Letters to the Editor

Get out of my bedroom!
BY PEGGY O'MARA
(09/30/99)

Based on my own and other parents' experiences co-sleeping with our babies, I believe Peggy O'Mara is right about it being safe, nurturing and an aid to breast-feeding -- but we'll never know until someone actually studies the question instead of panicking over anecdotal evidence. Where are the statistics to back up the CPSC 's claim? What percentage of the babies who sleep in family beds are dying? One-tenth of a percent? One-hundredth of a percent? No one knows because I doubt anyone has done a true scientific study. The deaths of those 64 babies are tragic, but is there proof that they were caused by co-sleeping? Were their parents drug- or drink-impaired? Is it possible the babies really died of SIDS but were misdiagnosed? Give me facts, not hysteria.

-- Karen A. Kasper
Pittsburgh

Peggy O'Mara, in her rant regarding the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recommendations against babies sleeping in parents' beds, raises the specter of the AMA and the AAP as evil agents of government influence or cat's-paws of crib manufacturers, hell-bent on breaking up her mom-baby dyad. After all, parents know best, right? Certainly better than we dumb doctors.

As an AAP member, I'd like to respond. Peggy, do what you want to do. However, when parents come to me for advice, I point out that some researchers believe that many cases of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) result from smothering in the family bed, and that I frequently see infants who have fallen from parental beds in the Emergency Department.

The "crib manufacturers" have yet to give me any money, believe me. I have no interest in coming between moms and babies, and I'm not going to try to stop a determined mom from practicing whatever (non-abusive) form of parenting she feels is right -- especially not one so heated up as O'Mara.

-- Michael Treece, M.D.

The CPSC has done some valuable work figuring out some risks to babies: wedging, getting stuck under pillows, etc. If that information isn't hidden under inappropriate doomsday rhetoric, it can readily be assimilated and used by parents as we plan how to safely sleep with our babies -- in itself a safe and healthy behavior contributing to infant survival.

-- Elise E. Morse-Gagne
Swiftwater, N.H.

Thank you for a touch of common sense and rationality with respect to parenting and co-sleeping! Somehow separate sleeping arrangements for infants has become common in this country over the last century or so, and with it a rise in sleeping disorders and "crib-death." I think people forget to take the long view of parenting, and fail to realize that doing something artificially (like formula feeding or separating yourself from your baby during sleeping) needs lots of proof that it's better for the child than doing what's natural and instinctive. I defy Consumer Reports to find one instance of a baby dying while sleeping with the parents were 1) the parents weren't drunk or on drugs, 2) the parents weren't extremely overweight, or 3) the baby wasn't placed face down on a comforter or pillow. You're right -- we haven't heard about any of these deaths for a reason.

As a soon-to-be first-time mom, I've done lots of reading and research and talking to relatives and friends. Co-sleeping is the best for the baby, from what I've found. The synchronous brain wave patterns of mothers and infants while sleeping together is very telling research. Unfortunately, there are too many pediatricians that still recommend separation from the baby during the night, and bottle-feeding over breast-feeding or pumping. Mothers aren't getting good information, or are getting conflicting information. What are they to do? Consumer Reports should stick to reporting on consumer products, and stay out of the parenting arena.

-- Pati Smith

Peggy O'Mara made many valid points in her article, but she invalidated her logic by invoking the myth of the "noble savage" -- that because of the simple and natural way they live, people living in developing countries are purer, wiser and better than the "civilized peoples." Never mind the high infant mortality, never mind the fact that wife beating is much more prevalent in non-industrialized societies, never mind the child labor, etc. Communal life in "rural" countries is not practiced because it is more noble, more worthy -- it is a fact of life where there is no other option!

She should keep in mind that these babies who serenely sleep with their parents, will remain sleeping with their parents, and their brothers and sisters, most likely their grandparents and possibly their aunts and uncles until they are grown to the point of marriage. Should this also become practice in the United States?

-- Jennifer Fr|hbauer

Jonesing for my Coke high
BY LIZ KRIEGER
(09/30/99)

Thank God that someone has finally addressed the "last" dirty little addiction. As a "Tab-oholic," I am constantly quizzed in the office, "How many cans have you had today?" I could scream every time a newcomer sees me carrying my signature pink can and exclaims, "I didn't think that they even made that anymore!" or "My mom" or even worse, grandmother "used to drink that all of the time!"

-- Catherine Hartmann

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