Baby sleep training: No tears methods
Baby sleep training: No tears methods Reviewed by the BabyCenter Medical Advisory Board Last updated: January 2007 Can I train my baby to fall asleep without leaving him to cry?
Teaching your baby to soothe himself to sleep and sleep through the night doesn’t have to mean letting him cry it out (CIO). If you don’t like the idea of leaving your baby to cry alone — or you’ve tried CIO methods and they didn’t work for you — you may want to consider a more gradual approach that involves fewer tears.
As with any method, what works for one child might not work for your baby. So figuring out an approach that’s right for your family could take some trial and error. If you’re not sure what to do, you can turn to the experts who have written books on the subject and draw on the wisdom of other parents. And before you start, you may want to read up on sleep training basics.
What’s the theory and the controversy behind no-tears methods?
Generally speaking, those who favor a no-tears approach over CIO methods consider leaving a child alone and crying to be unnatural, unkind, and a betrayal of the trust your baby is developing in adults and the world around him. The idea is that bedtime offers an opportunity to connect with your child by developing quiet, cozy nighttime rituals and by quickly responding to your baby’s requests for food and comfort.
Pediatrician and “attachment parenting” advocate William Sears devotes an entire chapter of The Baby Sleep Book to a critique of CIO approaches. Sears, along with no-tears advocates such as Elizabeth Pantley (author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution), believes that CIO techniques can give your child negative associations with bedtime and sleep that could last a lifetime.
Sleep experts who support the CIO approach disagree. They say it isn’t traumatic for babies to cry alone for short periods of time with frequent check-ins by Mom or Dad — and the end result is a well-rested, happier child. They say no-tears sleep strategies may cause babies to be overly dependent on comfort from a parent at bedtime, making it harder for them to learn to soothe themselves to sleep.
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