No poll results have surprised me more than these. I understand that the pool of readers who actually answer the polls here (only a very small fraction of people who visit the blog — I hope more of you vote in the latest poll to help me name my baby!) might be quite skewed, but I still was shocked to find that nearly 2/3 of voters co-sleep with their breastfed infants under age 12 months. With all the bad press and debate about the safety of co-sleeping, I didn’t realize how many families find that co-sleeping works for them!

When Los Angeles County officials issued a warning about co-sleeping with an infant, National Public Radio host Larry Mantle opened up the topic for a 35-minute discussion on AirTalk on KPCC 89.3 (listen here). In addition to Deanne Tilton Durfee, director of the Los Angeles County Interagency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, guests included co-sleeping advocate Dr. William Sears, co-author of The Baby Sleep Book: The Complete Guide to a Good Night’s Rest for the Whole Family, Dr. Charles Sophy, Medical Director for the L.A. County Department of Childen and Family Services, and Dr. James J. McKenna, Director of …read more