Has the cry it out method worked for any one?
Bymy son is 8 month old and wakes up every hour at night not being able to go back to sleep on his own. I want to try the cry it out method, jsut wondering if it really works.
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14 Comments
January 31st, 2010 at 10:32 am
NO WELL AT LEAST NOT FOR ME ME AND MY MOM HAS BEEN TRYING TO DO THAT WITH MY BROTHER IT HASNT WORKED AND HES 2 AND A HALF.
January 31st, 2010 at 10:56 am
Didn’t work with either of my boys, but I think that may be because they both have asthma and would have an attack after about 5 minutes of crying and the cry out method requires allowing them to scream for 20 minutes, check on them, 20 minutes, check on them and they eventually are suppose to learn to get themselves back to sleep but like i said it hasn’t worked for me. My cousin uses it for her 3 kids and it worked for her but i must say she is a very neglectful parent on so many things that her kids seek out attention from everybody.
January 31st, 2010 at 11:23 am
I think you have to use your best judgment. He might be hungry. I would make sure he’s dry and has been fed. Make sure he has enough solid food in his diet. Boys can just be really hungry.
Check on him and then leave for a few minutes. But, I personally didn’t let any of my kids cry for long periods of time. 8 months is one of those ages where they cry a lot at night. It also could be that he’s cutting teeth.
January 31st, 2010 at 12:03 pm
There’s a standing rule to let your baby cry for a short time – like no longer than 5 minutes – just to insure that you are not picking it up everytime it squeeks. As for crying it out – ignoring it altogether, I think that’s a bad idea. A baby that crys at night might have other stuff going on – like being too hot or cold — or having gas or colic. Sometimes they just don’t get enough physical exercise in the day and are restless at night. It’s so difficult, but it will pass.
January 31st, 2010 at 12:35 pm
NO! It was horrible!!! We were chastised for not continuing to do it too, but our daughter (who’s now 2) goes to sleep on her own and is great about it. We were told “she’ll never learn to sleep on her own if you’re not stern”. That was BS though. She’s great, happy, healthy, and well adjusted. If he’s 8 months old, he could be waking constantly b/c of teething. You could talk to a doctor. If it gets really bad, you could always take him to bed with you. Just make sure he’s safe though. They sell co-sleeper things that are for that. I’ve never tried that though. I’m sure this phase won’t last too long. Just try to hold onto your sanity and get some rest when you can mom:)
January 31st, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Is someone letting him sleep all day long?
January 31st, 2010 at 1:48 pm
It works, just differently for different people. I tried it with my daughter and it worked like a charm. My son on the other hand has not gotten the hint yet, and he is 17 months old. He just refuses to sleep on his own. I say try it for a while and see what happens. You have to be strong though, that crying can really get to you and make you want to give in. Just let him know that you are still there by checking on him every few minutes. Go from 5-10-15-20 min. Peek in tell him it is okay, make sure he dry and safe, and then leave the room again, just don’t pick him up or it will never end. Try putting a night light in there or a radio playing soft music, that helped my daughter a lot. Good Luck!!
January 31st, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I read that crying for prolonged periods of time can raise cortisol in babies (the stress hormone) and interfere with brain development. If he’s waking up that often, it’s probably because something is bothering him–e.g., a noise, light, teeth coming in, hot/cold, etc., or he really is hungry and needs to be fed–it’s still normal for babies that age to need to eat fairly often at night (just exhausting for you). If he’s already waking up every hour, cry it out is going to be miserable–he may end up crying all night long. I’d try something else, like the Ferber method (look it up online if you don’t already know what it is). Good luck–I hope you can get some sleep soon.
