What are alternatives to letting your baby ‘cry it out’?

ok if you don’t let your child self soothe you are going to be in for problems. It’s evident, because he’s 11 months old and still needs you 5 times a night. You have to let him cry. Give him a binky. But you can’t go to him every time he fuss’s.

It’s extremely hard to let him cry it out! I would let mine cry for about 5 minutes (if I could take it) and then maybe rock him. Sometimes I’d walk with him but then I’d have to let him know who’s in control here and let him cry some more. You don’t want to spoil him AND ONLY MOTHERS REALLY KNOW that letting them cry it out is extremely hard. Try giving him some water when he wakes up. That worked for me. I wouldn’t give him a pacifier. It’s addictive and you’ll regret it later when you try to get him off of it. Good Luck!

How about a bottle filled with water. I tried this with my daughter and once she realized she would not get what she wanted she didn’t bother waking up for it. However, crying isn’t bad for them. Not letting them cry at all will really hurt you in the end. Do not get into the “if I cry I will get what I want” game, it is no fun, been there!

I’m nursing my second. I had a horrible time with my first child. She did the same as yours.

At 11 months, I think it is safe to assume he is not hungery 5 times during the night. Does he take a pacifier? Do you think you could possibly start to wean him from nursing during the night by giving him a pacifier and rocking him gently until he drifts back to sleep?

I don’t much care for the “cry it out method” myself. Not because I don’t like to hear him cry, of course….(ha, ha, ha), but because I don’t want him to be fearful. If this technique is something you want to explore, try waiting to tend to him for 30 seconds…then 45, then one minute, then two, then three when you hear him cry. That way, he won’t freak out when you just don’t show up at his beckoning. Spread this out over a couple or few weeks, and he may just start soothing himself rather than wait for you. It would be worth a try.

hi! i used the “healthy sleep habits, happy child” method – it does a require a little bit of crying, but both my children only cried for about 10 minutes. we do need a little retraining here and there, but by then you know that it works. my daughter is 6.5 months now and takes 3 naps during the day and sleeps 11.5 hours at night (straight) because of this system. you can e mail me directly if you have any questions. good luck.

i was the same way with my first one no way would i ever let him cry and i nursed him to get him to sleep. He rarely slept longer than 45 mins around the clock. We finally got him to sleep through the nite on his own around 2 yrs old using a technique we saw on super nanny. which involves putting them to bed and putting them back everytime thay get up no talking or looking at them. Its hard but it works.
after that experience i would definately recommend the cio method. thats what i ended up doing with my second one. its super hard the first couple nites but after that they just go to sleep.

alternatives
bring him into bed with you
give him a pacifier instead of bf
do a gradual method of cio go in after 5 mins calm him down and each time add another five minutes til he falls asleep

you could try leaving him in the crib and gently patting him and whispering shhh in his hear.
good luck i know what its like.

You don’t have to let him cry-it-out… he WILL eventually learn how to soothe himself back to sleep.

11 months is still really young though. Its true he’s probably not waking up because he’s truely hungry. but because he needs comfort and you’re where he gets comfort from.

Theres nothing wrong with that. He will eventually learn how to comfort himself… but it will probably take a while. So, you can wean him from daytime feedings and keep his nighttime feeds for as long as he needs them. There are many benefits to nursing past a year. Why, exactly, do you want to wean him?

Theres also a book called “the no-cry sleep solution”. Its supposed to take several months to work, but your babe will reap the benefits of your milk for that much longer.

You can also try in-arms crying… Just soothe him without nursing. He will cry, but theorhetically, once he gets adjusted to it, he won’t need to nurse to get back to sleep anymore… He might still wake up (goes back to the needing you for comfort thing) But thats something hes going to need to grow out of on his own.

Use a pacifier, its not as evil as you think, there are orthadontic ones available, and only use it at night, it makes it easier to get rid of it later. I had both my boys sleeping through the night by 3 months old, last feed was at 11pm, i would wake them for this if not already awake, next feed was at 6am, yet again i would wake them. When he wakes for his first late night feed, give him the pacifier, and sit beside him, humming softly, but dont pick him up. Next time he wakes, feed him, if he wakes again, use the pacifier, next time feed him and so forth. Keep doing this, doing every second night feed and you will notice he is waking less, but keep doing it every second feed. It may take a couple of weeks but he will soon stop waking entirely. Well it worked for me anyway, even as young as 3 months.

You could try night-weaning him (see link below).

A better option might be to consider the “No-Cry Sleep Solution” by Elizabeth Pantley. She gives some great ideas on helping your baby sleep through the night, whether you formula-feed or breastfeed, and whether your baby sleeps in a crib or co-sleeps with you. You don’t have to wean, you don’t have to let your baby cry, and you don’t have to lose sleep, either. On the other hand, it’s important to note that it is normal for your 11-month old to still wake up at night. Only about 50% of babies sleep “through the night” (when defined as a five-hour stretch) at one year of age. Even fewer sleep through the night if you consider “sleeping through the night” to mean 6-8 hours of sleep at a time. Still, you can help your baby learn how to fall back to sleep on his own with help from the No-Cry Sleep Solution. I put a link below for you if you are interested.

damn cio pushers “its the only way” BAH!!!LIES!!!……i know it can be sucky but stick it out…i would just keep with the breastfeeding but if you want to wien and you know for sure he is not hungry at night…then offer him a sippy cup of water, snuggle him close like you would while feeding he’ll protest but snuggle, rock, dance slowly, humm and keep offering….when i wiened my boys i would replace feeding to sleep with lots of holding and rocking witch was actually harder for me but really helped ease the transition and then i could slowly wien from the rocking…once u have him used to being off the breast then u work on easing him to sleep without the half hour sessions of paceing and swaying…if his crib is in your room then push it to your bed so he’s close and you are right there when he wakes, he’ll be more likely to settle back to sleep if he wakes to see you…once u no longer have to hold and rock him back to sleep so much begin to move the crib away from your bed and inch or two everynight untill hes to the wall and then if u choose u can slowly begin to move him to another room…no matter what you choose wiening now or latter know that this will not last forever and pretty soon he’ll be able to understand what you tell him and will learnt to “self sooth” with out having the tramatic expereance of his mother abruptly abandoning him….i coose to co sleep with my second child and when it came to wiening from my bed i thought i would have a months long battle on my hands but he got older (18mo) and could understand things better and one night after putting him back in his own bed for the 4th time his daddy came in and said to him “abel u got to have mama for a long time…but now I need mama so your going to have to sleep in your room” and that was it and he didn’t need me anymore…if people would only be patient they would be able to see their children mature at thier own pace it can be truly suprising….

“y push the river when it flows on its own”

your going to have to let him cry it out. the little punk deserves it anyway. they become reliant upon you because your always attending to the babys needs. it needs to know that your not always going to be there for it and it needs to handle itself.