-attachment, makes breastfeeding more convenient, and prevents not only separation anxiety, but SIDS, too. Sears is convinced that mother and child, in spite of frequent nighttime breastfeeding, have the best sleep when they sleep close together. He is also convinced that due to the extra nighttime feedings, a child that sleeps close to the mother thrives better than a child "crying, alone, behind bars". Moreover, Katie Allison Granju argued that co-sleeping is beneficial for children, too, because it gives children a vivid notion of the concept of bedtime.
  The idea of co-sleeping was not new in modern Western societies; as early as in 1976, Tine Thevenin had campaigned for the "family bed". Sears doesn't see a problem when a three-year-old still shares their mother's bed every night. He doesn't even object if a child is in the habit of spending the whole night with her mother's nipple in her mouth, except when the mother really feels uncomfortable. Sears advises working mothers to co-sleep on all accounts in order to compensate the child for her daytime absence.
  Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a very rare incident; it occurs in less than ½ per mill of all infants. James J. McKenna (University of Notre Dame) has discovered that co-sleeping mothers and infants not only synchronize their sleep-wake-rhythm, but their breathing, too; he therefore reasons that co-sleeping lowers the SIDS risk. Nonetheless, studies that investigate SIDS directly have shown that permanent co-sleeping rather raises the SIDS risk than lowering it; it is worth noting that in the study, the increased risk of SIDS occurred in infants younger than four months when the parents were especially tired, had consumed alcohol, were smokers, slept on a sofa, or the baby was in a duvet. Otherwise, no increased risk was associated with bed sharing. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission also warns against co-sleeping. Attachment Parenting International issued a response which stated that the data referenced in the Consumer Product Safety Commission statement were unreliable, and that co-sponsors of the campaign had created a conflict of interest. The American Academy of Pediatrics' policy on SIDS prevention opposes bed-sharing with infants, although room-sharing is encouraged.
  In general, research doesn't confirm an advantage of co-sleeping over separate beds. A meta study from Israel has pointed out in 2000 that sleeping aids such as pacifiers and teddy bears significantly improve the child's sleep, while co-sleeping and frequent nighttime breastfeeding if anything hinder the formation of wholesome sleeping patterns. Co-sleeping mothers breastfeed three times as frequently during the night as mothers who have their bed for themselves. The most important factor for a child to get a good sleep proved to be the mother's emotional accessibility, not her permanent physical closeness.
caption: Christian Krohg: Mother and Child, 1883
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