Comment by seszett
2 years ago
> I remember one classic one is the "no coffee when pregnant", the study says this causes problems, the test was performed on rats and by feeding them coffee in the amount of 3/4 of their body weight. We can agree that with this amount, it's reasonable it could cause problems. Very different from one cup of coffee though.
Honestly I don't know which study you're talking about, and I'm not trying to question what you're saying (such studies indeed often use exaggerated amounts because it's more likely to show effects, but it can skew the results of course) but I just found it interesting that depending on what "feeding them coffee in the amount of 3/4 of their body weight" means, well over a pregnancy it's easy to consume 3/4 of one's body weight in coffee.
It means about 150 mL coffee per day for a woman weighing 55 kg, over 9 months.
About SIDS and sleeping with the children in the same bed, if I remember correctly (it's been some time since I had to read about this) the very large majority of cases happened with parents who either smoke or are obese. I think I couldn't find precise stats just for non-smoking, non-obese parents but it seems like SIDS basically didn't happen in this case when co-sleeping. It also almost never happens with immigrant parents for some reason (even though they are statistically more likely to practice co-sleeping, here in Europe).
SIDS has all manner of interesting and unexpected demographic correlations. I’m not convinced anyone knows what to make of them.
That’s the problem with anything that is defined by the symptoms, rather than the cause. As soon as you find definitive evidence of what causes a subset of SIDS, it’s no longer really SIDS but “improper bed safety” or “undiagnosed genetic condition”.
The covariates are awkward and because they correspond so strongly with parental traits, the possibility exists that the kids are dying because of dysfunctional parental behaviors specifically.
I'm a light sleeper and I feel like I have an awareness of everything nearby when I'm asleep (like I used to fall asleep with an open laptop in bed during college without knocking into it). I have a feeling co-sleeping wouldn't be an issue for me, but with all the dire warnings I'm afraid to risk it.
My wife did exactly that because she is a light sleeper. She actually slept near the center of the bed with the baby on her chest, so she could perceive any movement. I got used to perceive baby movements too.
I would obviously suggest to be very honest with yourself, but if you are a light sleeper and don't roll (we didn't), the most you have to be careful of is heat. Otherwise, enjoy the cuddly night
> I'm a light sleeper and I feel like I have an awareness of everything nearby when I'm asleep
You absolutely don't have awareness of everything nearby when you're asleep. You are inherently incapable of even determining this because you're sleeping. I'm sure you react to some stimuli but that doesn't mean you can expect yourself to react to every potential stimuli that you would want to.
A medical professional explained to me that your body gets accustomed to the body presence of the baby and unconsciously react to it: the body is aware. Now of course mother nature experiments with everything, so there are for sure people who don't get this "awareness" and as such, could be dangerous.
It was intended in a day, not over the course of the pregnancy