>My own feeling, safety issues aside, is that it is another bad habit that >gets harder and harder to break and one which creates further sleep >deprivation for all concerned. Yes, it's a horrible habit. I can't get my 30-something-year-old husband out of my bed. He insists on sharing sleep with me. Imagine that. I know, I should let him just cry it out, but I've allowed him to do this for eight years now. Seriously, can we dispense with the "all concerneds" and such? Can we educate families about the actual risks AND benefits of things like co-sleeping (to the best of our knowledge, of course) and then allow them to make those decisions for themselves? Is it necessary to refer to informed decisions as "bad habits"? It concerns me when health professionals mix fact with opinion with no clear indication as to what tidbit goes where. For what it's worth, I brought my son to bed with me for the first time on his second night home from the hospital. He was several weeks early and had just spent some time in the NICU. I'd just had an emergency c-section and breastfeeding was off to a rotten start. My husband and I practiced excruciating care with our sleep arrangements, making them as safe as possible. Co-sleeping did not cause sleep deprivation. In fact, we all slept a lot better. When my son was a bit over two, he decided on his own that he wanted his own sleep space. He's welcome back in our bed whenever he wants, but tends to only return there when he's not feeling well, which isn't often. Far from being a bad habit, it seems the arrangement solved a lot of problems for us, was an enjoyable time in our lives, and ended when the child decided he was ready to move on. In my book, that's a job well-done. Danie -- http://www.houseofdanie.com "I'm not crazy. I've just been in a very bad mood for 26 years now."