Parents Should Be Supported If the Choose to Share a Bed with Their Infant

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Parents Should Be Supported if they Choose to Share a Bed with their Infant Courtney La Plante Trent University Parents Should Be Supported if they Choose to Share a Bed with their Infant Bed sharing is a very controversial practice, which involves an infant sleeping with one or both parents in an adult bed during the night. There are many discussions surrounding bed sharing that support or oppose the practice. In my paper, I am going to argue that parents should be educated and supported to share a bed with their infant, if that is what the parents choose to do, in order to provide the infant with safe an supportive sleeping practices. I am going to discuss bed sharing as it relates to safety, independency, the development and mental health of the child as well as of the parent. I am also going to discuss some of the research that is in opposition to bed sharing. Bed sharing is a controversial subject that has a very clear support and oppositional views; however, all views are in support of providing an infant with safety, security and emotional well-being. Many researchers on the opposing side have recently discussed bed sharing as a large risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (Hoffman & Sperhake, 2014). Independency is another factor that is often criticized by researchers; many researchers believe that bed sharing will decrease a child’s independency and autonomy later in life (Keller & Goldberg, 2004). Another common concern that researchers have with bed sharing is that children will grow to develop abnormal psychological dependency and will have and impact on temperament and sleep problems later in life (Hayes, Parker, Sallinen & Davare, 2001). A final oppositional theory is that bed sharing will have a negative impact on parents’ ability to have privacy and intimacy, which could lead to emotional instability towards each
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