And Baby Makes Three in One Bed [1] looks at co-sleeping, and how apparently Dr. Richard Ferber's non-condemnation of the practice is causing co-sleepers to come out of the closet:
Ms. Smith said she used to be highly secretive about their co-sleeping, but has begun talking more about it during baby story-time sessions she runs. Her mother, though, "continues to think I'm ruining my sons' sleep habits forever," she said.
Child development experts have said that Dr. Ferber was likely to be reacting to accumulated research since his earlier edition that supports the notion that babies have different temperaments and that their development is best served when parents are able to adapt to their individual needs.
"It is clear that children of differing temperaments need different things at night, just as they do during the day," said Sara Harkness, the director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Health and Human Development at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Harkness, who has conducted cross-cultural research on infant sleep habits in several countries, said no studies have borne out the connection originally drawn by Dr. Ferber and others between teaching babies to sleep alone and their ability to develop autonomy.
"It's an American myth," Dr. Harkness said. "It's fine to think about training children to be independent, but there has been this misguided effort to extend it to an area where it's really not developmentally appropriate."
We've got 18 years to teach them to be independent, folks; it doesn't have to happen in the first three years. But then, I'm one of those hippie granola mamas. :rolling eyes:
My mom was convinced Josie would sleep with me the rest of her life; I used to say to her, "Yeah, Mom, she's going to come home every night from college with her boyfriend in tow and hop in bed with me." (Aren't you glad you're not my mother?) But Jo's 8 now, and while she likes to cuddle with me before going to her own room, she does go to her own room, along with her younger sister. Lou usually comes back to our bed in the early morning hours, but not always. Often I wake up alone. Woe betide me, though, if I get up without giving them a morning cuddle.
I co-slept with both my girls. Some of the sweetest moments in my life revolve around sleeping with my babies, and I haven't regretted it for a second. I hope when they grow up they sleep with their babies, too. I mean, if that works for them. 
Categories: co-sleeping [2], parenting [3], infants [4], infancy [5], babies [6], Ferber [7]
Technorati Tags: Infancy [16]