Bed sharing patterns in a cohort of Australian infants during the first six months after birth.
OBJECTIVE
To measure bed sharing (BS) activity in healthy term infants.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
: Bed sharing activity was common and varied in this cohort. It was possible, using quantitative definitions, to identify those infants who routinely bed share.
Rigda
R S
RS
Department of Physiology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
McMillen
I C
IC
Buckley
P
P
D001315:Australia; D001513:Beds / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting; D015995:Prevalence; D012890:Sleep; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires