I think from an evolutionary
perspective letting a baby cry it out seems really unnatural, I don't know of any mammal in the wild or even a tribe who leaves their vulnerable young entirely on their own, not to mention the noise of a crying baby that all predators would hear and come racing towards.
Although it was once believed that
letting your baby cry it out during the night was the only way to train him or her to sleep through the night, it's now believed that doing this can raise stress levels in your child and make your little one fearful of sleep instead.
Many find that any setback (teething, sickness, missing a nap) sends them back to their night waking problems, and they find they must
let their babies cry it out over and over again.
Dr. William Sears, in Nighttime Parenting: How to Get Your Baby and Child to Sleep (La Leche International, 1999), says that
letting a baby cry it out creates «detachment parenting» and goes so far as to warn parents against this approach:
The basic idea of
letting your baby cry it out sounds simple enough: instead of getting up to soothe your fussy baby in the night, you let the little one cry a bit and then fall asleep again without help.
The GSC approach is a gentler alternative for families who emotionally or philosophically
resist letting their babies cry it out: for families who tried «Ferber» (controlled crying) and it didn't work, and for families who let their baby cry - it - out earlier but now find it doesn't help.
I can see how someone who hadn't tried it, or someone who didn't do it correctly, would be
against letting a baby cry it out, but I can't understand why these people would equate it with being an unfit mother.
If you don't believe
in letting your baby cry it out, but desperately want to sleep, there is now a third option, presented by Elizabeth Pantley based on her research.
â $ œNo, I don't think you should
let a baby cry it out, â $ says Dr. Sears, â $ œand the most important thing is, Robert, who's getting up with the baby during the night, anyway?
That co-sleeping is best or
letting your baby cry it out it is best... everything we're fed through media is a big contradiction.
You are not alone in worrying about when to
let baby cry it out.
It is important to understand when to
let baby cry it out and when your baby really needs you.
Letting your baby cry it out is not for putting your baby into the bedroom, shutting them off and leaving them to cry for long periods of time.
Your best friend thinks that
letting a baby cry it out is a harmless and effective way of instilling routines, discipline, and self - soothing tactics, but you think that it's cruel and would rather have your child sleep with you for forever and / or until they're comfortable sleeping alone.
Then it's time to find someone else to calm your baby or for you to
let the baby cry it out.
The Mommy Wars are nothing new, and I think at some point every mom has found herself trying to justify why she didn't breastfeed and why she chose to
let her baby cry it out.
You don't have to
let your baby cry it out if you don't want.
Before me sat a stack of articles and books — old and new — with the same old choice of two answers to my dilemma: Either
let the baby cry it out or learn to live with it.
Decisions about how you'd raise your kid basically amounted to whether or not you'd go breast or bottle, and if you were going to
let your baby cry it out or not.
Many (if not all) parents who resort to
letting their babies cry it out do so because they believe that it is the only way they will get their babies to sleep through the night.
We were both initially opposed to the idea of
letting our babies cry it out, so we settled on a compromise: we would try each of the three steps, in order, until we reached success.
Letting the baby cry it out is far safer than shaking or punishing him.
As a first time mom suffering from sleep deprivation, the advice I received from others to
let my baby cry it out did not work for me.