The theme of colecho, sleeping with the baby, is one of the hottest of raising a baby. For decades it is considered a danger and something to be avoided completely when the baby is small, and absurd for his education when he is older. And yet many parents keep doing it because babies, contrary to what parents are recommended, seek (sometimes desperately) to sleep with us.
Thanks to recent studies and thanks to the fact that Westerners are not the navel of the world (although we believe it) we have discovered that in many other countries children sleep with their parents and for them it is the most normal thing in the world, that children are not more dependent on it and, most importantly, that after 3 months not only it's not more dangerous, but It is recommended to prevent sudden death.
Do they sleep with babies in other countries?
Yes it is. What need do they have to do otherwise if they often don't even have rooms? There are countries that have not yet reached the apocalyptic psychology of reincarnated evil in a caring mother or father or Estivill with its string of "child insomnia" and nobody tries to explain to mothers and fathers that where their children are best is alone, away from them and crying. Moreover, if that someone arrived, it is unlikely that they would listen to him, because they have no need to teach children to sleep alone, because they do not see the benefit and because they do not consider it appropriate to do so.
"They are very small," a mother from China told me when I asked her why she slept with her children, living here in Spain. He didn't argue with me anymore ... "They are small and that's why we parents sleep with them" And something similar was found Michel Odent when he traveled there and discovered that it was normal. But that wasn't all the surprise: when he wanted to ask them about sudden death, they didn't understand him. They did not know what he meant:
No one understood my questions; The concept of sudden death was unknown by many of the professionals and the inhabitants of places like Beijing, Hsian, Loyang, Nanking, Shanghai and Canton. Also, I learned that Chinese babies sleep with their mothers. Since then, I have been certain that, even if it happens during the day, sudden death is an exclusive disease of those babies who spend the night alone and, also, that this phenomenon only occurs in those societies in which The nuclear family predominates.
And then we have the case of Japan, where children do have rooms, but they sleep with parents equally. And they are not at all worried about how dependent they may be because they dedicate the day to promoting their autonomy in the different situations in which children find themselves. Something that, if we think coldly, has a lot of logic: dedicate the waking time to teach children to be independent and capable and spend the night to rest, with the love, shelter and safety of their parents.
Moreover, in Japan they have always had very low rates of SIDS, and in recent years they have seen how they have continued to decline. Dr. James McKenna, Professor of Anthropology and director of the Maternal and Child Sleep Behavior Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, says the following in his book Sleep with your baby when referring to Japan:
The Family Organization and SIDS in Japan reported that sudden death rates continue to decline in that country as the number of smoking mothers approaches 0, and that exclusive breastfeeding is around 70-75%. In fact, a report shows that with increasing breastfeeding and breastfeeding and reducing the number of smoking mothers, the SIDS rate decreases. This suggests, again, that the dangerous thing may not be the colecho itself, but certain ways in which it is practiced.
But there are studies that relate the colecho to sudden death!
So is. There are many studies that establish this relationship and that is why we listen to recommendations related to this topic every two times: "Do not sleep with them", "Yes, sleep with them", "Never sleep with them", "Sleep with them but only if you don't drink alcohol, "don't sleep with them if it's on a couch", and so people in the end don't know what to do anymore, because while they read these recommendations and try to follow them Babies keep crying because they want and need their mother and father next door, and even more if they are breastfeeding.
So, in 2014 the Spanish Association of Pediatrics published consensus recommendations in this regard in which they said the following:
The safest way to sleep for infants under six months is in their crib, face up, near their parents' bed. There is scientific evidence that this practice decreases the risk of SIDS by more than 50%.
And then I confronted these data with the need to be breastfed on demand and then they told us this:
Breastfeeding has a protective effect against SIDS and, on the other hand, colecho is a beneficial practice for the maintenance of breastfeeding, but it is also considered a factor that increases the risk of SIDS so it should not be recommended in :
- Infants under three months of age.
- Prematurity and low birth weight.
- Parents who use tobacco, alcohol, drugs or sedative drugs.
- Sickness situations, especially extreme fatigue, such as immediate postpartum.
- Colecho on soft surfaces, water mattresses, sofa or armchairs.
- Share the bed with other family members, with other children or with multiple people.
And after three months, it seems to be fully recommended to prevent sudden death
In September 2014, a review of studies was published in which data from 400 children who suffered sudden death were analyzed, comparing them with 1386 live children as a control sample. They saw that at the time of death 36% of children in the SMSL group were sleeping with parents, compared to 15% of those in the control group. With these data, we might think that colecho is a risk factor for sudden death, but seeing the data closely we see that:
- The odds of SIDS in babies sleeping with their parents on a sofa or next to a parent who consumed more than two units of alcohol were much (but much) higher than in cases where this did not happen (Odds Ratio of 18.3, when an Odds Ratio of 1 would say that the risk does not increase or decrease, which is the same).
- If they slept next to someone who smoked and had less than 3 months the chances of SIDS were also higher (OR of 8.9), although that risk was much lower in those older than 3 months (OR of 1.4).
- If the parents slept with the baby in the absence of these practices the risk of sudden death was not greater than those who slept in their crib (OR of 1.1, which is considered not significant), although this would have to be divided by age: children under 3 months were somewhat more at risk (OR of 1.6) and those older than 3 months much less (OR of 0.1), confirming that after 3 months the colecho is a highly recommended practice.
- The use of the pacifier was a protector against sudden death only in babies who slept with their parents, and sleeping in a prone position (face down) was only more dangerous if babies slept alone.
In other words: collecting if you drink alcohol is very dangerous, a practice totally discouraged. Sleeping with a baby on a sofa is very dangerous, a practice that parents should not do. Sleep with a baby if one of the parents is a smoker it is dangerous until he turns 3 months old, and consequently the smoker should quit or sleep in another room. Sleeping with a baby for more than three months, if you do not drink alcohol or use other drugs and if you sleep in a bed following the usual safety measures for the colecho, it makes your baby have much less likely to suffer sudden death If he sleeps apart from the parents.
That's why the title of this post, that's why the recommendation. Colecho protects against sudden death if done safely, but can be very dangerous if done wrong. And it is probably safe even from birth, if done safely (as UNICEF says in its latest report on this).
And until when?
Until every father, every mother and every child wants. There is no ideal date, no matter how expert theorists insist on giving it to us. There are those who speak of the six months as the date from which children should sleep alone, but it is silly: they will not learn anything with it and they probably cry more than if they are with their parents. There are some who talk about the year, but many do not get along too well that, suddenly, for no apparent reason, they have to sleep alone. And I have not read anyone who speaks older, because passing the year seems to everyone (to all who put expiration date) something totally inconceivable.
If anything, I can tell you about the renowned neonatologist Nils Bergman, which recommends that parents and children sleep together at least until 3 years (does not say they sleep until 3 years, but "at least until 3 years", which is very different) or Margot Sunderland, Director of Education and Training at the Center for Child Mental Health in London, which recommends sharing the bed with children for at least the first five years so they grow up healthy and calm. And then, if you want, you can read my case, that of my house, where we slept with our oldest son until age 6, at which time he began to sleep alone without reproaches, fears, cries or anything like that, with the same naturalness with which one day a child begins to dress alone or ties only his laces for the first time.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | Colecho and breastfeeding are so interrelated that we will soon talk about "breastsleeping," Sleeping away from the baby decreases breast milk production, Sleeping on the couch and sudden death of the baby: a new study confirms the relationship, Colecho with the baby : why sleeping together is beneficial
