# At what age is it safe for siblings to co-sleep next to each other?



## tempestjewel (Apr 18, 2005)

Does anyone have input on this? I know everything I've read says not to put a newborn next to an older child, but at what point is it considered "safe"? At one year? Or older? Our queen bed is squishy with four and two guardrails (we sleep baby, me, DH, DD in that order) and I was thinking that since DD hates to sleep alone that maybe eventually I'd be able to get the siblings to co-sleep. Has anyone done this???


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## theaspins (Aug 4, 2005)

I've been wondering about this too. I read in one of the Dr. Sears books that you should never let a baby under 9 months sleep next to an older sibling, but it doesn't actually say that after 9 months it's okay. We have the 3 of us in a full bed and the 4yo in a twin right next to us. I'd love to be able to put the baby in with her sister sometimes. At this point, I'm not because there are other dangers in the twin bed beside the 4yo: that bed always contains at least 4 dolls, several stuffed animals, the covers are often pulled up over the pillow, etc.


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## wildflower_mama (Feb 22, 2007)

Personally, I wouldn't until around age 2. Older children like pp said have all sorts of things they bring to bed with them. Some roll around a lot and babies could get entangled in the sheets and covers. I'm looking forward to the time when they can cuddle up too.


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## jeca (Sep 21, 2002)

I believe my youngest was two when she started co-sleeping with her sister. They are 18 months apart so it didn't really seem liek a big deal at the time. Now they are 4 and 5 and still won't sleep seperatly. It doesn't bother me but I could have saved my money on the bunk bed.


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## 4Marmalade (May 4, 2004)

We had a similar situation and thought about doing the same thing. But, dd still nurses way too often at night for me to be getting up. So, we bought a king size bed instead







. The other night we had both dc's in bed in the middle and ds ended up clobbering dd (unintentionally). So we still need to keep them separate. Maybe in the summer when we don't have to worry so much about covers.


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## JennP (May 4, 2004)

Ours our together now! We have a double for Dh and I and then right next to us on the floor also is a queen then kids sleep in. I nurse ds down and dd comes to bed a little later, she doesn't roll much, actually ds will move over to her to lay right next to touch her!

Ds is 15 months and dd is 3 yr. It works out good and I am right there in case ds or dd needs anything. Dd has been sleeping thru the night for a months now and ds has been increasing his stretches of sleep too.

Good luck. I really like sleeping next to dh and we couldn't make it work any other way.

Jenn


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## swampangel (Feb 10, 2007)

Sounds like a great arrangement, Jenn! That's great!

I think about 1 1/2 or 2 is a good time for the youngest to be in with the oldest. I would never do it with a baby...they are just too small and can't move about as easily. I just don't think it would be worth the possible risk.

Thinking about this is getting me excited for when my boys can sleep together!


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## tempestjewel (Apr 18, 2005)

Its good to know that it can happen eventually. I'm really in no hurry for our newest edition to leave our bed, but if we have #3 a few years in the future, I'd really love to have the two girls co-sleeping so that we don't have five in the bed. I'm sure we could somehow make it work, but I feel








: thinking about it.


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## 13moons (Aug 9, 2002)

My girls shared a bed for a while too, probably started off and on when the younger was between 1.5 and 2, but not for the whole night b/c she'd still come to me to nurse. After ds was born, we did have 5 in the bed sometimes and other times the girls would sleep together and other times they'd sleep apart. When ds got older, he'd sometimes go sleep with one or both of them too, also probably starting near 2 y.o.
(My dd's are 12.5 and 9.5 now and they still on rare occasions fall asleep chatting or reading in one bed together.







)


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