Did anyone else see the Dr. Phil show last week? They had some pediatricians on the show answering new mom questions. One of the questions was "Do you let your baby CIO?" The answer was, "NO." We recently have done this with DD. We were at our wits end. She was up every hour all night long and not taking good naps. I read the book Heathy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child and did the CIO. It only took a couple of nights and everyone in the house is sleeping much better and we are all much happier. It was hard those first couple of nights, but we are so glad we did it. One of the reasons was that crying increases stress hormones, which inhibit brain development. What's your take on it?
Did anyone else see the Dr. Phil show last week? They had some pediatricians on the show answering new mom questions. One of the questions was "Do you let your baby CIO?" The answer was, "NO." We recently have done this with DD. We were at our wits end. She was up every hour all night long and not taking good naps. I read the book Heathy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child and did the CIO. It only took a couple of nights and everyone in the house is sleeping much better and we are all much happier. It was hard those first couple of nights, but we are so glad we did it. One of the reasons was that crying increases stress hormones, which inhibit brain development. What's your take on it?
all i know is that it took us about 3 days of CIO to work and we are all also very happy!!! They sleep much better and take great naps!!! Cant imagine 3 days inhibiting brain development! It is not like they cried for 72 hours straight. They cried here and there as they slept!!!
I agree, I did it, and I am glad I did. My oldest is a great sleeper and even the twins are doing great for their age, and yes, they cry for a few minutes, but in the end they sleep long stretches, by themselves in their bassinets and wake up happy. I also followed HSHHC, and I know Dr. Weissbluth in person, and he's a very nice, straightforwarded guy and an excellent pediatrician, and so far I have no reason not to believe his vision on sleep.
I think CIO is a good thing, your baby will grow better and be more social, usually happier with more sleep. They have to learn how to self-soothe at some point or another, I think its easier to do as they are still in the baby year than waiting until your child is older. Babies cry and there is a point where it becomes habit and not out of need. THat being said I dont think CIO should be done before 6 months or so but after that I honestly believe it starts to become out of habit. You cant always rock your kids to sleep, they need to train themselves to fall asleep. We only do CIO at bedtime right now only because M wakes up with her stomach just growling so I do feed her but as soon as we finally get home and get settled we will begin CIO during the night with M as well for at least 1 out of the 2 feedings that she thinks she needs
There are people who don't do CIO and it works for them. I too heard about stress very negatively affecting a baby's development and temperament. We decided to do what works. With my eldest we co-slept until he was three and he is a very good sleeper. That's the plan for these two, co-sleep until 3 or whenever they are ready to go to their own room.
I agree with Erykah. I realize that it works great for other's families, however, I don't plan on letting my kids CIO. I didn't with my first DD, and don't plan on it with the boys.
I think CIO is fine and healthy for the kids. Any negative effects (stress hormones) are far outweighed by the positive effects(learning to fall asleep on their own & better, more healthy sleep for everyone) CIO worked for my 3 kids and I'll do it again with anymore babies. Parenting approaches swing on a pendulum like so many other things. In a few years, Parent-directed parenting (CIO) will be the recommended approach over attachment parenting. I think it all works...CIO babies are just as healthy as non-CIO babies in the long run
My take on it is that they either never had twins, they never had the responsibility of taking care of a baby in the middle of the night and lived on 2 hours of sleep a night for a month straight or they never had kids at all!!! CIO may not work for every baby. If it doesn't work after a certain amount of trying then perhaps another method will work better and it shouldn't be pushed. But for most people, it only takes several days to a week or so and I hardly believe that their development is delayed to a harmful degree. Hmmmmm...a stressed out baby (and mom) for a couple of days or a raving psychotic mother who continues to have no sleep and in one of her moments of lunacy really loses it? Anyone choose the latter??
Since the answer was so succinct, maybe he was referring to smaller babies, like those under 6 months old. If you have an older baby that isn't getting the amount of sleep they need, it is more negligent to their brain development to let them be sleep-deprived than to have them cry for a few hours for a few nights as they establish a sleep schedule. (BTW, that doesn't mean that every family should CIO, just that you should figure out a way for your family to get the amount of sleep they need)
I saw that show as well. My take is like a lot of things in life, everyone believes in different things. All doctors believe in different ideas. I listened to him, but believe CIO. I've only had to do it a couple of times, but it worked for us.
