AAP 2022 Safe Sleep Recommendations (Honest Counterpoint)
The AAP discourages all bed-sharing under age one
The American Academy of Pediatrics maintains that bed-sharing should be avoided for all infants under one year. Cites pooled SIDS data showing elevated risk, particularly in the first three months. Does not differentiate between safe and unsafe bed-sharing contexts. The strongest opposing evidence to the cosleeping case.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued updated Safe Sleep Recommendations in 2022, maintaining its long-standing position that bed-sharing should be avoided for all infants under one year of age. The AAP cites pooled SIDS data showing elevated risk for bed-sharing infants, particularly in the first three months.
The recommendation does not differentiate between safe and unsafe bed-sharing contexts. The AAP position is the strongest opposing evidence to the cosleeping case, and it carries weight because the AAP is the dominant US pediatric authority.
The criticisms of the AAP position, including those from Bartick and McKenna, are that the data pools together fundamentally different situations (sofa-sleeping, smoking, alcohol, soft bedding, breastfed vs formula-fed) and assigns the risk to bed-sharing as a category rather than to the specific risk factors. The AAP has been asked to revise its messaging multiple times. It has not done so.
2022
AAP guidance year
All
Bed-sharing discouraged, under age 1
Pooled data
Methodology under critique
Dominant
US pediatric authority
Why it matters
The strongest opposition to safe cosleeping is the AAP position. It is real evidence and worth weighing. The case for the position rests on pooled data that mixes very different situations together, which is the source of the dispute.
This is one finding from the research library behind How to Birth a Mother. Everything here traces back to a study, a dataset, or a systematic review.