Is Co-Sleeping With Baby Beneficial And When To Stop It?

Say yes to room-sharing and no to co-sleeping with your munchkin.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Elna Gibson, MBChB, MMed Dr. Elna Gibson Dr. Elna GibsonMBChB, MMed facebook_icon Specialty: PediatricsExperience: 25 years
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Co-Sleeping With Baby Risks, When And How To Stop It

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First-time parents have several queries about their baby’s sleep. Out of those, one of the most common ones is when to stop co-sleeping with a baby. Co-sleeping is when you and your baby share the same bed or sleep surface. While co-sleeping with your baby isn’t wrong, it certainly raises issues that need your attention.

As a parent, it’s quite natural for you to have an innate desire to keep your baby close to you every time, including naps and bedtime. But then, experts advise against co-sleeping with babies. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states that parents can share a room with babies but should avoid co-sleeping or bed-sharing for the baby’s safety (1).

Read on as we tell you about the benefits and potential risks of co-sleeping with tips to stop co-sleeping with your baby if you are already doing it.

Is Co-Sleeping Beneficial?

Despite the contraindications, co-sleeping may offer the following benefits to the parents and baby (2)(3).

  • Makes nighttime breastfeeding convenient
  • Babies who co-sleep may feel more secure and comfortable
  • May reduce stress for babies
  • Parents and babies may sleep longer and better when they share a bed
  • Better sleep leads to well-rested parents, reducing stress

Risks Of Co-Sleeping With Your Baby

Co-sleeping or bed-sharing may offer convenience and comfort, but its risks outweigh its benefits. Co-sleeping may increase the risks of the following detrimental scenarios for the baby (4).

  • Increased risk of the baby suffocating under pillows or bed covers
  • Increased risk of entanglement with blankets or bed covers
  • High chances of the baby rolling off the bed
  • Increased risk of injury due to a sleeping parent rolling over onto the infant
  • Risk of persistent dependency on the parent

The following situations could increase the probability of risks’ occurrence (5).

  • You or your partner are unwell or too tired
  • You or your partner are on medications
  • Your baby was born premature (before 37 weeks)
  • Your baby had a low birth weight (2.5 kg/5.5 lb or less)
  • You co-sleep with your baby on a sofa, lounger, or armchair

When To Stop Co-Sleeping With Your Baby?

You must avoid co-sleeping with the baby right from their birth and place them in a separate crib for sleep. However, if you have been co-sleeping with your baby, you must stop doing so as soon as possible. Place the baby in a crib, which can be placed in the parent’s bedroom. There is no specific age when you may co-sleep with your baby. It is ideal to room-share with your child through their infancy and toddlerhood.

How To Stop Co-Sleeping With Your Baby?

It could be challenging to stop co-sleeping if you have been practicing it since the baby was younger than six months. You may consider the following measures to ease out co-sleeping gradually (6).

  1. Initiate room-sharing: Purchase a crib and place it next to your bed so that your baby can see you all the time while lying down. It could give the baby a feeling of co-sleeping since they are close to your bed and you. It also makes it easier for you to breastfeed or comfort the baby without leaving the bed.
  1. Be patient with your baby: Some babies may grow cranky at bedtime when you stop co-sleeping. It is usually more likely with babies who have been co-sleeping for more than six months, especially since birth. Be calm and establish a bedtime routine to make the transition easier. Follow a bedtime routine of giving a bath, feeding, and reading a book to the baby before placing them in the crib. It can signal to the baby that it is time to go to sleep in their crib, making them used to sleeping alone gradually (7).
  1. Teach your baby to fall asleep on their own: Encourage your baby to self-soothe and fall asleep by themselves. Self-soothing reduces the baby’s dependence on parents to fall asleep, letting you place the baby in the crib without you having to stay on the bed (8). You may try swaddling the baby or offering them a pacifier. Another option is to place a toy within the baby’s line of sight, but not inside the crib, to calm them down. You may read more about self-soothing here.
  1. Be consistent in your approach: Stick to the bedtime routine and other measures to transition the baby out of co-sleeping. Do not cave in to your baby’s tantrums by placing them back on your bed to soothe them. Remember, it will take longer for the baby to let go of the habit if they were co-sleeping for several months. Consistency is vital for achieving the desired results.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do co-sleeping babies wake more?

Yes, studies have found that babies who co-sleep with their parents tend to wake up more than those who sleep alone. This may be because when babies co-sleep with their parents, they tend to be in the first stage of sleep, i.e., the Non-REM stage, which includes no dreams and lighter sleep. Hence they awaken more frequently but for shorter durations (9).

2. Does co-sleeping cause separation anxiety?

No, co-sleeping is not believed to cause separation anxiety. On the contrary, it helps prevent separation anxiety because sleeping with their parents allows babies to feel secure without fearing separation from their parents (10).

Co-sleeping with a baby is a natural choice for many parents to get their baby to sleep, with advantages like comfortable nighttime nursing, synchronization of the parents’ and baby’s sleep cycles, improved sleep, and more. Despite its comfort, co-sleeping is not suggested owing to the risk of harm to the infant, such as SIDS, injury from a sleeping parent, and so on. Conversely, room-sharing is a viable alternative to co-sleeping and may appear to a newborn to be similar to co-sleeping. During your child’s infancy and toddlerhood, it is optimal to share a room with them.

Key Pointers

  • To stop co-sleeping with your baby, you may begin with placing them in a crib next to you.
  • Consistently follow the steps to stop co-sleeping and do not let your baby cave you into their tantrums.
  • Try to prevent the risk of excessive parental dependency by teaching your little one about the concept of space.

References

1. Safe Sleep: Recommendations; American Academy of Pediatrics
2. Everything You Need to Know About Co-sleeping; SleepOrg
3. Diana Divecha, How Co-Sleeping Can Help You And Your Baby; Greater Good Magazine; University of Berkeley
4. Co-Sleeping With Your Baby; Raising Children Network
5. Co-Sleeping With Your Baby; Lullaby Trust
6. Frequently Asked Questions; Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory; University of Notre Dame
7. Sleep 6 months- 3 years; Healthy WA
8. Sleep in Infants (2-12 months); Nationwide Children’s Hospital
9. Amy Mao et al. (2005); A Comparison of the Sleep–Wake Patterns of Cosleeping and Solitary-Sleeping Infants; NCBI
10. MacKenzie Danielson et al. (2020); A Holistic Approach to Infant Sleep; University of North Dakota
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Dr. Elna Gibson
Dr. Elna GibsonMBChB, MMed, Paeds
Dr. Elna Gibson is a general pediatrician. She did her MBChB and specialization as a pediatrician in South Africa at the University of Pretoria. She obtained MMed Pediatrics (masters) with distinction in 1993.As a young specialist, Dr.

Read full bio of Dr. Elna Gibson
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