New Medical Recommendation: Infants Should Sleep in Parents' Room Until Age One

The American Academy of Pediatrics published new guidelines the day before yesterday to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. In addition to the old recommendations, the academy formulated a new suggestion: infants, doctors say, should sleep in the parents' room, next to the parents' bed, for at least the first six months of their lives. Ideally, they should sleep in the parents' room until the age of one. This sleeping arrangement, research shows, reduces the risk of sudden infant death by half.

What are the previous, long-standing recommendations to prevent sudden infant death syndrome?

1. Sleep only on the back during the night (during the day, when an adult is constantly watching the baby, other positions are also possible)

2. Use of a firm mattress and a crib without pillows or soft toys that could block the baby's airway.

3. Breastfeeding.

4. Putting the baby to sleep with a pacifier — doctors do not know how a pacifier protects against sudden infant death, but the data is unequivocally in favor of putting the baby to sleep with a pacifier, even if the pacifier falls out of the baby's mouth later.

5. Smoking — both during pregnancy and after birth increases the baby's risk of sudden infant death.

6. Alcohol and drugs — again, use during pregnancy or after birth increases the risk of sudden infant death.

The new recommendation, to sleep with the baby in the room until age one, contradicts the long-held belief among professionals that a baby should sleep in its own room from day one. Opposing these professionals, a coalition of parents with the 'attachment' approach has emerged in recent years, preferring to sleep with the baby in the same bed. The recommendation of the American Academy is actually a compromise: shared sleeping can be too risky, doctors rule, but it is certainly advisable to lay the baby to sleep close to the parents. It can, it turns out, save lives.