Kids in the Bed

By Amy Dickinson

You've got to love the Consumer Product Safety Commission, nanny to the nation. They're the guys who put those impenetrable safety caps on aspirin bottles and rounded off the corners of our furniture; they're the original authors of WARNING: CONTENTS HOT and THIS LADDER IS TO BE USED FOR CLIMBING. Without the CPSC, Americans wouldn't know the dangers of rickety swing sets, toxic crayons or detachable doll's eyes. Last week the CPSC announced that parents shouldn't allow infants to sleep with them in bed, owing to the risk of suffocation, strangulation or death by "overlying"--when a sleeping parent mistakenly rolls onto an infant. This announcement was based on data collected from 1990 to 1997 showing that on average, 64 American babies die each year while "co-sleeping" with their parents in adult beds.

The CPSC presented this warning to parents in absolute terms, saying that babies should never be allowed to sleep on adult beds, daybeds or waterbeds; that doing so exposes the child to a "potentially fatal hazard." The CPSC acknowledges "limitations" with its data, in that the reported cause of death in some cases is based on "anecdotal information." In some of the cases the babies might have been victims of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); it is also not clear if parents' consumption of alcohol or drugs might have contributed to the "overlay" deaths. (Interestingly, even safety equipment is dangerous if misused: eight infant deaths during this period involved baby rails, intended to keep the child from rolling out of bed.)

So consider yourself warned. Now, if you're like me, you're thinking about ignoring the CPSC, but you're anxious about the consequences (I used to feel like a criminal when I put my baby to bed in a non-flame-retardant sleeper). I asked Ann Brown, chairwoman of the CPSC, if she thought the co-sleeping warning isn't just a touch overblown. Hoarse from defending the CPSC's position on co-sleeping, she said the "huge number of deaths meant it would be wrong for us to withhold this information from parents."

The fact is, 3,880,894 American babies were born in 1997, the most recent year for which we have statistics. Sadly, 28,045 died before their first birthday. But only 64 of them died on adult beds, compared with 736 who died of other accidental injuries--for instance, 160 babies under the age of one year died in motor-vehicle accidents.

Death is quantifiable, as the data sadly show. What can't be measured so easily is the benefit of closeness, both for the baby and the parent. There is no question that parents and their babies should have as much intimate contact as possible. The problem is how to get it. Dr. John Kattwinkel, who headed a task force on infant-sleep positions and SIDS for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told me that if parents can avoid "loose bedding, pillows, soft surfaces, waterbeds, mattresses that might pull away from bed frames, smoking and drinking in bed," then co-sleeping was O.K. Otherwise they should have their infant within reach in a bassinet. "They have this kind now that straps to the bed," Dr. Kattwinkel offered. "Straps? I don't know. Sounds like a hazard to me," I said. He assured me that there are bassinets out there that have been tested and approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Whew! Now don't we all feel better?

See our website at time.com/personal for more on child safety and nurturing. You can e-mail Amy at timefamily@aol.com