CIO? When did you start?

Just wondering when you started.... Mine just cry all the time... I know they dont need anything.. I am soo ready to CIO!!! :blink:

If you started later than 6 months... Why?

 

I got the go ahead from my Peditrician to do sleep training between 4 and 6 months. I thought 4 months was still kind of early and at 5 months (that whole month) we were away on holidays and I didn't want to have to start again once we got home so as soon as they were 6 months we started sleep training.

Oh I however never did CIO to rid them of the night time bottles. I did CIO to help them learn to self soothe. If they woke up (they were still waking for 1 bottle at night) I fed them. At 7 months they started STTN (7pm to 7am) on their own so no CIO to rid them of that bottle.

 

My girls were born 9/1 and we started in mid-January. Lauren slept through right away. It took Emma 10 nights, which were HARD, but then they started sleeping 10.5-12 hours per night from that point on.

 

6 months with Jake. 6 months with Josh. 9 months with Justin. Justin was the hardest by far.

 

We did a little CIO during naps to help them learn to self soothe for naps and going to bed. But if they awoke at night for a feeding I always went to them and fed them. They gave that feeding up on their own at about 9 months.

 

With my oldest DD we started about 7-8 months and with Emilie and Trevor we started at 10 months.

 

I've never had to do a full out CIO with the kids (yet), but around 12 weeks I did set a time limit I would let them cry before going in during naps. At about 4 months, I started it at night too. 10 minutes, and even that is hard, but lots of times, they'd fall alseep or back asleep in that ten minutes.

If you know they are fed, clean and just plain tired, I think you are fine to let them cry a bit to see if they work it out. But I wouldn't attempt a full out CIO (no time limit, don't go in at all) until they are a bit older.

Good Luck!
Suzi

 

We don't do CIO -- but we do do limited crying (3 min) for naps -- also if the crying is esclating, rather then declerating, I go in before 3 minutes is up. It does seem to help - and they almost always go to sleep (all be it for 30 minutes) after just one or two interventions.

 

My oldest was about 6 mths and we had him trained in about a week. The twins are 8 1/2 mths & we just started with them. Seems to be working well so far. We are ALL sleeping better in our house!! A ped told me once that you could start as early as 8 weeks. Personally I think that's too early.

 

I did a poll like this a few weeks ago... not sure how many responses you have gotten but you could check mine out with the responses if not many!

 

We did CIO at 9 months. I waited so long because I thought if they were still eating in the middle of the night they must be hungry and of course I didn't want them to starve. But by 9 months I was so tired and I figured if a 6 month old could go through the night without eating then they could too. The funny thing is it only took 2 days and they were sleeping through.

 

I started at 10 months before that I just couldn't do it since they were waking for a bottle during the night so obviously they were hungry. After they stopped bottles during the night (about 9 months) I decided after many sleepless nights to CIO...not to burst your bubble but I still have to do it and they will be 2 next month, granted it lasts about 5 minutes not 45min. - 1 hr. which was the norm last year but now we are getting into the mini night terrors where they wake up a few times a night and scream for 5-10mins...that's a whole other story...It's always something GL!

 

We tried CIO for naps around 4 months, and it was a disaster for everybody. Tried again closer to 5 months, and it really clicked. We do CIO for naps & bedtime (though it's far less likely to come up at bedtime), but we feed them if they wake up during the night.

QUOTE
I know they dont need anything.


Even if they're fed, burped, changed, and warm, they may still need hugs and soothing. And that is a legitimate need, esp. as young as 3 mo. If they can't self-soothe yet, they really do need help.

Of course, it's exhausting for you! Just hang in there, not much longer and you'll be able to just put them down and have them sleep... :hug99: