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CIO questions

amber*n*scottamber*n*scott
in Babies: 9 - 12 Months

So my little guy is just over 4 months old. (18/19 weeks.)  I wanted to know when you started CIO, how did you know it was the right time and how did you know that something else wasn't going on with your LO?  (teething, start of a cold, growth spurt...)

I never had to do this with my first, but I am not against it.  Just never had to do it.  My 4 month old is already 17lbs and should be sleeping better than he is at this point...I feel anyways. 

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Re: CIO questions

  • Skipperg82Skipperg82 member

    I think 4 months is the perfect time to do sleep training, they are little enough to not "remember" for as long of a time how they used to fall asleep (be it at the boob, or being rocked, etc.) but old enough/big enough to be able to sleep through...

    We used Baby Whisperer to sleep train which is a method that advises against CIO if you don't really want to go that route...at 4 months she suggests doing a pick up/put down method, where you go in as soon as baby cries, pick them up, soothe them, then put them back down so they learn to fall asleep on their own without any props.  She also suggests doing shhh/pat where you shhhhhhhh loudly while rhythmically patting their backs to soothe them to sleep.  We had more success doing the pu/pd at first, since shhh/pat was too distracting!  I also do a dreamfeed before I go to bed for the night (between 10-11pm) and I think that helped tremendously to extend his nighttime sleep.....so he wasn't going 12 hours without a feed.

    If you're going to do any sleep training, you MUST be sure that there is nothing else developmentally going on with baby - no growth spurts, teething, learning to roll/sit, etc. all these things will absolutely affect sleep and you don't want to teach your LO that when they tru;ly need some help, mommy won't be there.  The 4 month growth spurt for DS was like his other ones, but more mild- wanting to eat all the time, a lot more sleeping/fussiness, and it usually passes within a few days....he hasn't gone through teething yet so I don't have any experience there, but you can read up on what common nighttime disturbances are so you can tell the difference....GL!!

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  • sunshine723sunshine723
    Before we tried CIO, we tried the method of slowly cutting back on what we fed him at night.  It worked like a charm.  We cut back on the 2nd feeding, then he didn't wake up for it.  Then we cut back on the 1st, which was a bit more tricky.  But eventually he didn't wake up for that either.  He was STTN at 3 months. We did eventually do CIO, but it was only one night, and it was b.c he had already been STTN for a while at that point (and he wasn't teething).
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  • karaleakaralea member
    I would highly suggest reading the book "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo.  We read this book and followed many of its suggestions.  We very rarely have to use CIO (and have never followed it according to the Ferber method).  DD has been STTN since she was 8 weeks old and I think a lot of it is due to the fact that we followed most of the suggestions in this book.
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  • jrzbrydejrzbryde
    We did sleep training just short of 5 months. We knew it was time because life was absolute hell, he just wasn't sleeping (4-month wakeful period that started at 3 months!). We used the book "Sleeping Through The Night" because it was recommended by our pedi. It saved our lives!
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  • Sally JSally J member

    imagekaralea:
    I would highly suggest reading the book "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo.  We read this book and followed many of its suggestions.  We very rarely have to use CIO (and have never followed it according to the Ferber method).  DD has been STTN since she was 8 weeks old and I think a lot of it is due to the fact that we followed most of the suggestions in this book.

    Be aware that this book is highly controversial and is not recommended by AAP, LLL, and WHO.  See www.ezzo.info to read up on why it's controversial.

    I also recommend researching Ferber, Sears, Baby Whisperer, Heathly Sleep Habits Healthy Child, and No Cry Sleep Solution to figure out what will work best for your baby.  Some babies do better with CIO than others, but all of these books will help you learn about your babies needs for sleep.

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  • Jerseygirl16Jerseygirl16
    With DD #1 I waited until 6 1/2 months because I was against it until I gave in and tried it.  She immediately took to it and I was a convert.  With DD #2 we did it at 4 months and she's been a great sleeper every since. It really does work wonders and I don't know where we would be without it.
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  • karaleakaralea member
    imageSally J:

    imagekaralea:
    I would highly suggest reading the book "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo.  We read this book and followed many of its suggestions.  We very rarely have to use CIO (and have never followed it according to the Ferber method).  DD has been STTN since she was 8 weeks old and I think a lot of it is due to the fact that we followed most of the suggestions in this book.

    Be aware that this book is highly controversial and is not recommended by AAP, LLL, and WHO.  See www.ezzo.info to read up on why it's controversial.

    I also recommend researching Ferber, Sears, Baby Whisperer, Heathly Sleep Habits Healthy Child, and No Cry Sleep Solution to figure out what will work best for your baby.  Some babies do better with CIO than others, but all of these books will help you learn about your babies needs for sleep.

     I'm new to the board, so didn't know it was controversial.  But, I don't really understand why, it worked well for us...guess I'll take a look at that site. =0)

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