Kourtney Kardashian opened up about attachment parenting during a recent interview, revealing that her two children sleep in bed with her and her partner, Scott Disick.
"[B]oth Mason and Penelope still sleep in my bed," Kardashian told Redbook magazine about her son, 4, and daughter, 19 months. "It’s what came naturally to me; I didn’t plan it. When I had Mason, I just felt really attached to him, and wanted to bring him everywhere. He ended up sleeping with me, and I breastfed for 14 months."
She said the two little ones go to sleep in their own beds, but "end up in my bed, sometimes within minutes." This does not always bode well for private time with Disick.
"It’s a challenge, and something we talk about constantly," she said. "Mostly there are times each night when the kids are in their own rooms, and sometimes it even lasts all night. Every night is different."
Attachment parenting is a technique popularized by Dr. William Sears in 1992's The Baby Book that includes practices like breastfeeding, baby-wearing and co-sleeping. The ideology made headlines back in 2012 when mother Jamie Lynn Grumet appeared on the cover of Time magazine, breastfeeding her 3-year-old son.
Other celebrities, like Mayim Bialik, have spoken out about adopting the practice. The "Big Bang Theory" star, who also has a Ph.D. in neuroscience, has been using this method to raise her two sons.
"Breastfeeding is the natural, optimal way to feed a child," she writes in her book, Beyond the Sling. "Sleeping with your child, wearing your child in a sling as opposed to pushing them around in expensive strollers, those are things that matter biologically and sociologically for the structure of a family."
Others debate the benefits of attachment parenting. The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated co-sleeping could increase the chance of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Child psychologists have said it could affect a toddler or young child's independence. Some parents think sharing a bed has a negative effect on romance and comfort.
But attachment parenting came organically for Kardashian, despite what her other family members may think.
“It’s just what came natural to me," she told People magazine. "They definitely all think I’m insane in my family for having them in the bed and breastfeeding them for forever. But I couldn’t care less.”