Now for important information to consider if you have an infant or are planning on having a child someday.

            Dr. Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC, is the author of two books:  (1) Good Nights: The Happy Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed (and a Good Night’s Sleep) and (2) Listening to Your Baby.

            He has 23 years of pediatric experience and was the first male to become a certified lactation consultant.

            According to Dr. Gordon, “The official position jointly proposed by the [Consumer Product Safety Commission] and the crib manufacturers' lobbyists will cost many babies their lives.”

            He goes on to explain, “Babies sleeping on a safe surface with sober, non-smoking parents respond to their parents, and the parents respond to them. The chance of SIDS occurring in this situation is as close to zero as we can measure. For better or worse, most babies have never sneezed in their parents' beds without their parents knowing it. How could they possibly stop breathing without our immediately being aware of the problem and quickly stimulating them back to a regular, safe respiratory pattern?”

            What’s more, Dr. Gordon says babies in a crib in a separate room from their parents will breastfeed less and be more susceptible to infections – including life-threatening ones.

            Dr. Gordon states the best possible surveillance and safety system for your baby is for him or her to sleep in the same bed with you.

            What about a baby being suffocated when sleeping in the same bed as the parents?

            According to the article by Dr. Gordon, James McKenna, Director of the University of Notre Dame’s Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory, says no.

            His research shows no sleep arrangement is 100% safe but many more children have died from suffocation in cribs than in beds with their parents.

            And here’s something you may find shocking:  Dr. Gordon says that in 23 years of pediatric experience, he has never had a case of SIDS in his practice.

            In Dr. Gordon’s own words, “Vitally, all of the families I have cared for sleep in the same bed with their babies for either the entire night or the major part of it. These families succeed at breastfeeding and succeed at raising babies and children with fewer episodes of ear infection, pneumonia, and other illnesses than they would be expected to have, according to medical texts.

Newborn babies breathe in irregular rhythms and even stop breathing for a few seconds at a time. To put it simply, they are not designed to sleep alone.”

            This newsletter is not agreeing or disagreeing with Dr. Gordon.  The purpose of this article is to bring up important issues you may want to look into so you can make an informed decision.

Outdoor Second-Hand Smoke Harmful?

First came smoking kills the smoker.  Then, research showed something a little more shocking –smoking was also bad for people who did not actually smoke themselves, but were exposed to second-hand smoke of others. This is why smoking has been banned in most public indoor places.

Now a new study shows something even more disturbing: second-hand smoke outdoors is bad for you too. 

According to a November, 2009 study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, a nicotine byproduct known as cotinine was found to be up to 162% greater in those exposed to second-hand smoke outdoors than a control group.  According to the article, these levels are a potential public health issue.