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I recommend Sweet Sleep as a resource for anyone interested in cosleeping/bedsharing.

It gives a lot of practical advice and looks at the research to address the safety concerns. The conclusion is that bedsharing will multiply existing risk factors for SIDS but if those risk factors are already low, adding bedsharing into the mix does not increase the risk by a significant amount (assuming it's done in accordance with safety guidelines).

https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Sleep-Nighttime-Strategies-Brea...

⬐ bitshiftfaced

I was under the impression that the risk of SIDS isn't the only thing when it comes to bed sharing. Adult beds are softer and have more give, so babies get turned over more easily so that their airway can get blocked in the mattress. There are more things like pillows and blankets that can get block the airway. And then there's of course the parent that's sleeping next to them.

Do all of those risks get clumped into SIDS when it comes to these statistics?

⬐ em-bee

that's an interesting observation. beds in asia are traditionally harder from what i have observed, so that might be a factor.

⬐ PebblesRox

The other part of the equation is practicing safe bedsharing practices like the safe sleep seven guidelines:

"If you are: 1. A nonsmoker 2. Sober and unimpaired 3. A breastfeeding mother

and your baby is: 4. Healthy and full-term 5. On his back 6. Lightly dressed

and you both are: 7. On a safe surface

Then your baby in bed with you is at no greater risk for SIDS than if he’s nearby in a crib."[0]

A safe sleep surface means the mattress is not too soft (we tested our adult mattress to make sure it met the standards for crib mattresses), no gaps by the wall that the baby can get wedged in, bed only (no couch or recliner), light bedding, sleepwear without long ribbons or drawstrings that can strangle, etc.

It's important to do the research and not be cavalier about the risks, but I think it's worth learning how to work around them so everyone can get great sleep.

[0] https://www.llli.org/the-safe-sleep-seven/

⬐ bitshiftfaced

Of the 16 citations in this article, most of them don't seem to have to do with the question of whether bedsharing (under the seven conditions) increases the chance of SIDS and/or suffocation.

Citation 12 hypothesizes why bedsharing with a breast-feeding mother reduces the time infants sleep in the prone position.

Citation 14 through 16 is about breast-feeding vs not breast-feeding in regards to bedsharing.

Citation 11 contains two studies, one with 20 mother/infant pairs and the other with 26 mother/infant pairs. It compares breast-feeding vs not breast-feeding with regards to bedsharing.

I don't see how that allows the author to come to the conclusion that "safe sleep seven" practices result in the same chance of SIDS/suffocation as crib sleeping best practices. It looks like the author is making a claim and citing sources that only justify why the author believes that claim to be true. It doesn't actually provide statistical evidence that the claim is true.

Here's a study that showed that bedsharing increases the risk of SIDS, even when the parents don't smoke or take alcohol or drugs (although the absolute risk is small in both cases, 0.08 vs 0.23 per 1000 live births): https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/5/e002299.short

Edit: I found a couple of other studies that said there wasn't significant difference in risk of SIDS when you take out non-breastfeeding / smoking / drinking / etc. However, that brings me to my earlier question: do these statistics lump together suffocation with SIDS?