A new study has found that more than half of the occurrences of Cot Death happen when the baby is sharing a bed with his or her parent

The research from Bristol and Warwick University claims the safest place for baby to sleep for the first six months is in a cot next to the parent’s bed. We completely agree with this statement and it is something we have been recommending to parents since the start of this blog over a year ago.

However, when the tabloids published this story they did not go into enough detail. On closer inspection of the study it is apparent that the extremely high correlation between cot death and co sleeping was observed in a high-risk group. This high-risk group consisted of young, socially-deprived mothers who smoked and many of whom had taken alcohol or drugs at the time of the tragic cot death. In the group studied, there were also many cases where the mother had fallen asleep on the sofa with her baby.
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A recent study has shown that breast milk contains different compounds at different times of day. Morning breast milk contains natural stimulants and its effect on babies could be compared with an adult’s morning cup of coffee!

Breast milk produced at night-time has been shown to contain calming compunds that may help babies sleep (just liike an adult’s cup of Horlics!).

This study could prove really important for mothers who express breast milk for bottle-feeding because they could easily be giving the ‘pick-me-up’ milk at night time and the calming milk during the day. This would obviously affect the baby’s sleeping patterns and mothers who express may want to ensure they are giving the right milk at the right time.

The Daily Mail has the full article here: For baby, a breast-milk cappuccino: Morning feed gives infants a natural pick-me-up

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Please read The Ferber Technique (part one) before attempting this technique.  As I discussed, this method should only be considered if your baby is healthy, well-fed and at least six months old.  Before starting this technique you have to be sure your baby is only crying because he wants something rather than that he actually he needs something.  If you suspect it might be the latter obviously give him everything he needs (a change, a feed etc).  Please note, I am not advocating the Ferber technique, I am simply letting you know the best way to go about it if you decide you want to give it a try. 

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After your baby reaches a certain age, you should begin to think about reducing the amount of night-time demands that you instantly rush to satisfy.

After reaching the four month mark, most babies are physically prepared to sleep through the entire night. They don’t really need middle of the night feeding anymore and most have acquired the ability to comfort themselves back to sleep if they do wake up. Therefore, if baby is still waking up frequently throughout the night it’s probably because you are still jumping out of bed at her first cry, to give her a feed and a cuddle. She’s learned that every time she cries, her favourite person and her favourite meal are by her side in seconds. Many babies are obviously not going to give this arrangement up too easily!

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Babies have a great deal to learn in a very short space of time. During waking hours, there is too much going on for babies’ brains to digest or reflect on the huge amount of information being received. During sleep the brain can organise and make sense of the vast array of experiences without distraction. Sleep is also a time for renewing the chemicals in the brain and the body, ready for another active day. (Hames 2002).

References

P. Hames (2002). “Help your baby to sleep.” HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

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