Friday, April 20, 2012

Co-Sleeping vs. Bed Sharing

While giving a presentation at a local hospital yesterday, the coordinator asked me if I followed the research of Dr. McKenna on infants and sleeping.  Evidently, there are a couple of Dr. McKenna's but the one she was referring to was James McKenna who often writes about the sleeping debate.  After scrolling through a few of his blogs, I was entertained to find that he separates out the terms co-sleeping and bed sharing.  Unfortunately, most others use these terms interchangeably.  So to clarify,  in the last entry entitled, "Co-sleeping, is it safe?"  I am referring to a baby sleeping in the same bed with adults or other children.  Room sharing is another topic all together and is recommended by not on the AAP but many others.  Room sharing is where the baby sleeps in the same room as the parents but in a separate sleeping environment- a crib or bassinet, etc. 
Hope this clears everything up! 

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