We've been having sleep issues with 12month old DD, she wakes every 2hrs and has done for the past 7 months. She will only go back to sleep if I breastfeed her.
I called the GP to ask if there was anything he could prescribe to make her drowsy enough to sleep longer stretches at night just temporarily to get us through the next couple of weeks (DS is going into hospital for an operation, he was very distressed for a couple of weeks after his last op and woke frequently in the night, am expecting similar this time).
GP said there is nothing they can prescribe. He suggested piriton over the counter as a temporary solution but this isn't guaranteed to work.
For a long term solution, he advised that we leave her to cry. All night and not go to her at all.
I asked him to clarify a couple of times that leaving her all night is what he meant, he said yes - it is scientifically proven to work quickly and in 2-3 days she should be sleeping throught the night and it won't do her any harm.
This doesn't seem right to me. I've already looked into cry-it-out methods (we haven't really gone down that route, I can't do it), I thought the idea was leaving the baby for increasingly long gaps, 5 mins 10 mins etc but still going in to reassure.
My husband agrees with the GP and is all for leaving her to cry all night (he will be looking after her while I stay with DS in the hospital) but I just feel that would be wrong and I'd worry about the long term effects on her. I think it will be distressing enough for her not to have me around overnight, this will be the first time I have left her.
Is the GP right, is this the only solution when bad sleep habits are so entrenched now at 12months old?
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GP's sleep advice - leave her to cry all night. Really?
gotosleepmybaby · 15/08/2013 14:15
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