The warning comes at a time when the practice, known as "co-sleeping," is growing in global popularity.
Deanne Tilton Durfee, director of the Los Angeles County Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, said Wednesday that co-sleeping was blamed for a 76 percent rise in infant deaths. In 2007, 44 infants died after they slept beside an adult in one bed.
"These are tiny infants, who, someone, perhaps well-intentioned, took to bed with them... and they wake up and the child is not breathing," Durfee explained to the Los Angeles Times.
Durfee's warning was criticized by Karen Zeretzke, leader of La Leche League International. Zeretzke said that while the league does not have an official stand on co-sleeping, which is practiced in many countries outside the West, it helps lactating mothers breast feed their newborns.
The American Academy of Pediatrics favors having the infant sleep in the same room with the mother, but in a separate crib, bassinet or cradle.
