Safe Sleep & Nighttime Parenting
One of the most common challenges faced by new parents is how to handle nighttimes and sleep. You may be trying to sift through lots of advice. We know that what works for one family may not work for another and believe that when parents have access to evidence-based information about infant development and safe sleep, they can make decisions about nighttime parenting that work best for their family.
Cognitively, infants do not have the ability to understand they are a separate person from their mother for many months, and they feel most “at home” staying physically close to their parents for most of the first year of life.
Many parents discover that bedsharing allows everyone to get more sleep. There’s also a lot of evidence indicating that bedsharing promotes breastfeeding success. For more information on safe bedsharing and co-sleeping practices, check out the Safe Sleep 7.
Here are some more resources to help you feel informed and empowered:
Baby Sleep Info Source is a great starting point for understanding infant sleep biology.
This IABLE article on Lactation and Infant Sleep includes information about what’s developmentally typical during a baby’s first year of life.
Safe cosleeping guidelines from the University of Notre Dame Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory include advice specifically for parents of bottle fed babies.
Check out this NPR article on sleep training methods for older babies.
Attachment Parenting International has a list of gentle sleep strategies and resources.
If you want to do a deep dive into this topic, check out the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine’s protocol on bedsharing and breastfeeding.
Although there are no magic solutions to nighttime challenges, we are always happy to talk it through with you – contact us any time, even if you just need a listening ear from someone who has lived through it.
DISCLAIMER: We know when you surf the web for information, you can get conflicting results, and it’s not easy to know whether you are finding evidence-based, high quality recommendations. That’s part of our job here at Kodiak KINDNESS; we are here to support your informed decisions about infant feeding through your baby’s first year. We’ve done some background work, and to the best of our knowledge, this post reflects current best practices. However, the information contained in this post and any links contained herein is for your informational use only; it is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Furthermore, Kodiak KINDNESS is not responsible for the accuracy of any information contained in this post or links contained herein; it is for you to review at your own risk and discuss, as needed, with your health care professional in order to make a plan that suits your individual circumstances.