Room sharing until 6 months - what are the reasons behind this?

[Meredith2010]

Reading and commenting on several similar threads relating to when people moved their LO into their own room has really got me thinking.

It seems that the usual comments always crop up; i.e.

Official guidelines tell you to keep them in your room until at least 6 months. The reasoning behind this is that it reduces the risk of SIDS.

However, I have done a half decent amount of research into the topic and read a lot of studies into SIDS. It has surprised me that I haven't come across ONE BIT of research that actually gives a reason for WHY people are advised to keep their babies in the same room as them! Yes, a lot of the posts say "keeping the baby in your room helps regulate their breathing" and that kind of thing, but I can't find any actual evidence that supports this - it is just people on here who say it. To be honest it does make some sense, but I'd like to read some actual proper studies into the topic which there don't appear to be. Similarly, a lot of the responses say things like "having the baby in with you makes you more intune with it, therefore more likely to realise if there is something wrong". Again, this does have some certain logic to it but I'd like to see some proper, academic research to back up this claim.

To be honest, I just want to see some reasoning for WHY we are told to keep our babies in with us for 6 months. Can anyone help me out on this and point me in the right direction? Or give me your opinion on the matter?

 

[lesleyann]

No idea hun, I do believe part of the breathing thing though since when laying in bed after a while mine and Oh's breathing becomes intime by its self due to bodys copying I guess..

Its weird alot of the things on SIDS Id like to know how dummies and breastfeeding help prevent also I can understand the whole on the back feet at the bottom as it stops baby suffocating? on blankets etc

 

[marley2580]

I think they base a lot of it on the circumstances of babies that have died - i.e. a higher percentage of babies that died from SIDS were in their own room, therefore putting a baby in it's own room leads to a higher risk of SIDS.

 

[deafgal]

probably lack of sleep. people tend to tune out to baby monitor. so any sightest sound of struggle on a monitor not may not send a natural alert to the sleeping parents.and it is easier to check the child often while you are half asleep.
y

I also think the parents' breathing also help the child. Plus, if the room is too hot or cold, the parents would feel it but they can't feel it if the child is in the separate room.

Just my opinons from my experience with cosleeping

 

[deafgal]

I think they base a lot of it on the circumstances of babies that have died - i.e. a higher percentage of babies that died from SIDS were in their own room, therefore putting a baby in it's own room leads to a higher risk of SIDS.

I think thats why. They still don't know what cause SIDS. Just the research show they have a better survival rate in their parent's room. we can only assume why .

 

[Eve]

I don't know really other then the breathing thing but our daughter was in our room until over 18 months.

 

[JASMAK]

Read Dr Sears. com for a really good explanation of cosleeping in particular.

 

[smelly07]

we had both our girls in with us until they were 18 months.......babies are more at risk between 2-4 months but the majority of cases happen before 6 months also babies are able usally able to roll themselves over etc by 6 months, having them close to regulates breathing, your more likely to hear them and check them i guess........ i remember my eldest daughter at about 5 months shuffling about arms going up and down, i checked her and she had manage to get a celluar blanket wrapped round her head/neck.......(she was always a wriggler and still is) which i took off quickly and was my heart racing!!! if she was in her own room i doubt i would of heard her......... also another time i think she was about 8 months old she was just making vey quiet noises so i checked her and she was red hot had a extreamly high temperature so i stripped her and gave her medicine and sips of water something else i wouldnt of heard if she was in her own room...and she would of been like that until i had woken up next morning and checked her and/or her temp could of kept rising.

i definitely think keeping babies in your room until at least 6 months has its benefits and anything that lowers the risks to me is worth doing.

 

[Dragonfly]

I rather have them close for now, plenty of time later to separate them. And also i dont have another room for them at the moment. Even if I did they would be with me till they where confident enough to go on their own.

 

[discoclare]

Yep, what everyone else has said, there isn't any proof of why this recommendation reduces risk of SIDS. Only associations showing that it does (ie when babies sleep in their parents room the incidence is lower than when in those who sleep in a different room). So the reasons why are unknown and are just theories. They may be more than one reason why. Regulation of breathing is a popular theory and, as deafgal mentioned, parents being more aware of their baby's breathing is another possibility.

 

[smokey]

Reading and commenting on several similar threads relating to when people moved their LO into their own room has really got me thinking.

It seems that the usual comments always crop up; i.e.

Official guidelines tell you to keep them in your room until at least 6 months.
The reasoning behind this is that it reduces the risk of SIDS.

However, I have done a half decent amount of research into the topic and read a lot of studies into SIDS. It has surprised me that I haven't come across ONE BIT of research that actually gives a reason for WHY people are advised to keep their babies in the same room as them! Yes, a lot of the posts say "keeping the baby in your room helps regulate their breathing" and that kind of thing, but I can't find any actual evidence that supports this - it is just people on here who say it. To be honest it does make some sense, but I'd like to read some actual proper studies into the topic which there don't appear to be. Similarly, a lot of the responses say things like "having the baby in with you makes you more intune with it, therefore more likely to realise if there is something wrong". Again, this does have some certain logic to it but I'd like to see some proper, academic research to back up this claim.

