Tips For Co-Sleepers
When babies refuse to settle without being held, co-sleeping can work miracles to help everyone get a good night’s sleep. Co-sleeping also makes life easier with night feeds and helps you form a loving bond with your baby.
Co-sleeping is a very personal choice and a normal part of parenting – most of us do it sometimes. It happens for plenty of reasons, but it isn’t without risk.
The significant risk is Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), responsible for around 200 infant deaths in the UK annually. According to the latest data, co-sleeping increases the risk of SIDS from 1 in 46,000 to 1 in 16,400.
If you do choose to co-sleep with your baby, there are several things you can do to improve safety before you curl up together.
Here are our must-have tips for co-sleepers:
Put baby in the middle
Your baby should always sleep in the middle of the bed, so there is no risk of them falling off the bed or getting trapped.
If you have a partner, one of you should face your baby, and the other should have their back to them – this ensures access to the baby and reduces the chances of one of you rolling onto them from the front (which is easier than rolling backward).
Get a firm mattress
A mattress that is firm enough to support your body weight is the safest for co-sleeping because your baby won’t roll into you from the middle.
Mattresses that are too soft for a person’s body weight dip in the middle in a sensation known as roll-together. When a mattress is suitably firm, roll-together can’t happen because the support system stays rigid in all zones.
Our mattress buyer’s guide includes weight recommendations. Remember that firmness is relative – a medium mattress feels firm to someone under 130lbs, and a firm mattress feels soft to someone over 260lbs.
Make bedding safe
Babies should sleep on top of covers – not under them. Putting your baby in an unhooded sleepsuit is the best way to keep them warm. Keep your bedding light and minimal, and use a lightweight duvet such as a hollow fibre one.
You should stick to one pillow to stop you from accidentally throwing one over your baby at night. Our article about how many pillows you should sleep with revealed that it’s best to sleep with one pillow.
Consider upsizing your bed.
Most people have a double bed, but depending on who’s in bed, it might be best to size up your room for a king-size bed.
At 150 x 200cm, king-size beds offer 15cm more width and 10cm more length than double beds. Tall people prefer kings because they are longer and many people with young children prefer them for the extra sleeping space.
Know when not to co-sleep
While co-sleeping can be safe in some situations, there are times when it is too risky. We recommend not co-sleeping in the following cases:
- When your baby is under six months old
- When your baby can flip onto their front but not their back
- After consuming sleeping tablets or alcohol
- If you mix medications
- If you feel exhausted and struggle to wake up
- If your baby has breathing difficulties – chronic or illness-related
- If your family has a history of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
If you choose not to co-sleep in your bed, you might like to buy a bedside crib, also known as a next-to-me crib, so that you can lean over and quickly pick your baby up at night and push up against the side of your bed.
Summing up
The decision to co-sleep is personal, and you might find that it helps enormously with comforting your baby and getting the much-needed shuteye you need to look after your baby. However, while co-sleeping can be safe, it does increase the risk of SIDS, especially in babies under six months old. It would help if you weighed up the risks.
Good luck!