Top 10 Mistakes Even Smart Moms Make

1. Sharing a bed with baby.
Bonding, breast-feeding, or 2 a.m. bottles and diaper changes are much easier when Junior is next to you at night.

But you may be putting your child at risk.

Bed-sharing is becoming more common in the U.S.: The number of babies who cuddle with their parents at night more than doubled (from 5.5% in 1993 to 12.8% in 2000), according to the National Infant Sleep Position Study.

Infants who sleep in their parents’ beds, however, are 40 times more likely to suffocate than those who don’t, according to a 2003 St. Louis University study.

Why? Babies may be smothered by the bedding, a parent rolling on top of them, or getting trapped between the mattress and the wall, headboard and/or footboard.

To co-sleep safely (especially during baby’s first year), park the crib or bassinet next to your bed. Make sure it has a firm mattress with a fitted sheet but no other bedding. No pillows or stuffed animals – they’re potential hazards.

Don’t allow loose blankets either, because they can easily cover the baby’s face. Instead, use warm sleep sacks, with holes for head and arms.

And of course, always put infants to sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

7. Delaying or avoiding vaccines.
Some parents — like celebrity Jenny McCarthy — refuse to give their children vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) because they believe they cause autism.

Another trend is ignoring the vaccine schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and using an “alternative” spaced-out timetable instead. The claim? It’s safer.

Actually, it’s a life-threatening mistake.

Delaying vaccines leaves your child open to “serious, preventable diseases at the most vulnerable time in their lives, in infancy,” warns Christopher Tolcher, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at UCLA and a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

For starters, skipping the MMR won’t prevent autism, says Paul Offit, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine and the Search for a Cure (Columbia University Press). Studies of thousands of children have shown that they can develop autism whether or not they’re vaccinated.

Second, refusing the MMR vaccination increases the odds that a child will get measles — still a leading killer of kids worldwide — by up to 35 times.

In 2008, when the U.S. experienced its largest measles outbreak in a decade, nearly half the 131 sickened kids were unvaccinated.

Do you worry that giving too many vaccines at once taxes a baby’s still-developing immune system?

That fear isn't supported by science, Tolcher says.

“What babies get in the vaccines pales in comparison to the amount of microorganisms and environmental contaminants that go into their mouths every hour of the day.”