by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Parenting

A new study that suggests babies get more and better sleep if they have their own room by 4 months old has sparked a debate about current advice on room sharing.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends sharing a room ? but not a bed - with your baby until he?s at least 6-months old, and preferably until he turns 1. This practice is meant to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
But the author of a new study published this month in the journal Pediatrics says that advice should be changed to recommend parent-baby room sharing for no longer than 6 months. In fact, when babies sleep in mom and dad?s room even past 4 months it could result in less sleep for both them and their parents, put babies at greater risk for unsafe sleep practices, and make it harder for them to adjust to sleeping in their own room when they get older, the research paper concluded. The study authors analyzed surveys given to 230 moms with young babies participating in a randomized controlled trial in Pennsylvania. More than half of the infants slept in their own room by 4 months, about 30 percent began sleeping independently between 4 and 9 months, and 26 babies still slept in their parents? room at 9 months old.
Babies who slept by themselves at 4 months got about 40 minutes more sleep each night by age 9 months than babies who still shared a room with their parents at 9 months. They also got 26 minutes more sleep than babies w...