It turns out that babies who sleep in the same room with their parents experience less stress!
And all because the presence of parents has a calming effect on them.
Dutch scientists conducted an experiment in which 163 mothers took part. The experimental conditions were simple - all women should keep a diary for the first 2 months after the birth of their baby.
Every day, mothers recorded where and how their children slept.
As it turned out later, 1/4 of the babies slept in a separate room and only 40% always slept with their parents. The rest of the children sometimes slept in their own room, and sometimes in the room with their parents.
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We measured the level of cortisol in the saliva of each child when they were in a stressful situation, including while bathing in the bathroom. Cortisol is a hormone that is released during stress. We found that children who slept separately from their parents experienced 40% more stress when placed separately than those who slept in their parents' room, - said one of the authors of the study.
One of the clearest explanations for this phenomenon may be the fact that babies who sleep in a separate room, therefore, use their parents less as persons able to control stress.
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