When you welcome your newborn into your home, there is a lot to learn, especially when it comes to their feeding schedule and their sleeping routine. Sometimes, parents have the very best intentions of putting their baby down to sleep in a crib or bassinet in another room. But, whether it’s out of convenience, your infant wanting to be held, or you simply just don’t want to be apart, you might feel tempted to keep the baby in bed with you at night.
This ‘co-sleeping’ – when an infant and parent share a bed at night, goes against medical advice in the United States. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents should avoid bed-sharing with infants younger than four months. Co-sleeping can put babies at risk for sleep-related injuries or death, including accidental suffocation or strangulation, and that risk increases if the parents smoke or drink. According to the CDC, there were about 3,700 infants that died from sleep-related reasons.
It’s important to talk to your pediatrician about infant sleep-related injuries or death, how to decrease the risk of having a problem and ask for education or information on the risks of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). If you do decide to co-sleep, talk to your doctor about how to do so as safely and responsibly as possible.
You may also consider alternatives to co-sleeping that still allow you to be within proximity to your baby. One of the most popular options is to put a bassinet that fits snugly right up against your bed. This gives the baby their own space, but also puts you nearby to hear them breathe and ensure they are safe throughout the night.
If you are struggling to get into a sleep routine with your child, or you simply need another hand to help sleep train or help care for your newborn, hiring an experienced newborn care specialist is a great option. These nannies are specially trained in newborn and infant care and have the training needed to provide you with the tools you need to get through those first few exhausting weeks and months of parenthood. A newborn care specialist often works overnight and can take over with feeding and diaper changing routines, so parents can sleep.
To learn more about how a newborn care specialist can help give your family an extra hand – including with help in the area of sleep training, call us today. We can help place a newborn care nanny in your home in just a short time.
