Bed sharing patterns in a cohort of Australian infants during the first six months after birth

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To measure bed sharing (BS) activity in healthy term infants. METHODOLOGY: The sleep–wake behaviour and place of infant sleep were recorded for infants aged between 2 and 24 weeks. Infants were then identified as BS or non bed sharing (NBS) according to each of four different definitions of bed sharing. RESULTS: The mean proportion of infants who spent any time BS during a 24-h period was significantly greater (P < 0.05) between 2 and 12 weeks (40.9 ± 1.4%) than between 13 and 24 weeks (36.5 ± 1.5%). A significantly greater proportion (P < 0.005) of infants bed shared for more than 2 h (25 ± 1%) than for either 1–2 h (10.5 ± 1.1%) or for less than 1 h/24 h (3.2 ± 0.5%) during the whole study period. Each of the definitions of BS used in the study separated infants on the basis of the amount and frequency of BS activity. CONCLUSION: Bed sharing activity was common and varied in this cohort. It was possible, using quantitative definitions, to identify those infants who routinely bed share.