Your thoughts on letting a baby just “cry it out”…?

go with what your gut says… sometimes she will need to cry it out… other times youll “feel” she needs something… what works for you may not work for me… but in the end were all different and so are our children

Well unless you’re going to get up every time the baby cries. What else can you do? If there’s nothing wrong with her, she’ll eventually get bored of crying or tired and then fall asleep. She’s going to have to learn to cope with her pacifier falling out of her mouth if she can’t keep it in. The lessons of life start early. She will also learn that every time she makes a gurgle you’ll come running to see what’s the matter if you keep getting up.

I’m not really for CIO. But I can see when it serves a purpose for older babies and toddlers. Even then, let them cry for 15 minutes tops.

Sometimes it’s inevitable. Your baby will cry and you cannot get to him or her right at the moment. It happens. Sometime you just need to put the baby down so you don’t flip out. That’s ok and healthy.

Believe it or not, even very small babies can cry just because they are fighting sleep or over stimulated. But still, make sure all needs are met and cared for before your decide to allow her to cry for a while. My best advice is wait 10-15 minutes and if she’s still crying, go in and soothe her. Lay her back down and leave the room. Repeat until she drifts away to sleep (IF that is what you want to do).

If you want to pick her up, pick her up. If you need to take a break, take a break. I will say this: I would advise against just letting her cry indefinitely. She will get more worked up and it will stress you out as well.

Best wishes! Hang on, Mommy. It gets easier

*Ignore Dyot. She’s got a knack for lacking sensitivity.

I have heard that they will eventually cry for shorter and shorter periods of time before stopping, so I say let her go for it. She can’t do it forever!! I think SHE doesn’t even really know what she wants, and she can live without her pacifier… good luck!

edit: Then again, I’m not a mother, but I did have two younger siblings, one of which decided at the age of three to scream for mom for an hour every night. Until she was about eight.

Would you like to cry yourself to sleep every night?

I think that would kind of suck.

Parents forget that COMFORT is also a need that needs fulfilling…it’s not just about diapers and gas and a bottle.

If a child is upset…it’s comfort from it’s parent that it needs…

In my opinion…CIO is just a “method” to justify ignoring that need.

Here were MY standards of when to use the cry-it-out method…
Until my daughter was about 3 months, I picked her up and/ or soothed her every time she cried.
After that, I would let her cry for 5 or so minutes, because she usually just stopped randomly…I think she cried more for the purpose of just hearing herself.
Now, I usually just let her cry for up to 10-15 minutes at bedtime (it’s the only time she usually cries) and then I’ll go and calm her down and lay her down again. She’s 10 months old now, by the way.

I don’t like to let my childrens cry it out. I think it is okay sometimes but a little while but not for long period of time.
For you i have to say you will learn as time goes on. Have u tryed to use something to prop it up. That sometimes work for me.

I have not and would not let my son cry it out, unless it was in my arms. We also cosleep. I wouldn’t really recommend it (CIO).

Good reason not to leave an infant to cry it out
“Leaving a baby to cry evokes physiological responses that increase stress hormones. Crying infants experience an increase in heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure. These reactions are likely to result in overheating and, along with vomiting due to extreme distress, could pose a potential risk of SIDS in vulnerable infants. There may also be longer-term emotional effects. Babies need our help to learn how to regulate their emotions, meaning that when we respond to and soothe their cries, we help them understand that when they are upset, they can calm down. On the other hand, when infants are left alone to cry it out, they fail to develop the understanding that they can regulate their own emotions. There is also compelling evidence that increased levels of stress hormones may cause permanent changes in the stress responses of the infant’s developing brain. These changes then affect memory, attention, and emotion, and can trigger an elevated response to stress throughout life, including a predisposition to later anxiety and depressive disorders. English psychotherapist, Sue Gerhardt, author of Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain, explains that when a baby is upset, the hypothalamus produces cortisol. In normal amounts cortisol is fine, but if a baby is exposed for too long or too often to stressful situations (such as being left to cry) its brain becomes flooded with cortisol and it will then either over- or under-produce cortisol whenever the child is exposed to stress. Too much cortisol is linked to depression and fearfulness; too little to emotional detachment and aggression.

Stress levels in infancy may have implications for learning, too. While it seems fairly obvious that a calm baby will be available for learning, studies have shown that children with the lowest scores on mental and motor ability tests were those with the highest cortisol levels in their blood. There is also research showing that children with anxiety disorders have a higher level of sleep difficulties as infants. Although these studies weren’t about controlled crying and I am making no direct connection, my point is that perhaps some of the babies who are presenting with sleep difficulties are infants who need extra help to regulate their emotions or are more sensitive to stress, so it is possible that these little people would be more at risk if they were exposed to controlled crying”
http://www.pinky-mychild.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22:the-con-of-controlled-crying&catid=11:sleep&Itemid=36