Is there Moral Truth in this Footnote?

by Steven R. Rein

Summary

Gary Ezzo unfortunately (and most likely inadvertantly) mis-represented the content of the article "Cosleeping in a Community Sample of 2 and 3 Year Old Children", Pediatrics, 1990.

Details

In responding to the ABC World News Tonight story about GFI in the article entitled "The War Against Moral Truth" (no longer on GFI's website), Gary Ezzo made the following statement about Dr. William Sears:

"He also recommends that parents sleep with their children in what he calls `the Family Bed' until they want to sleep alone. This practice is universally condemned by pediatricians."

As support for this statement, Ezzo adds in a footnote:

"See `Cosleeping in a Community Sample of 2- and 3-Year-Old Children,' by Drs. Deborah Madansky and Craig Edelbrock in Pediatrics, August 1990, p. 197. Pediatricians cite the following ill effects of parents sleeping with their children: It may cause or exacerbate child psychopathology, allow sexual abuse to occur, overstimulate children in a sexual way, interfere with the child's independence, create sleep disorders and more."

I got a copy of this article. It does not say that co-sleeping is "universally condemned". It does not even say that co-sleeping can cause the various problems listed, including sleep disorders.

What does the article say? There appear to be two main parts of this article that have any bearing on the current discussion.

In the literature review section of the article, the authors mention that Dr. Spock and T.B. Brazelton recommended against co-sleeping in the mid 1970's. Hardly "universal condemnation". The literature cited by the authors that claim co-sleeping may cause psychopathologies is between 20 and 30 years old. The claim that co-sleeping may interfere with the child's independence is by Dr. Brazelton from the mid-1970s. SIDS expert James McKenna Ph.D. who has studied the sleep patterns of infants and young children for the last ten years also says there is no scientific evidence to support this notion but also says that co-sleeping may reduce SIDS rates (Parents magazine, July 1996, page 48, personal communication and "Bed Sharing and SIDS"). The possibility of sexual abuse and sexual over-stimulation of children is not an issue of co-sleeping; it is an issue of parents who are lacking proper boundries.

The other main section of the article relates a survey where about 300 parents of 2 and 3 year olds were asked questions about their children. Their children were normal in every way. The co-sleeping parents reported more nighttime wakefulness in their children that the parents who did not share beds with their children. The authors make a point of noting that this may be because cosleeping

• may cause sleep problems
  
• may merely allow parents to be more aware of the child's nighttime behavior, causing them to report more sleep problems
  
• may be a typical response to children with certain types of preexisting sleep problems
• is associated with other things, like family culture, which are associated with sleep problems.

This study does not and cannot say what causes these "sleep problems". This study should not be used as a reference for the statement that co-sleeping may create sleep disorders (which are entirely different from sleep problems).

Conclusion

While the discussion of infants and toddlers sleeping in the same bed as their parents may still be open, the Pediatrics article Gary Ezzo cites does not say what he suggests it does.