Babies should sleep in their mother’s bed until they are at least three years old, it was claimed by a paediatrician last night.
The paediatrician found that two-day-old babies who were placed in cots slept less well than those who dozed on their mother’s chest.
Sleeping alone makes it harder for mother and child to bond - and damages the development of the brain, leading to bad behaviour as the child grows up, researchers fear.
Dr Nils Bergman, of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, says that for optimal development, healthy newborns should sleep on their mother’s chest for the first few weeks. After that, they should stay in the mother’s bed until they are three or even four years old.
Sixteen infants were studied while they slept on their mother’s chest and in a cot by her bed. Monitoring revealed the baby’s heart to be under three times as much stress when he or she slept alone.
Being in a cot also disrupted sleep, with the babies’ brains less likely to make the transition between two types of sleep called active and quiet.
In the cots, only six out of the 16 had any quiet sleep and its quality was far worse.
Making this transition is thought to be key to the normal development of the brain.
据英国《每日邮报》10月28日报道，英国一位儿科专家昨晚发表声明称孩子至少在三岁之前都应该和母亲同寝。
该专家发现对于出生两天的婴儿，在婴儿床上没有在他们母亲胸口前睡得好。
研究人员担心，独睡使母子之间建立联系变得困难，也有害于孩子的大脑发育，导致成长过程中的不良行为产生。
南非开普敦大学的博士尼尔斯-伯格曼说为了让孩子更好地成长，新生儿在出生的头四周应该睡在母亲的胸口前。这之后，孩子应该留在母亲的床上一直到三岁甚至四岁以后。
16名婴儿接受了一项有关儿童睡眠的研究（研究对比了婴儿睡在母亲胸口前和睡在婴儿床上的情况）。监视器显示出当孩子独睡时，他们的心脏承受了比原来多三倍的压力。
由于婴儿的大脑很难在两种不同类型的睡眠状态——动态睡眠和静态睡眠之间实现过渡，在婴儿床入睡上还会影响睡眠。
在婴儿床上入睡时，16个婴儿中只有6名能进入轻微的静态睡眠，而且睡眠质量要差得多。
而完成动态睡眠到静态睡眠的过渡是关系到大脑正常发育的关键。