What are the long term effects on my baby of sharing a bed?
While advocates of solitary infant sleeping arrangements have claimed any number of benefits of infant sleeping alone, the truth o the matter is, none of these supposed benefits have been shown to be true through scientific studies. The great irony is that, not only have benefits of solitary infant sleep NOT be demonstrated – simply assumed to be true, but recent studies are beginning to show the opposite that is, it is not, for example, solitary sleeping arrangements that produce strong independence, social competence, feeling of high self esteem,good comportment by children in school, ability to handle stress, strong gender or sex identities – but it is social or cosleeping patterns that might, indeed, contribute to the emergence of these characteristics. Consider, for example: * Heron’s (1) recent cross-sectional study of middle class English children shows that amongst the children who “never” slept in their parents bed there was a trend to be harder to control, less happy, exhibit
