Re: Controlled crying or cry it out
When I was researching this approach, I did come across this argument a lot but honestly the baby isn’t in a stressful situation if he is fed, dry and comfortable. Baby just wants to be rocked to sleep and it’s just a habit he has become accustomed to. Also if an adult or even a 5 yr old is crying and the parents don’t attend to him, the kid would still be upset the next morning. With a baby, all is forgotten the next morning and they are delighted to see you. Babies work differently. The truth of the matter is different approaches work for different people. A good friend of mine is doing her fellowship and her one yr old went through terrible sleep regression. She has a very demanding job and she couldn’t get up every 2 hours to rock her to sleep. Moreover, her baby would get up at 5 everyday and refuse to go back to sleep and she needed to leave for work at 7. She used this approach and both mom and baby are very happy now.
I know this approach works and it doesn’t harm the baby and all the sleep experts like Ferber etc. are strong advocates but I am still reluctant to use it because it is terribly terribly terribly hard to watch your little munchkin cry.