Cry it Out

To train or not. This post was submitted by an Anonymous reader in the A Place to Vent group.

My 1 year old has not slept through the night since he was born. Though he goes to bed at a decent time (8 PM) he wakes around 3 AM every night. I've held him, rocked him, tried just rubbing his back, and more, but the only way I can calm him down is with a bottle. Our doctor suggested just letting him cry it out for a few nights to get over this hump. According to the doctor, he is in a routine now and that routine needs to be broken. I'm willing to give it a go, but my husband is hesitant. Is it really that bad to let him cry it out?

Let it all out in our anonymous A Place to Vent group over in the LilSugar Community.

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite. If only those phrases were all it took to put baby down. Getting a newborn to sleep through the night is one of the most talked about issues in infant care. Parents become fiercely supportive of their chosen sleep training method and its guru. Marc Weissbluth, one of the nation's most popular pediatricians and author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child that advocates a modified "cry-it-out" philosophy, is using his blog to take on Dr. William Sears, author of The Attachment Parenting Book: A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby, which calls for soothing baby until it falls asleep.

On his blog, Dr. Weissbluth discredits several studies Dr. Sears uses to prove that "crying-it-out" actually harms a child. According to Dr. Weissbluth, the studies show that allowing a tot to "cry-it-out" does not affect self-esteem, relationships with parents or the bond between parent and child. What's your opinion on cry it out?