Attachment parenting encourages parents to create and maintain close relationships with their infants through such principles and practices as breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and positive discipline. Through such nurturing and attentive practices, as outlined by Attachment Parenting International, children grow to be secure, empathetic, and confident adults.
As with all eight Attachment Parenting principles, co-sleeping allows parents to meet their infants' needs with sensitivity and attentiveness. Co-sleeping is the practice of having one's infant sleep in close proximity to the parent. This could be in the same bed or in a separate sleeping space but within the same room.
As with any parenting method, co-sleeping is met with heated debate. Although there is no concrete evidence that safe, responsible co-sleeping is a danger to babies, most pediatricians, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, discourage parents from sleeping with their infants, claiming infant deaths as a possible result. Regardless, many parents are choosing to sleep with their infants for the innumerous benefits it offers.
Benefits of Co-Sleeping
Benefits to co-sleeping are far-reaching and long-lasting, ranging from meeting your infant's immediate needs to creating independent, confident adults. Such benefits include:
- allowing parents to quickly meet the needs of their infant, not just during the day but throughout the night as well
- fostering strong parent-child relationships
- creating well-balanced, adjusted children and adults
Meeting an infant's physical and emotional needs is the primary role of any parent. Co-sleeping enables parents to immediately meet these needs. Early in life, babies need frequent feeding and changing. Having one's baby in the same bed makes it easier for parents to respond quickly to their newborn's need to eat and be changed.
A baby's emotional needs are just as critical to their growth and development as is nourishment. The need for emotional stability through affection and physical contact make co-sleeping ideal, as it offers many opportunities for the parent and child to bond through physical contact. What better way to give your child emotional security than to be a mere arm's length away?
Co-sleeping also builds and fosters strong parent-child relationships. Being readily available to meet an infant's needs teaches him that he can rely on his parent. Having this sense of reliance builds a stronger, closer bond between parent and child. Healthy relationships with those closest to us in infancy has lasting effects on us throughout adulthood, allowing us to create and maintain healthy relationships with other people.
Meeting all your infant's needs, through co-sleeping as well as the other principles outlined in attachment parenting, will ensure they grow into well-balanced, confident children and adults. Growing up with a sense of security and belonging teaches children to value and respect themselves; and it is through this sense of identity that children will grow into empathetic, sensitive adults.
Sara Renae Mattson - I am a 39-year young former elementary school teacher. I recently gave birth to my first child, a son. After having him, I realized I did ...