January 31st, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Yes, It dose work plus at that age they need to cry to open there lungs I learned that the hard way my doctor even told me that to let your baby have cry time at that age cause it helps them more then it hurts. I know Its hard trust me I went through it with my daughter now I have another baby girl on the way,she`ll be here in December.I`ll go through it all again I`m happy but its going to be alot harder this time. but we`ll make it work we always do. Well Congratulation an I hope that I was able to help.GOOD LUCK ; )It worked with my daughter.just make sure that he`s all clean an fed an if he still is crying try the crying method,just make sure you give him teething gel an pain reliever make sure his diaper is dry an he is`nt hungry if you have done all that you can do then you don`t really have a choice. just keep your ears open an go check on him an you`ll be alright if its doest`t change then I suggest you talk to your doctor see what your doctor tells you.Like I said my doctor told me to.There are other things that could be wrong so try it for a couple days an if there’s no change then you might have a different problem .Well once again GOOD LUCK ; )
January 31st, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Yes it works…but you should make sure that there aren’t any other underlying issues. My older son was a wonderful sleeper as an infant. Then at 8 months he starting doing what your son is doing. He was teething and the pain was making it really hard for him to sleep comfortably. I think it’s quite common for “good sleepers” to start regressing sometime between 7 months and 10 months.
Anyway…make sure he’s full but not so full that he’s gassy, not in pain, not too warm, not too cold, dry diaper, etc. Try to see if there’s anything wrong that you can fix.
My son was waking up during the night until he was about 12 months old. It was no longer a teething issue, just a bad habit. That’s when we started the whole sleep training thing. It seems so cruel…and as a parent, you’ll feel awful.
Anyway, he was 12 months old, we made sure that there were none of the problems above (pain, hunger, etc.). We tried to do a ritual every night. Bath, then bottle/cuddling, then saying good night, then walking upstairs. I said, “good night,” gave him a kiss, and put him in his crib. Then I turned around and walked out of his room.
That first night, he cried continuously for 1 hour and 45 minutes. We have a video monitor…it was heartbreaking to watch. He cried himself to sleep and slept all night. Friends of mine said that their kids were trained in 2 days. My son cried every night for 6 weeks straight. But…after the first week, his crying would last only about 2-3 minutes.
The really good news is that when baby wakes up in the morning, he would have totally forgotton that he’d cried himself to sleep the night before. He’ll be soooooooo happy to see you, he won’t be “holding a grudge” or any anger.
It works…but you have to be strong. Good luck.
mari
January 31st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Apparently it works for some people, but it didn’t for us, at least not until about 11 months or so.
You’ve got to go with your gut feeling. Our daughter would cry, and if we left her to cry she’d work herself into a froth of tears and sobs and she’d be breathing all funny… it took like 2 hours for her to finally drop off. I only did that once. It felt wrong to me. Besides, it only ruined her rest and made her overtired the next day, and then she wouldn’t nap well… we switched to rocking her to sleep in our arms.
When she got to be a bit older, though, when we’d lay her down, her won’t-go-to-sleep crying would become monotonous and indignant-sounding “waa!”, rather than panicked screams and gasping … and *then* she’d fall asleep in 15-30 minutes. Then I think she was ready for crying it out.
Now she is 15 months and won’t tolerate being rocked – she wants to be put down to quietly fall asleep alone. It’s so amazing … I thought we would never get here. Hang in there and trust your intuition!
January 31st, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Yes it does work but you have to be consistent, you give in once and you are right back to square one. I have done it with both my youngest children and they both sleep right through, didnt do it with my oldest and he still has sleeping problems.
January 31st, 2010 at 5:42 pm
It ended up working for me when my son was 7 months old. It was VERY hard but nothing else I tried from reading all the sleep books worked. He was very persistent and still is, he is now 4. I had always been very routine with him but I made sure to really stick to it. We would give him a bath, read a book, nurse, and then I would lay him down in his crib with his music on. I would leave the room and he would start crying. After 5 minutes I would go back in tell him it’s time for rest and walk out. I did this every 5 minutes until he fell asleep, my limit of crying was 30-45 minutes. Then after a couple days I would wait 10 minutes before I would go in and keep spacing the time. It worked for us and there was set backs at times but it is to be expected with anything. Good luck and you will know what is right for you and your son.
January 31st, 2010 at 5:53 pm
yes. he was 9 months. He was waking up every 2 hours and slept through the night after 2 days. Now at 2 1/2 he might wake up an average of one time every couple of weeks usually with a bad dream. It doesn’t work for everyone though and its hard. My husband was deployed and I was a zombie with no help. I felt like I had to do something. He then got into a napping schedule too and we were both much happier
Oh yeah, and do it before they can walk/climb out of the crib. If you wait until then it’s 100 times harder.