I've played the candy bar game several times, it's quite fun! lol

I really don't have anything to contribute to this thread regarding baby products, but I was reading through my anthropology book today and they were talking about a baby's sleeping arrangement and I found it an interesting read. However, I'm sure it's a debatable topic and you all have some knowledge on the pros and cons to sleeping with/without baby.

"Infants in the U.S. typically sleep apart from their parents. To most North Americans, this may seen normal, but cross-cultural research shows that co-sleeping, of mother and baby in particular, is the rule. Only in the past 200 years, generally in Western industrial societies, has it been considered proper for parents to sleep apart from their infants. In a way, this practice amounts to a cultural experiment in child rearing.

Recent studies have shown that separation of mother and infant in Western societies has importat biological and cultural consequences. For one thing, it increases the lenth of the child's crying bouts. Some mothers incorrectly interpret the cause as a deficiency in breast milk and switch to less healthy bottle formulas; and in extreme cases the crying may provoke physical abuse. But the benefits of co-sleeping go beyond significant reduction in crying: Infants also nurse more often and have 3 times as long per feeding; they receive more stimulation (important for brain development); and they are less susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome. There are benefits to the mother as well: Frequent nursing prevents early ovulation after childbirth, and she gets at least as much sleep as mothers who sleep without their infants.

The benefits may lead us to ask, Why do so many mothers continue to sleep apart from their infants? In North America the cultural values of independence and consumerism come into play. To begin building identities, babies are provided with rooms (or at least space) of their own. This room of one's own also provides parents with a place for the paraphernalia associated with good parenting in North America."