“We want to be sensitive to family and cultural practices about parents sharing a bed with their baby, but the main thing is that parents need to use care -- common sense, really -- in assessing the dangers of any sleeping environment,” says Dr. Donna Persaud, a pediatrician on staff at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. The issue of whether it is safe to place an infant to sleep in an adult bed came to the forefront with the release of a report in September by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The report claims that as many as 64 children die each year while sleeping with their parents in an adult bed.

A review of data from 1990 to 1997 linked adult beds to at least 515 baby deaths, of which 121 died as a result of suffocation after a parent or other adult rolled onto an infant, according to the CPSC report. Other causes of death reported in the study include suffocation or strangulation due to entrapment -- either by a child becoming wedged between a mattress and a portable bed rail or between a mattress and a bed frame, footboard, headboard or piece of furniture.

If parents choose to sleep in the same bed with their infants, Dr. Persaud says, “there is the potential for the parent to roll over onto the child or for the child to become entrapped in some way, and those risks should be considered.” She adds that unlike cribs, adult beds are not designed specifically to meet safety standards for infants.

Whether sleeping in a crib or in an adult bed, Dr. Persaud says that infants should be placed to sleep on their backs on a firm mattress with taut sheets, and that all blankets, stuffed animals and toys should be removed from the sleeping environment. If a baby is sleeping in an adult bed, quilts, blankets, pillows, comforters or other similar soft materials should not be placed under the infant. In addition, adults should not smoke while an infant is in the bed with them, nor should they use substances such as alcohol or drugs that may impair their ability to awaken from sleep.