We are not a co-sleeping family, but the question about a cribless nursery prompted me to wonder if co-sleeping families tend to still co-sleep when either the parent(s) or the child is sick? I suppose that attachment parenting would say that a sick child needs the comfort of their parents at that time even more, but if the parent is sick and the baby is healthy, would you put the baby in a crib to help keep them healthy?
I know that when I am sick I am hacking my lungs out all night, and my husband doesn't sleep well and tells me that I am coughing and not covering my mouth.
So, just out of curiosity--if you co-sleep, are there exceptions to it, like illnesses?
I bed-share and breastfeed whether I'm sick or not, that includes whether my husband is sick or not. I had mono (didn't know it) and my daughter still slept with me - she never showed signs of sickness and I read up about it after the fact that most Americans get the virus before the age of 5 y/o... and the symptoms are never discovered or noticed.
My thinking was always that, you're contagious most BEFORE you show any symptoms....so by the time you *know* you're sick, it's too late anyways! I co-sleep with my youngest, and did my oldest until they were 3 and almost 5.
The only time it was an issue was when we all caught the stomache flu this past September. The big girls were in their own bed, but the baby was with us. She got sick in bed once, but I was smart and put a burp cloth down underneath her (she was 10 months old) for easy clean-up. Colds have never posed a problem for us really....sure, there's coughing and nose blowing, but nothing seasoned co-sleeper's can't sleep through! hahaha
There's no way a co sleeping infant in my family could be quarantined . I breast feed, usually extended and I wouldn't supplement with formula during this time because breast milk has valuable irreplaceable antibodies to help during a sickness.
My best bet is to try not to get it myself and keep my baby as healthy ad possible.
Eta..... And just in case my baby did get sick u would want them near me so I could clear away any vomit, change any runny diaper or run a moist cloth over their head..... Within arms reach
I co-slept when my son was younger and it didn't matter if either of us were sick. We are both pretty healthy, so I think it only came up once where he got sick first with a stomach virus and then I caught it. Now that he is older (5), if he is really congested, he will sleep in my bed on either some propped up pillows or him laying in my arm. He tosses and turns so much that he ends up off the pillows laying flat and will wake up. Honestly that is much easier as he will wake up crying and it takes him a while to calm down if I have to go into his room. That doesn't happen often since he is hardly that sick.
We've never tried hard to keep the family separated from each other while sick. Usually, it's either too late, or only one or two out of 6 get sick. I concentrate much harder on cranking out the soups, laying in supplies of fresh fruits, and pushing the fluids. Keeping the immune system healthy is most important.
Actually if you're sick and breastfeeding you want the baby close so you can nurse MORE so they'll get the antibodies and hopefully WON'T get sick. Now in a perfect world there will be another healthy parent around to do all of the childcare chores EXCEPT nursing and will leave you alone to wallow in your misery except for when the baby needs fed. In my REAL single mom world the one time I was sick with a fairly young baby, I moved everything we NEEDED with in arms reach of the bed, nursed a lot and onl got up to use the potty/empty the barf bucket.
When the kidlet is sick we still cosleep, I just put most of the towels we own under the kidlet then when he gets sick I only have to take the dirty ones off the pile....
ETA:
Plus my son was a HUGE comfort nurser whenever he didn't feel well-- he was pretty much glued to the boob when sick so there would have been NO WAY to put him somewhere else when he was sick. The good news was I NEVER had to worry about dehydration until he was almost 4!
No exceptions here.
That would be really hard on our kids.
I very rarely get sick though.
Recently, the stomach bug hit our house. The baby got it first. Gave it to everyone else, it's not like you can avoid the baby-regardless of the sleeping arrangements. Lol.
I did wake up to being thrown up on multiple nights. Which definitely sucked. :P
Our child still slept with us, whether any of us were sick or not. Now, neither my husband or I (or baby) had any illnesses where we were throwing up while we co-slept. Had that been the case, we probably would have made other arrangements.
Well a nursing infant is pretty much with mom all day so clearly if mom is sick baby WILL be exposed, there's no getting around it.
If I was sick the last thing I would want to do is get out of my warm bed to go feed my screaming baby in a dark room.
My husband always had the option of sleeping in another room, though we didn't get sick all that often so it really wasn't a big deal.
ETA: clearly I am making an assumption that MOST co sleepers also breastfeed
i know you're reaching out to co-sleeping parents, but i just thought it was ironic - the only time we have coslept was when my son was seriously sick. we've never been one to sequester when there's illness in the house - and he was sick enough that i didn't care - he needed to be with us. so as a non-co-sleeping family, that's our exception lol.
ETA: lol i see i'm not the only non-co-sleeper who answered. sorry! :)
I co-slept with all four of my kids (until 6 mos-1 yr depending on the child). Illness was never an exception (I cannot think of any other exceptions either). If my baby was sick I definitely wanted them close so I could tend to their needs better/quicker. I could monitor a temp throughout the night without getting up, I could often catch a vomiting episode in a bowl before it got all over the sheets, I could nurse on demand (which was always increased during illness) without excessive waking on my part. In fact, I would often co-sleep with a sick child or baby even if they were no longer co-sleeping when healthy. I think we were both more comfortable that way. I have a very good immune system,I can't tell you the last fever I had or the last time I vomited (outside of morning sickness). I have never had a sick visit to the doctor as an adult and never in my life taken antibiotics. But if I did have a cold I still co-slept. I would practice my typical good hand-washing and try to resist kissing them on their face (REALLY hard to do). But I figure just being a baby in my care exposes them, sleeping in the same bed wouldn't significantly alter their exposure. They are probably less exposed during the night than during the day since I am not touching them as much. Fortunately, my kids have been generally healthy too. So it was not something we dealt with much.
I only co-slept one time. That was when we got back from the ER with my 4 year old son in the middle of the night. They had to give him a drug that basically paralyzed him so that they could sew up his lip. You can't keep a child's lip still to sew it up, and we couldn't reason with him to be still.
Other than that, when my kids were sick, I just got up a lot and tended to them. I did not want them to start screaming to get in my bed once they were well. That would be double the time we would both be awake!!
Dawn
Kate:
I hope you don't mind my answering...
We don't co-sleep. I slept with them when they were younger - on the hide-a-bed in their room/nursery - when they were sick - i would try to be closer...if **I** am sick? I don't want anyone around me, I end up sleeping in the guest bedroom so I don't wake anyone up with my hacking.
The only time I cosleep with either of my 2 toddlers is if they are sick. We have never been a co-sleeping family I was just not comfortable having them in bed with me as newborns (I move alot and so did my ex husband). Now at 2 and 3 they will occasionally try to come sleep with me but unless they are sick i take them right back to their rooms.
