Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Cosleeping

I'm a big admirer of Dr. McKenna research - I'm also an academic, married to an anthropologist, and reading his research during nights awake with our first kid, put our minds at ease. See, I was decided to not bedshare, not matter what. Then, my strong willed baby came along, my hormones overtook my brain, and everything I wanted was to hold my baby, and all my baby wanted was to sleep next to me. This book is a easy way to have access to the numerous studies Dr. McKenna conducted in his lab, to learn about safe co-sleep and bedsharing, and to understand why it makes sense, biologically and culturally, to be close to our babies at night. Thank you for your work Dr. McKenna!

I’m a new mom. I’m not sure why people want to stick their kids alone in dark rooms for 12 hours, but that seems to be the mainstream thinking. It didn’t feel right in my heart, and this book explains why it’s not. It’s ok to cuddle and hold those babies!

We co-slept with our first two children, but I felt like there was more I still could learn to practice safer bed-sharing with our third. I found the explanations in this book helpful for making better, more informed decisions and provide the best sleep environment for my baby. The book has photographs with a baby doll that illustrate possible unsafe situations, which were extremely helpful in understanding why American-style mattresses and bed frames could be hazardous. The author also points out that the biological norm is for mothers to be next to their children, not down the hall in a separate room.

This book talks a lot about safety of bed sharing/cosleeping. It also has a lot of things that I already knew. I have been bed sharing for 6 months since my daughter was born and was hoping this book would have more interesting facts that I didn't know and I was really hoping for a section on how to transition a baby into their own bed. The book had a couple interesting facts but that was it. I also read the book in a very short time, it took me maybe only 30 minutes. I didn't expect this book to be so short.

Love how this little book speaks boldly about the subject of co-sleeping with studies, facts and experience to back up this "controversial" parenting style. This is a must read for all young parents - preferably before becoming parents.

This book is very smart, evidence based and informative. If you intuitively feel "the cry it out method" goes against your natural disposition on your child rearing, which is the case for my husband and I, this book will be very supportive and encouraging if you choose to have a family shared bed. It's an important tool that can assist you in your decision to safely room-in or bed-share with your child.

This had one partial page on co-sleeping premies. Short answer, don’t. Don’t ever? Don’t until they are bigger? I really wish the SIDS risk factors had been teased apart more. There was also very little on cosleeping with an adopted baby or a baby born with additional risk factors.

This author gets into the safety of bedsharing and teaches when, when not, and how to safely sleep with your baby. Short read, clearly written. Similar to “sleep solutions for breastfeeding mothers” recommended by La Leche League.

Read this book if you are considering bedsharing or cosleeping (sleeping in the same room) with your baby. It is also good to give to your partner and discuss together. The book is quite short and the main message is: cosleeping is good for babies and here is how to do it should you choose to.It is very refreshing read in an environment where everyone says "Never cosleep. Period" while human species did this for centuries and in many cultures still do. This book is more relevant for breastfeeding mothers rather than bottle feeding (the author gives advice to bottle feeding couples too, but i found that a lot of his writing can be guilt inducing for bottle feeding mums).I gave the book four stars because It focuses predominantly on babies needs and while parents' needs are mentioned (mothers report better sleep when cosleeping, reduced risk of breast cancer when breastfeeding, etc) i would like to see more evidence (or at least testimonials) on how cosleeping impacts parents.

I haven't finished reading this yet but so far I love it. Good evidence base for doing what I already felt to be right.

Oh how I wish the entire medical and health community, as well as all parents, could read this! This is the change we need. This is the information we need! I wish I had read it while pregnant.

Dr. McKenna began researching shared sleep, mothers and babies sleeping together, out of idle curiosity. After a few years of sleep research, he became convinced that the physiologically normal place for breastfed babies to sleep was next to their mothers, in a safe sleep environment. Find out what the safe sleeping guidelines are, and how you can modify those to keep your baby near you at night, to safely fit your family situation. (For example, formula fed babies should not bedshare, but sleeping in the parents' room in a separate crib is a safer sleep environment during the first 6 months of life, than sleeping in a separate room.)

I was disappointed with the book as wanted to know how safe it is to co-sleep - what causes accidents and how common they really are. I didn't get this from the book.It does have some practical advice but all of it was fairly obvious. It does support people's decision to co-sleep, but I was looking for more peace of mind and some evidence which would allow me to safely and contently co-sleep which might overcome all of the advice I get from people saying don't do it.