I don't think there is a clear cut solution to the CIO issue, myself. I may not have a PhD but I do have 4 children! and every situation is different. I personally try to strike the balance between CIO and soothing. I can't even say there's a method to it, every situation needs to be handled differently. For example, I typically let my 18 month olds go to sleep on their own, but the other night Amanda had the stomach bug. Had I let her CIO I might have ended up "letting" her "soothe herself" in a pool of her own vomit. Boy I'm glad I checked up on what was going on. Usually if the crying goes on for more than a few minutes, I know something is wrong. You can often tell by the cry too. Doctor's opinions do have their place, but nothing compares to Mom's gut feeling.
I don't think anyone really *wants* to do CIO. I am sure there are people out there who abuse it or do it for a child who is too young, but I believe the majority of people who do it, do it out of love for the child and for the benefit of the family when nothing else has worked. I know that has been the case for everyone here. So, CIO has its place. Thankfully sleep training worked for us and I haven't had to do CIO, but given the right situation I probably would have used it.
Oh and one more thing - my babies CRY during Dr. Phil so I don't consider him an expert when it comes to baby care!
It wasn't Dr. Phil who said not to CIO. I think it might have been Dr. Sears? Yeah, we never do CIO when we know the babies are sick. But we really only had to do it for a couple of nights and days during naptime. Now the babies go to sleep on their own. When they wake up around 4 or 5am, I take them in the bed, nurse them, and they sleep another couple of hours. I didn't do it with my oldest DD, never had to because she was a great sleeper. My middle DD co-slept with us until about a year, but it just wasn't working. She would nurse all night long it seemed and was very restless. It seemed to take forever to get her to sleep when we finally did do CIO in her crib. I'm glad I did it sooner with the babies. I think that because they were younger, it didn't take as long. They co-slept with us for about 7 months. Anyways, like I said, I'm so glad we did. Everyone is sleeping much better at night. I know that every family does what works for them. Every child is different. Here's to healthy kids and good sleep for all
Anything on the Dr. Phil show should be taken with a grain of salt IMO. He's an overweight divorced guy who councils people on how to lose weight and have successful marriages I don't know anything about CIO as these are my first babies, but I can see that I'm probably going to have to do it with DS in the future. Even now, he fights going to sleep. he can be changed, fed and SO cranky and tired but will NOT go to sleep. When he gets overtired he's not happy if I'm holding him, if I put him down, if I rock him or shush him. The only thing I can do with him when he gets like that is to put him down in his crib and let him fuss and eventually he goes to sleep. Trying to soothe him only makes him angry and more wound up. DD on the other hand is the exact opposite. Just from observing my own babies I can agree with some of the other posters and say that the CIO issue depends on the baby.
quote: Originally posted by double-or-nothing: My take on it is that they either never had twins, they never had the responsibility of taking care of a baby in the middle of the night and lived on 2 hours of sleep a night for a month straight or they never had kids at all!!! I totally agree!!!!!!!!!!! It always seems like these people have never had twins but they love giving out advice to ya! I actually had someone tell me not to put my kids on schedules because I will miss them growing up. All I said in reply was if I didn't have a schedule I would never get a chance to see or remember anything from their baby year! People just don't get having twins!!!! (Sorry, I am living on very little sleep because CIO doesn't work too well on Pumpkin P! )
quote: Originally posted by kristie75: Oh and one more thing - my babies CRY during Dr. Phil so I don't consider him an expert when it comes to baby care! LOL!!!
We just recently started letting our babies CIO because For the last several months we were spending 1 to 2 hours at night rocking Kyle (and just recently) Katie started wanting that also. Just this past week I started laying them down with their paci's and I usually had to go back in there maybe 4 or 5 times in 1 hr to put thier paci's back in and lay them back down (they like to stand and grin at ya when you walk back in the room) after about the 5th time they would stay down and go to sleep on thier on....It sure beats sitting rocking them for 2 hours. BTW they never really get to the "Screaming part" just whinny. Tonight I only went in there 1 time IMO its worth it!!!! That way I can get some things done in that 2 hrs (other than rocking) Like post on here and do some laundry.
quote: It wasn't Dr. Phil who said not to CIO. I think it might have been Dr. Sears? I didn't see the show (don't have a TV ), but Dr Sears is the 'main man' behind attachment parenting - namely co-sleeping, not CIO, trying never to let you baby cry at all, baby wearing etc. He is definitely in the anti-CIO camp so this may explain his answer.
