Helen Flanagan Reveals Why She Allows Two-Year-Old Daughter Matilda To Sleep In Her Bed At Night

Helen Flanagan has opened up about her decision to allow her two-year-old daughter to sleep in her bed at night.

The 26-year-old actress, who previously spoke about co-sleeping with her daughter Matilda when she was one years old, said she thinks it’s a “special” time.

“They’re not young forever and it’s quite special having them there,” Flanagan told The Sun.

The mum-of-one said she will carry on co-sleeping until her daughter “gets bigger and is kicking in the night”.

But if she hasn’t seen her partner - professional footballer Scott Sinclair - for a while, Flanagan said they will go to bed together and put Matilda in her cot.

Flanagan opened up about co-sleeping in July 2016. She told the ‘Loose Women’ presenters at the time: “It wasn’t something that we planned to do.

“But when she was four or five months old, I was breastfeeding her and she ended up in bed with us.”

NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines state: “Co‑sleeping can be intentional or a necessity, but all women, their partners or main carers of babies should be given information in a format they can understand, irrespective of their culture.

“There is some evidence that where co‑sleeping occurs there may be an increase in the number of cases of SIDS. Giving information to women, their partner or the main carer about this association will support them to establish safer infant sleeping habits, and may reduce the likelihood of SIDS.”

If you are co-sleeping with your baby, the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) has some guidance about how to sleep safely:
Make sure your baby can’t fall out of the bed or become trapped between the mattress and the wall.
Keep your baby cool by using sheets and blankets rather than a duvet.
Ensure bedding does not cover your baby’s face or head.
Always put your baby to sleep on their back rather than their front or side.
Babies don’t need a pillow until they are at least a year old. They should also be kept away from parents’ pillows.
Never risk falling asleep with your baby on a sofa or armchair.

Before You Go

Baby Sleep Tricks

The Guide Book(01 of04)

The Gentle Sleep Solution: The Naturally Nurturing Way To Help Your Baby To Sleep offers a gentle alternative to controlled crying methods. Drawing on her experience as a psychologist, CBT therapist and mother of four, Shallow teaches parents, firstly, how to identify the underlying reason for their baby's troubled sleeping by reading their behaviour, and, secondly, how to respond in ways that will help to reduce their anxiety and allow them to fall asleep independently. (credit:Jupiterimages via Getty Images)

The Bedtime Story Book(02 of04)

Swedish behavioural psychologist and linguist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin spent more than three years perfecting his bestselling sleep-inducing bedtime story The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep. Using psychological and positive reinforcement techniques to help little ones to relax, focus and eventually drift off, he describes the story as “the verbal equivalent of rocking a baby to sleep.” (credit:Penguin Random House)

The Smartphone App(03 of04)

The Sound Sleeper app, gives you a choice of sounds for lulling your baby to sleep according to her personal preferences – whether that’s the rhythm of the womb, a gentle ‘shhh’ or the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It also ‘listens’ for your baby and starts playing the sound you’ve chosen as soon as it hears a whimper. You can even track your baby’s sleep and generate graphs to help you learn and analyse your baby’s sleep patterns. (credit:Layland Masuda via Getty Images)

The Night Light(04 of04)

The Sleepy Baby™ Biological LED Lamp light bulb works by filtering out the stimulating blue light spectrum that can inhibit your baby’s production of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Although it provides adequate light for bedtime stories, nappy changes and night-time feeds, your baby’s brain registers the light as darkness, making it easier for them to fall back asleep. (credit:Lighting Science)