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A mother-of-one and user of the parenting forum Mumsnet asked on the social media platform if it is “weird to be co-sleeping with a four-year-old”. She explained that she still co-sleeps with her four-year-old daughter and she has “no issues with it” at all. The daughter has her own bed if at “any point she decides she’d rather sleep there,” the mother said. 

However, the woman explained that some friends and family members have now expressed their concern saying that it is “weird” to be co-sleeping at that age.

She asked the other forum users to share their thoughts and mothers had very different opinions.

One, with username @somersethouse, commented that she does it on holiday but in her opinion, “yes, it’s a bit odd to be co-sleeping at four years old in the same bed on a day-to-day basis”.

Another one, @Kewcumber, disagreed and said that she did the same thing because of a “very needy child”.

Her child is now seven and they finally sleep in their own bed but “we co-slept almost constantly from three to seven years old” and she added that is “no one else’s business”.

Another forum user and mother-of-two said that she still co-sleeps with her daughters who are six and eight years old.

Social media user @Purlesque also shared her story and explained that her son “shared my bed on and off until he was eight”.

Another mum added: “I co-sleep with my three-year-old daughter. Works for us, no idea when it will stop.”

She revealed that although the system works for her and her daughter, she gets “odd looks off my family who I rarely see”.

Another mum shared her advice saying that she still co-sleeps with her five-year-old but she just doesn’t “tell other people”.

Another forum user explained that her aunt co-slept until her son was eight and her husband ended up having to sleep in the child’s room.

“Each to their own and I say what you are happy and comfortable with! There is no manual to bringing up a baby and we all have our own ways of wanting to do things,” she added.

Others explained that co-sleeping didn’t work for them with @comeonbaby saying: “It’s not for me.”

“Me and my husband struggle for room in our bed now and I would not sleep with my baby in the bed through the worry of rolling on the baby, knocking the baby out of bed and my long hair being over the baby.

“He will be in his Moses basket, next to me for six months as per guidelines,” she added.

According to the NHS, the safest place for a baby to sleep is in his own cot to reduce the risk of “sudden infant death syndrome” among other risk factors.

The NHS explained: “To reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, place your baby on their back to sleep, in a cot in the same room as you, for the first six months.”

It also advised against sharing a bed with your baby as the “safest place for your baby to sleep for the first six months is in a cot in the same room as you”.

This is because “your baby could get caught between the wall and the bed, or roll out of an adult bed and be injured”.

Moreover, there is a risk “you might roll over in your sleep and suffocate your baby,” the NHS explained.

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