Issues Surrounding Co-Sleeping and SIDS Risk
James McKenna, PhD, and Lawrence Garner, MD, spoke on "Issues
Surrounding Co-Sleeping and SIDS Risk" at the LLL conference
#17. McKenna discussed the US consumer Product Safety Commission's
(CPSC) recommendation that parents never sleep with their children.
The CPSC report made headlines in newspapers and on television
stations across the United States when it was released three years
ago.
McKenna explained how the commission's data was obtained and how
this influenced its conclusions. The CPSC's conclusion that cosleeping
is dangerous to infants was drawn from summations of information
from death certificates, many of which provided insufficient information
about the environment in which the baby died and possible causes.
McKenna pointed out that the commission did not account for
where the cosleeping took place (some of the deaths occurred when
adults and infants were sleeping on couches), or whether the parent
was under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. McKenna said
that proper research techniques were not used to gather data to
support the recommendation that the only safe place for a baby
to sleep was in a CPSC-approved crib.
McKenna and Gartner agreed that sleeping with infants promtes
breastfeeding. They both said it is inappropriate for agencies
to recommend against cosleeping.
New Beginnings Magazine, Sept/Oct, 2001