For parents who are just beginning to explore co sleeping, one of the most commonly asked questions is: When is it safe to co sleep?
Though thinking through the when of co sleeping is an important first step for families starting to transition to this long-loved sleeping practice, it’s hard to come to a decision about when to co sleep until you’ve thought through your how to co sleep.
How to Co Sleep Safely: Why The “How” Matters
“Co-sleeping” is commonly used as a catch-all phrase to describe the practice of sleeping in the same room as your child. However, it’s important to understand that there are many different ways that parents choose to co sleep—and some offer more peace of mind than others.
Though “bed-sharing” is often considered a type of co sleeping, there are actually significant differences between the two practices.
When bed-sharing, you invite your child to share space on your own mattress, making room for them to get comfy surrounded by the sheets, comforters, and pillows that you prefer.
When co-sleeping, you sleep easily in arm’s reach of your child, while offering them a made-just-for-them sleeping space that offers the firm support that their growing body needs.
A co-sleeping solution like the babybay bedside co sleeper gives your child a safe co sleeping bed that attaches securely to your own, allowing both you and your baby to rest easy in a sleeping space that fully supports your unique needs.
While actual bed-sharing can lead to sleepless nights full of wondering and worry about whether your child will roll over and get trapped in too-soft bedding or feel unsupported by your too-soft mattress during the night, co sleeping offers big benefits while whisking those worries away.
Which is why when it comes to the question When is it safe to co-sleep?, parents who have a co sleeper bed for their child attached to their own will feel confident that their child is getting safe and sound nights of co-sleeping rest from the first moment they’re brought home.
When Is It Safe to Co-Sleep with a Bedside Co-Sleeper?
The American Academy of Pediatrics stresses the benefits of sharing a room with your baby during at least the first six months of their life, and ideally through the first year.
Not only does sharing a space make you more responsive to your baby’s needs (as well as a host of other benefits!), but it lets you function as a kind of “jump start” to support your baby’s healthy development.
As anthropologist James J. McKenna found, when parents and baby sleep close by, they naturally start to regulate their sleep state, oxygen levels, temperature, breathing patterns, heart rate, and brain waves to match.
That means that by sleeping close to your baby during their first months of life, you positively support their still-developing biological and physiological systems in big ways (which is key to helping them grow healthy and strong!).
By co sleeping with baby from the first moment they come home, you’re able to put these “jump start” effects from the get-go, which is important considering how much of baby’s energy during the first months of their life is focused on learning the world.
You can maximize those “jump-start” benefits while paving the way for worry-free nights of rest for both you and baby with the help of a bedside co sleeper.
Bedside sleepers like the babybay are specially engineered and built with care to offer your baby a co-sleeping bed that is a safe space for them to catch some Zs while remaining close by your side all night long.
And while other sleeping practices—like bed-sharing—can leave you tossing and turning with worries and “what if” thoughts all night long, bedside cosleepers take all the guesswork and concerns away.
With the babybay bedside co sleeper, you’ll be be close enough to support baby’s healthy development and care for their every need, while giving your baby the firm, supportive mattress and just-for-them space they need to sleep secure and sound.
Deciding When to Co-Sleep: The Big Takeaway
The answer to the question When is it safe to co sleep? depends on how you co-sleep.
Every family’s needs and priorities are different, and ultimately only you know where your child is in their development and what that means for your co sleeping journey.
However, there’s one co-sleeping truth that’s not up for debate: once you’re ready to start co-sleeping, a bedside co sleeper crib specially engineered to support your baby’s needs takes all the guesswork and worry out of how to cosleep.
So when you’re ready to start co-sleeping, babybay will be here to help you and baby spend every night sleeping sweet-dream sound.