Here’s a question: If co-sleeping has been proven to facilitate breastfeeding and breastfeeding has been proven to prevent SIDS, then doesn’t co-sleeping help prevent SIDS too? I’m no math wizard, but isn’t this a simple algebra problem? If b (co-sleeping) =a (breastfeeding) and a (breastfeeding) = c (SIDS prevention) then doesn’t b=c too?
Like I said, I’m no math genius, but it seems like a simple answer to me.
I have co-slept with two babies/children and have found the benefits to be enormous. Not only did I get more sleep with them right next to me, not having to get up every 2 hours to nurse, but it also helped to heighten my senses and motherly instincts. For example, once when my daughter was about 4 months old, half asleep I reached down and caught her as she rolled off the bed, right before she hit the ground. I pulled her back up close to me (she was still sleeping) and went back to sleep.
Could I have been more responsible and put up a bed rail? Yes. But my point is still the same.
Wouldn’t it have been much wiser of the AAP to suggest breastfeeding for SIDS prevention rather than pacifier use, which not only can cause structural problems in the mouth, but interferes with breastfeeding?
Co-sleeping and breastfeeding have kept our species in existence. Think about it. Long ago in cave people times, if mothers didn’t co-sleep and breastfeed, their babies would have died from starvation and been carried off by wild animals. It’s worked for countless generations! It’s nature’s way.