Stats on co-sleeping families?

[cklewis]

How many families actually (even secretly) co-sleep? I know I've read that stat in the recent past, but I can't remember where or what it was.

Last night at our dinner out, DH's recitalist's future MIL asked us, "Does he sleep alone?"

She asked it in such a way that clued me in, "this is a woman familiar with co-sleeping."

So I honestly admitted, "Well, half the night."

She said that her DD slept with them until she was 2+.

DH was stunned. He told me on the way home, "I thought we were being really, really odd and that we were setting ourselves up for failure later on."

I was trying to remember a good co-sleeping stat to assure him. . . . It may take some of the pressure off of him to bed-wean DS. :clap

TIA!

C

[DogwoodMama]

I would check out Dr. Sears' site- I bet he has some statistics! :D

[Mama Calidad]

13% of U.S. infants are routinely cosleeping with nearly 50% sharing bed for part of the nights.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 2000 Survey,
http://www.babyreference.com/Cosleeping&SIDSFactSheet.htm

That's just US. I know for sure and for certain that those rates are a lot higher here. ;)

Antecdotially, DH and all of his 9 brother and sister have coslept with their parents. Not all in the same bed at the same time. :lol When DSIL1 was born, she slept between MIL & FIL. She slept there until DH was born and he took her spot and she slept at MIL & FIL's feet. When DBIL1 was born, he got the middle, DH moved to DSIL1's spot, and DSIL1 moved to a mat on the floor. You get the idea....

DH was on that mat on the floor until he left home at the ripe ol' age of 15ish. From there, he went to a foreign country where he didn't speak the language, made enough money to support himself, send money home to his family and save a pretty decent amount...married a lovely girl. :P

Each of the 5 girls have married and have/are working on families of their own. DBIL1 and DBIL2 are currently working in the US getting money saved for themselves and sending money back to MIL & FIL. DBILs3&4 are still in the home, but they are 16 and 14 so that's where they ought to be.

[Katherine]

You know, I bet it's hard to come up with an accurate statistic on that--at least in the US. It's frowned up in so many circles, and even by a lot of healthcare professionals... I bet a lot of parents fib about it. I know I did with ds1. It was unbelievable how people who I hadn't talked to in months or years would bring that up as they knew I'd had a baby. "Now.. he sleeps in his own bed, doesn't he?" (with a raised eyebrow) :mad grrrr....

And now that I'm totally comfortable telling ppl that both my boys sleep with me, nobody asks anymore. :mrgreen hehe Maybe they know that they don't want to know. you know? :lol

[TulipMama]

I think it's one of those things that is hard to quantify, besides the reasons already mentioned, because cosleeping "looks" different in different families.

For example, our boys are older, but we still co-sleep. They are tucked in their own bed at bedtime, but usually one (and sometimes all four) are snuggling with us by morning. Or sometimes, none of them are. I'd say we still co-sleep, but they aren't all in our bed for all sleeping times. . .

[Punkie]

I agree that its hard to get true statistics. If someone asks me if I cosleep, I'd say no, because we don't routinely, but when my daughter was younger, she'd sometimes fall asleep while nursing and I wouldn't return her to her bed until I woke up (sometimes hours later). I think there's a *lot* of parents like me who wouldn't consider themselves cosleepers, although at one time or another, their kids have slept in bed with them.

I tried to get my dd to cosleep the other night because she was crying everytime we set her down, but when she's in my bed, she just wants to jump :P Oh well, I tried though.

[believer]

My oldest slept with me (I was divorced) until she was 3. My son slept with my husband and I until he was 2 and we put him in his own bed to help wean him - it was awful for a little while - but there was no way he would have given up the night nursing and I was pregnant and needed my rest. My youngest is 3 and she still sleeps in our bed - we have a toddler bed in our room and she is there part of the time. DH would like her out of our room completely, and most of the time I agree - she tosses and turns and grabs our fingers while she sleeps, but in the morning I love snuggling with her. :heart Our son sometimes climbs into bed with us occasionally :banghead (he just told me to put that smiley on) and the cat usually sleeps at our feet :sick (ok - Jacob wanted the sick smile on too) .