The vast majority—up to 90 percent—of SIDS deaths occur in the first four months of life, so sleeping choices after four months are very unlikely to matter for SIDS. This also shows up in the data. The choice of sharing a room, or even sharing a bed, does not seem to affect SIDS risk after three or four months, at least for parents who are nonsmokers.24 This means there is seemingly no benefit to extending room sharing for so long. There is, however, a real cost: child sleep. In a 2017 study, researchers evaluated whether a child’s sleeping in a room with a parent made for worse sleep. They
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