To be honest, I just want to see some reasoning for WHY we are told to keep our babies in with us for 6 months. Can anyone help me out on this and point me in the right direction? Or give me your opinion on the matter?

TBH I dont think there realy needs to be any academic proof for this, just ask pretty much any mother to see that this is mostly true.
Instincts are 100 times more powerfull then any study.
Even now when hes in another room I jolt upright at the slightest little snuffle noise he makes

For us though we had no choice at the time, we only had one bedroom

 

[smokey]

No idea hun, I do believe part of the breathing thing though since when laying in bed after a while mine and Oh's breathing becomes intime by its self due to bodys copying I guess..

Its weird alot of the things on SIDS Id like to know how dummies and breastfeeding help prevent also I can understand the whole on the back feet at the bottom as it stops baby suffocating? on blankets etc

With dummies it basicly stops them going into too deep a sleep.
Breathing is not a natural instinct to a newborn its a reflex, they need certain nuerons to be firing to ecentialy remind them to breath.
When a baby is awake or in a light sleep those are firing fine but when a baby drops into a deep sleep parts of the brain shut down.
Using a dummy triggers the suck reflex which keeps those parts of the brain active enough to also trigger the breathing reflex.

Its also the same for alot of adults as well, its quite common for the brain to become too inactive during a deep sleep and for you to stop breathing for a bit but by our age other reflexes kick in which is why you sometimes suddenly wake up choking or a startle reflex is another fail safe to kick the brain back in which is why you wake up suddenly thinking your falling.
Other adult do have problems with the brain becoming too inactive where their other reflexes dont kick in so they sometimes have to use other medical aides such as a breathing mask when they sleep

 

[Gen79]

https://cosleeping.nd.edu/assets/31969/mckenna_et_al_2007.pdf

I haven't read this but I know Dr. Mckenna's positions so I have an idea about what it says. Hopefully its well cited enough to be of some help to you.

 

[summer rain]

From my understanding there have been several studies on those in traditional societies and those in this country who are originally from traditional societies-who either practice bed-sharing or room-sharing at the very least, what they found with both groups was that the levels of SIDs were much lower than even the current lowered rate of SIDs in the UK and in some places it was almost non existent. In some cases these traditional styles of parenting also involved things that are not encouraged; such as keeping the room too warm, using thick furry blankets or pillows for babies etc but still the level of SIDs in these groups was lower than in the UK on the whole. So the conclusion was reached that there must be some benefit in room sharing so they are not sure what. Here are the results of one such study

https://www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFrien...-Asian-and-White-British-families-in-the-UK1/

but I know there were other earlier studies as well that were one of the main reasons that FSIDs started to suggest rooming in for six months to begin with xx

 

[milf2be]

Because sids is unexplained death they dont know why keeping baby in the same room with you reduces the risk.

all they can do is look at the statistics to see which groups had fewer cases of SIDS.

There was a study in Wales, where they compared the native with people who lived in Wales but had come from different cultures and they found that the natives had a much high risk of SIDS and the thing they had it common was that the baby was in its own room.

also if you look at places such as Hong Kong that have a low rate of SIDS, you will see that they all sleep in the same room. this is mostly down to money a high number of people only have one room.

there are some theories that your breathing reminds them to breathe etc.

 

[smokey]

I read an article once about how they where going to start investigating into a common link in unexplained death ie not ones where there was any obvious reasoning such as got caught under a blanket, pillow and such.

They had found that alot of cases where there was no other reason that the babies actualy had a inner ear diformaty (possibly resulting in a synus problem) so they where going to investigate if detecting this birth defect early would reduce the amount of unexplained cases

 

[milf2be]

No idea hun, I do believe part of the breathing thing though since when laying in bed after a while mine and Oh's breathing becomes intime by its self due to bodys copying I guess..

Its weird alot of the things on SIDS Id like to know how dummies and breastfeeding help prevent also I can understand the whole on the back feet at the bottom as it stops baby suffocating? on blankets etc

With dummies it basicly stops them going into too deep a sleep.
Breathing is not a natural instinct to a newborn its a reflex, they need certain nuerons to be firing to ecentialy remind them to breath.
When a baby is awake or in a light sleep those are firing fine but when a baby drops into a deep sleep parts of the brain shut down.
Using a dummy triggers the suck reflex which keeps those parts of the brain active enough to also trigger the breathing reflex.

Its also the same for alot of adults as well, its quite common for the brain to become too inactive during a deep sleep and for you to stop breathing for a bit but by our age other reflexes kick in which is why you sometimes suddenly wake up choking or a startle reflex is another fail safe to kick the brain back in which is why you wake up suddenly thinking your falling.
Other adult do have problems with the brain becoming too inactive where their other reflexes dont kick in so they sometimes have to use other medical aides such as a breathing mask when they sleep

would like to point out that dummies are supposed to decrease the risk of SIDS, but if you dont give your baby a dummy when you normally do then your baby is actually at a higher risk. for this reason babies shoudlnt be weaned off dummies until after 6 months, since the highest rate of SIDS is between 2 and 6 months x

 

[Piper84]

I'm not sure, but there was this interesting study recently which showed that newborns have much steadier heartbeats and less stress on their hearts if they sleep alongside their mothers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21802659