Jo alerted me to a campaign being waged over at Consument en Veiligheid (Consumer and Safety).
Their new Veilig Slapen (Sleep Safely) campaign claims that children who do not sleep in their own bed are 40 times more at risk of suffocating than those who do.
This preposterous claim is backed up by no evidence. Instead, a rather alarming TV ad has been produced to promote this destructive notion. And that’s why Jo passed it on to me; she was afraid that we were putting Eloïse at risk.
As usual, there’s another side to the story, one laid out in De Voordelen van Samen Slapen (The Advantages of Sleeping Together). This article makes references to the research of James McKenna (no relation to Sarah, as far as I know), which was conducted at the Mother-Baby Behavioural Sleep Laboratory in the US. The FAQ on this subject makes for interesting reading and reaches much more nuanced conclusions than the polarised Dutch campaign.
As Meridith Small put it:
For millions of years, the normal sleeping position of human infants has been on their backs nestled next to mother. Only in western cultures do we force babies to sleep alone, thinking they are more safe and independent placed in a crib with no contact. But history, and how most babies sleep in other cultures, suggests that the West is out of step with what is best physically and emotionally for our children.”
And some people say that I glorify all things Dutch. Hah!