Does co-sleeping kill?
L.A. County officials sure think so, calling co-sleeping, the ever-more-popular practice of sharing your bed with your baby, a "potentially lethal act" that puts infants at risk of being crushed or suffocated. County stats show 44 babies died while sleeping with their parents in 2006, a spike of 74%. Rong-Gong Lin II spoke with county officials:
"These are tiny infants, who, someone, perhaps well-intentioned, took to bed with them . . . and they wake up and the child is not breathing," said Deanne Tilton Durfee, director of the Los Angeles County Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.
"We know the value of holding your child, cuddling your child, loving your child. But if you take the baby to bed with you and fall asleep, you are committing a potentially lethal act," she said.
Needless to say, the pronouncement has touched off a...let's be polite and call it a debate. Read both sides in the full story here.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Corbis
