孩子3歲前與母親同睡有益心臟健康

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.據英國《每日郵報》10月28日報道，英國一位兒科專家昨晚發表聲明稱孩子至少在三歲之前都應該和母親同寢。

該專家發現對於出生兩天的嬰兒，在嬰兒牀上沒有在他們母親胸口前睡得好。

研究人員擔心，獨睡使母子之間建立聯繫變得困難，也有害於孩子的大腦發育，導致成長過程中的不良行爲產生。

南非開普敦大學的博士尼爾斯-伯格曼說爲了讓孩子更好地成長，新生兒在出生的頭四周應該睡在母親的胸口前。這之後，孩子應該留在母親的牀上一直到三歲甚至四歲以後。

16名嬰兒接受了一項有關兒童睡眠的研究（研究對比了嬰兒睡在母親胸口前和睡在嬰兒牀上的情況）。監視器顯示出當孩子獨睡時，他們的心臟承受了比原來多三倍的壓力。

由於嬰兒的大腦很難在兩種不同類型的睡眠狀態——動態睡眠和靜態睡眠之間實現過渡，在嬰兒牀入睡上還會影響睡眠。

在嬰兒牀上入睡時，16個嬰兒中只有6名能進入輕微的靜態睡眠，而且睡眠質量要差得多。

而完成動態睡眠到靜態睡眠的過渡是關係到大腦正常發育的關鍵。