Sleep Lose/Lose?

colemangal85 · February 2013

I'm not really complaining because overall I think my LO sleeps good but we switched to naps in the crib about 3 weeks ago and I was doing cry it out ... which usually works .... he is usually out after 10-15 minutes of crying but I recently read that CIO isn't good for babies because it can mess with their trust issues.

I don't know what to do because I don't really want to rock him to sleep before putting him down each time because I do want to get him in the habit of that so for those who put their LO's down for naps in cribs - I was just curious what you do?

katiem927 · February 2013

I rock my LO to sleep but we're trying to transition to CIO. There's a lot of stuff, good and bad to read out there about CIO, but I just heard about a study that says its actually psychologically better for babies to CIO, and my pedi just gave me the green light to try it. I think it is a personal choice and if that's what works for you and your LO then stick to it.

carrotsoup70 · February 2013

When we took the paci away, LO had a hard time falling asleep by himself. We did a modified CIO. I would go in and pick him up until he calmed down (but not sleeping) and then put him back down again. I would repeat that about every 5 minutes. The first two nights were rough but after that, he has gone to sleep on his own without any issues. He is also able to soothe himself to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Angeldish · February 2013

People on here get really opinionated about CIO, so be warned.

For naps, I typically am quicker to go back in the room to pat his belly, give him his paci, and such than at night. I don't really know why. Although I have done a modified CIO at night, I don't think I would do 10-15 minutes for naptime. Not only because I don't think I could take it, but I think it would mostly just get him wound up again and defeat the purpose. (I don't know why I view naptime differently than nighttime, but I do for some reason).

Maybe try turning on music or giving him a toy to play with in his crib beforehand so that he feels more comfortable being in there during the day? I did read somewhere that it is okay for your baby to not sleep during naptime. My son sometimes will lie in his crib with his gloworm on or music playing for 30 minutes or so without sleeping. What I read (I think it was Baby 411) indicated that they are still resting when they do this, so just let them do so. Now, if this happened every time I might think differently.

kross605 · February 2013

If youre going to do CIO you need to be confident that its the right thing to do, own the decision, and let the guilt go (I need to tell myself this same thing!).

Personally, Ive read a lot and Im not convinced that CIO is a bad thing, as long as you are doing it at an age appropriate time and you are sure that the baby is not hungry or ill (not hungry is the hard part for me right now, I cant figure out if she is or not!).

FWIW we used a ferber type method of CIO with progressively longer periods of time between check in's with my first daughter for both naps and nighttime sleeping. The first day was a bit rough but each day afterwards got a lot better and by day 3 or 4 she was sleeping well at naps at nighttime with only a couple minutes of fussing/crying if at all.

I can assure you she is a fully functioning, normal 3 year old who holds no grudges about the rough 3 days of her life when we did that. She also sleeps like a teenager, asking for us to leave her alone and pulling the covers over her head in the morning so I think she's got the sleep thing down now.

Andreabks · February 2013

we did modified CIO when we trasitioned to the crib at 2 1/2 months. no picking up here, but we would go in after 5 min and pat/give back paci, then again adding a minute longer at each time.

now, 90% of the time i can put her down awake and she'll fall asleep with out crying.

granted i have a kid who no longer wants to be rocked. part of the reason we started the pat/etc thing with out rocking was because when we would try to rock her down she would just be unreasonalbe. she'd scream for an hour in our arms with out passing out, but as soon as we put her in her crib would fall asleep. we put her in her crib awake with out rocking once just to try it and were supprised and happy that she went to sleep.

CIO is not for everyone. i still hate doing it on her bad days, but if they are fed, changed and have been comforted sometimes they just need to let it all out.

colemangal85 · February 2013

Thanks guys. I feel much better now

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