Cry It Out

[kathrynelizabeth3005]

Currently sat on the landing outside my sons bedroom listening to him scream for 5 min intervals between me going in to comfort him. Someone tell me this works! He’s 15 months and never slept well. I’m at the end of my tether with sleep deprivation!

Cry it out is not recommended. Please go and pick up your baby and hold him. There are alternatives if you want to sleep train.

Op this isn’t cry it out, this is controlled crying. Ask HQ to change the title because you will get jumped on by people who don’t read properly.

I’m not a fan of CC and think CIO is horrendous but CC can help certain babies sleep better. It will get better and generally seems to take about 3 days to work. But if it doesn’t feel right then don’t do it.

What else have you tried?

Would you treat an elderly relative in the same way? Someone who was distressed and not able to tell you why? I really hope not, because that would be abuse. It's no less abusive to leave babies or children to cry.

Thank you June for a helpful reply. No idea how to request HQ change my title but I have a feeling that even if I did, people might not respond positively.

Everyone else, thanks for making me feel worse because in my desperation i accidentally labelled it CIO instead of Controlled Crying, when what I was hoping for was advice/support. People are so quick to judge. Especially when it’s strangers on the internet.

For what it’s worth, I did go and pick up and cuddle and comfort my son and he is now sleeping peacefully.

Parenthood is such a minefield. You’re damned whatever you do.

It will work, and it is a reasonable thing to do, if other routes have failed. You will be a better mother if you are getting proper sleep and your child will be happier having had a full nights sleep.

At that age, I would expect it to take about 3 nights. Just make sure when you go into check on him, the lights stay off and you don't talk (or just say it's time to sleep etc) . I would set a timer because it's easy to crack and go in early. Also if they are winding down as the timer goes off, give it another 30 seconds and see if it continues to wind down before going in.

@kathrynelizabeth3005 every baby is different and you know your baby. You know which cry is not a real cry, which is a tired cry etc. So never feel bad!!

My LO is 6 months old and i have pretty much left her to settle herself since about 8 weeks.

Even now if she cries on a rare occasion when we put her to bed we give her 5 mins to see if she settles, if not we go in, calm her down and try again.

She loves going to sleep in her room, 99% of the time she is happy in her cot and has done since we moved her in there at 10 weeks and sleeps for 12-14hrs a night now.

Like previous poster said, doesn't normally take too many days so keep going!

sorry you have had unhelpful replies. it's not cio you are doing. I used to be against even controlled crying but my baby was so sleep deprived from not being able to sleep it was affecting his ability to learn and develop. we used in effect a method of controlled crying when he was 8months old. up until that point we pretty much used attachment parenting and he is well loved and cared for. we used a gradual retreat (moving chair) method. it was hard but it worked and now a few months on he sleeps amazingly, is well rested and is catching up on all the milestones he just didn't have the energy to achieve before. I found it helpful to focus on the routine the rest of the day so that he was in the best place for sleep and then with the crying rate it out if 10. anything 7 or over told me he was upset and I would go in to check and comfort if needed but less than that was more of a frustrated cry/ groan which was I learnt to not be worried or concerned about. he will now groan or mumble for 5 mins or so then roll over and go to sleep. good luck.