Getting your baby or toddler to sleep can be one of the biggest challenges of parenting and for many parents, co-sleeping is the answer. The dangers of co-sleeping, however, have been well documented by the medical community.
During this hour of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with author and associate professor of sociology at Iowa State University Susan Stewart who has recently published a new book Co-sleeping: Parents, Children and Musical Beds.
Christi Johnson, who co-sleeps with her 6 year old and her 3 year old, and Penny Smith, a neonatal nurse specialist at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, also join the conversation.
Johnson says that she feels uncomfortable talking about co-sleeping sometimes, but that it works really well for her family.
"We have a king bed, and then two twin beds on the sides. We use a lot of attachment parenting techniques, and it has worked really well for us. It allows us to feel closer to our kids," she says.