An unsolicited newsletter from the Southcoast Hospital group showed up yesterday, with the startling headling: "The Dangers of Sharing a Bed with Your Baby." Co-sponsored by the Bristol county DA´s office (and yes, he's running for re-election...) Southcoast sees its mission to prevent tragedy and "educate people about the dangers of bed sharing."

Now I've followed the literature on this, and while there are clearly risks associated with co-present factors and SIDS (adult bedding materials, siblings in bed, overheating, etc.), I'd like to hear Southcoast and the DA explain the nature of the specific risk associated with the practice itself.

Even the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (which Southcoast links to) merely makes safety suggestions in their NICH bed-sharing FAQ.

So where's the fear coming from? The Consumer Product Safety Commission (which presumably wants to forestall any action against bedding manufacturers) and Southcoast (which clearly wants to be on the record as warning people.) Why the hell the Bristol DA is sticking his nose into a medical, family issue is beyond me.

None of want kids to get hurt. But SIDS kills 2,000 babies a year; let's attack the root cause (is there anyone who doesn't practice Back To Sleep yet?) and not some peripheral factor which would end up putting more kids farther from their parents.

For more balanced recommendations, try KidsHealth.org or the CDC (which, although recommending separate sleeping, provides sensible guidelines for parents who co-sleep.)

(Thanks, Julie, for catching my typos!)