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I like the idea of all of the goodies, but as I have mentioned in another reply, I am on my third child, and they have always slept in bed with us, so the box a
by eggy 10y ago
I like the idea of all of the goodies, but as I have mentioned in another reply, I am on my third child, and they have always slept in bed with us, so the box and mattress is still weird for me. I have even slept with one of my babies in a small bed for all three of us with no issue.
We have never owned a crib or bassinet by the bedside even.
I may be wrong, but I remember hearing it was during Victorian times that this became popular.
I know there are people afraid of smothering or crushing their infants. Most negative studies seem to come out of the US. Other countries don't seem to have the same issues cited in US studies. I think it is common sense not to sleep with your baby in bed if you have waterbed, or tons of pillows, a soft mattress and a fluffy comforter.
My wife and I don't drink alcohol either, so no possibility of being so drunk that we would be unaware of smothering our baby, and neither of us is hypermobile in bed. All mammals keep their young close. The 'co-sleeping' is a modern term that makes it sound out of the ordinary, but in fact it is very ordinary.
People will say they slept better and the baby got used to being in another room, or across the room, but I can say from three babies worth of fathering, they get comfortable real quick being in bed with their parents.
- zo1 10y agoSome people are very heavy sleepers and might not notice turning over onto their infant. Additionally, the other big reason that you're not supposed to have an infant sleep in a normal bed is that they might roll off. It's fine I guess if both parents are around and "box" the infant in, but otherwise it's quite possible that the infant might toss over one too-many times and fall off the bed.
- thedudemabry 10y agoWe've occasionally brought our little dude into bed with us when he's going nuts, but also know the potential consequences. It's not generally safe to bring a child into an adult bed and I know without my spouse being super-vigilant I might roll over onto him.
- eggy 10y agoYes, it takes two to parent in all things family! Congratulations on your little one! I didn't realize how much I would enjoy fatherhood until I became one.
- eggy 10y agoI replied in detail downstream, but as I've said there too, parenting is a personal thing, and I am not out to convince anyone one way or another. I was just amazed at what I read when I bothered to do the research, and it didn't seem too scientific (baby with meat cleaver in bed poster by Milwaukee Health Dept. [1]). I'll repeat myself a bit here by re-quoting this article, because I think it's important. "The United States has a higher infant mortality rate than any of the other 27 wealthy countries, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control. A baby born in the U.S. is nearly three times as likely to die during her first year of life as one born in Finland or Japan." [2] Co-sleeping is not the reason for those rates, and if it were it would be more embarrassing for the US, since other countries don't seem to have the same results. I am from the US. I had my first child in 1997, and my latest in 2014. I am now living in the East Java, Indonesia in a rice-farming village where most of the house have dirt floors. I have raised a kid in NYC, NJ, and now here. I am more worried about King Cobras than co-sleeping risks, and fatal bites are very, very rare for non-snake handlers or performers. And for the record, I don't like the term co-sleeping; I prefer to say we have a family bed ;) [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/co-sleeping-ad-baby-knife-dangers_n_1097170.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/co-sleeping-ad-baby... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/29/our-infant-mortality-rate-is-a-national-embarrassment/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/29/our-i...
- ptaipale 10y agoThe box itself is not really the thing. It's just packaging for the things you get inside, made of cardboard, with a bit of colour printing outside. Other than that, it's like the cardboard packaging of Ikea furniture. That you can have the baby sleep in the box is nice but the clothes and equipment inside are the actual deliverable. One main thing about that stuff is that it is extremely good quality. The government buys them at large quantities and awards the manufacturing contracts and actually gets them for nothing. The items are much better made than most things you can buy at a shop.