Are you planning to share a room with your baby? If yes, then this is something for which you need to prepare in advance. Room sharing with your baby is something that you should do until they are at least 6 to 12 months older. It would ensure that your baby would remain safe in your surveillance and reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Setting up a shared room could be slightly tricky. You must first ensure that you have bought all the essential things that will help you set up the room in a quiet baby style. As much baby stuff is available, purchase something that will attract your baby. As sleep is one of the necessities for you and your baby, it’s important to design the room in a manner that helps you to have a comfortable and sound sleep. Irregular sleep patterns can be a huge distraction for you and your baby, so make sure you eliminate all those disturbing elements from the room and fill them with positive things for your bundle of joy.
In This Article
- Can You Share a Room With Your Baby?
- Why Should You Share a Room With Your Baby?
- When Should You Consider Room Sharing With Your Baby?
- How Long Should You Share Your Room With Your Baby?
- Top 4 Tips For Room Sharing With Your Baby
- FAQ’s
Can You Share a Room With Your Baby?
Knowing what we mean by sharing a room with a baby is crucial. Room sharing with the baby means sharing the sleeping space with your baby or sleeping in the same room. But with this, we do not mean sleeping on the same surface as your baby. For instance, if we talk about parents sleeping with their baby, we suggest that parents sleep on the bed and their baby sleep on the crib, cot, bassinet, or other surfaces.
Sleeping on the same bed as the baby puts the little one at a higher risk for SIDS. However, for some parents, sharing a room with babies is another compromise due to space constraints. However, the other ones do not find the idea of room sharing convincing as they think they would be disturbed and unable to sleep comfortably.
[Read : Precautions to Take While Co-sleeping With Your Newborn]
Why Should You Share a Room With Your Baby?
Here are a few reasons why room sharing with your baby can be an excellent idea.
- You are in the same room to monitor any unexpected needs of your baby.
- Since your baby is sleeping on a separate surface and you can still lookout for your baby, the risk of SIDS comes down drastically.
- You can easily take care of your baby cries suddenly in the middle of the night.
- Room sharing reduces the stress on parents and they can sleep more peacefully knowing that they are in close proximity to their baby.
When Should You Consider Room Sharing With Your Baby?
You can start sharing the room with them from the day your baby is born. It should last until your baby turns six months older. But some parents may prefer sharing a room with their little one until the first birthday. It all boils down to the comfort levels and safety concerns of the baby and parents and space constraint issues.
Making your baby sleep in your room is quite practical as it would make those middle-of-the-night feedings easier for you. Moreover, you could spend more time with your little bundle of joy.
How Long Should You Share Your Room With Your Baby?
As per some experts, it is known that parents must share their room for at least the initial year with their baby. But if not, it should happen for at least the first six months. This way, you would be able to nurture your baby in the manner in which they should be, and this care and upbringing would help a lot to grow in the right direction.
[Read : Safe Sleep Environment For Babies]
Top 4 Tips For Room Sharing With Your Baby
Here are some important tips that will help with room sharing with your baby.
1. Create a Separate Sleeping Zone For Your Baby
The first thing you should keep in mind while making your baby sleep in your room is that you should form a separate sleep area for your baby, somewhere not so close to you. You can even use a curtain or mock nursery to create a separate space for your baby. It will help your baby sleep peacefully in their environment, and they will also learn independence.
2. Create a Safe Sleeping Surface
Make sure that your baby is sleeping on a hard surface with no obstructions that can cause any hazards. In the initial months, you should avoid pillows and blankets for your baby. Any accessories such as baby toys should also be completely removed.
[Read : When Can Your Baby Sleep With a Blanket?]
3. Do Not Forget Nightlights
Nightlights are especially there for kids. Small infants do get very anxious while sleeping in the dark. Hence, turn on one or two nightlights when they are sleeping.
4. Sleep Train Your Baby
This is a good time to start sleep training your baby which involves putting them to bed and waking them up at fixed times and training them to fall asleep on their own. As your baby grows, they will go through many phases of sleeplessness and training them as early as possible will help them get back into routine quickly despite disturbances.
Room sharing with your baby is an ideal way to keep your baby on a separate sleeping surface while you ensure that any needs are met on time and you are not anxious through the night after having left your baby in another room to sleep alone. So if you have a baby and are planning their sleeping needs do consider room sharing.
[Read : Sleep Training a Baby]
FAQ’s
1. How Does Sharing a Room With a Baby Prevent SIDS?
Sleeping in the same room with your baby would help prevent them from going into a deep sleep, and this would keep them safe. Moreover, sleeping in the same room would also make breastfeeding easier, which would act protective against SIDS.
2. Do Babies Sleep Better in Their Rooms?
As per research, babies sleep better in their rooms by going to bed early and sleeping for more hours of undisrupted sleep.
Read Also: When Can I Let My Baby Sleep Alone? by Dr. Srikanta J T
