Co-sleeping pros and cons

Super sleep expert Jill Spivack shares the safest and best ways to co-sleep with your baby to keep everyone involved secure and happy.
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Co-sleeping pros and cons

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I think initially when you have a newborn baby and they are eating so much at night and they need so much help in going from being in the womb to being in the world, co-sleeping or sleeping nearby makes a lot of sense. There´s been some new research that has been coming out lately that says that co-sleeping in the bed can create danger around suffocation or SIDS. So the safest way that the American Academy of Pediatrics is saying to sleep now is in a seperate but proximate location, that your baby is near you when they are very little, under four months or so, and that you are able to be near them to feed them on demand, to get them back to sleep on demand, and do all that good stuff. If you continue to co-sleep over time, the downside is your child sometimes will need you to go to sleep with them, at least start the evening that way, that they will need to continue to rely on you for assistance in the middle of the night, which wakes you up, that most kids will sleep like this so the dad and the mom are laying on the side of the bed and the child is nicely spread out in the middle. So it can get uncomfortable. I hear about dads going into the guest room very often because they have had it. So you have to make a family decision to co-sleep that really feels like both parents are very committed to doing it and are very happy about moving forward that way. Otherwise, co-sleeping in the beginning is good and then moving into more of a seperate situation eventually can work better for some families.
BABY, Babies and Sleep, Co-Sleeping

Super sleep expert Jill Spivack shares the safest and best ways to co-sleep with your baby to keep everyone involved secure and happy.

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Expert Bio

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Jill Spivack, LCSW

Sleep Expert

Jill Spivack, LCSW, completed her graduate studies at the University of Southern California. She developed an expertise in parenting while working as a psychotherapist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Early Childhood Department. Jill, a mother of two children, went on to develop a sub-specialty in pediatric sleep disorders while working in New York City at a parenting center after experiencing sleep problems with her first child. In 1999, upon returning to Los Angeles, Jill co-founded the pediatric sleep firm Childsleep.

Recognizing that today's parents were lacking the essential support, education, and sense of community they sought to do their best, Jill was inspired to co-found Sleepy Planet.  Offering a wide variety of services, Sleepy Planet helps parents of babies, toddlers, and young children with behavioral sleep problems through private consultations, and provides parent education, psychotherapy, and professional presentations on a wide variety of topics, including the transition to parenthood, child development and behavior, sibling rivalry, marital issues, and how to balance work and family. In addition, Jill holds weekly groups for new and second-time mothers to allow parents to share experiences and emotions, ask questions, and support one another through the journey of parenthood. 

Jill is also the co-creator of The Sleepeasy Solution, a book and DVD that show parents how to break difficult sleep habits without breaking their hearts in the process.  She has been featured in a variety of media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, The Los Angeles Times, Parenting, Variety and has appeared numerous times on The Today Show. She is also a co-consultant for Pajanimals, a new television project with the Jim Henson Company airing on PBS Kids Sproutthat features four adorable puppets who model for preschoolers, the skills they need to manage the various emotions and issues that they confront in early childhood. 

More Parenting Videos from Jill Spivack, LCSW >
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