A Non CIO Option

hpatalano · September 2014

First of all I want to say that our philosophy on CIO is whatever feels best for you as a parent is what is best for your baby! I also understand that this may or may not work for everyone but it was a savior for us!

My husband and I did a lot of research before making the decision to not use the CIO method based on some convincing research we read. More accurately, we decided to do EVERYTHING possible before we did the CIO method (it's always still an option). I'm happy to say that we found a non CIO method that is working for us so I thought I'd share!

The method is from Dr. Harvey Karp (Happiest Baby on the Block). We were exhausted and feeling like we were failing over and over again because our son would wake up every 1-2 hours every night. We did everything his Pediatrician said to do (night time routine, but him down awake, naps, etc) but it just didn't work until we bought and read the Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep and followed every step. Now our son (6 months) does one "Dream Feed" and then sleeps 7 hours straight, wakes for another feed and then sleeps 2 more hours. We still have to wean one of the feedings but it's a HUGE difference.

I really suggest the book but here are the highlights:

Basics:

Establish a night time routine
Set up sleep associations (most importantly a low rumbling white noise, high pitched noise won't work.
Make sure he is napping correctly

The Golden Stuff!

Snuggle, nurse, hold, rock or whatever else you need to do do comfort your baby to sleep. (Yes, you don't have to put him down awake). Then once he is laying in his crib do a gentle, giggle or tickle his feet so he opens his eyes briefly and falls back asleep. Babies get upset when they don't wake up where they went to sleep. It's confusing. Also, this will still teach them to self soothe. When you put them down you want them to be fully out or you will wake them and they will start crying. You need to do this EVERY time they wake up and go to sleep.
Wean their night eating (if dr. says it's OK):

Do a dream feed. Wake your baby up between 10:00 - 11:00 pm and feed him. This is called a dream feed. Babies sleep the longest, deepest sleep on their first 6 hours of sleep. Research has shown babies who are fed between that time are able to "reset" their longest sleep making their deep sleep from 11 pm - 5 pm and fitting much more comfortably into your sleep.
Keep a sleep log of when they wake up normally for a feed and set your alarm and feed them 30 minutes to an hour before they normally wake. For example, if your son wakes at 1 am, 3 am, and 5 am you would set your alarm at 12:30 am, 2:30 am and 4:30 am and wake your baby and feed him. The point of this is teaching your child that they aren't rewarded with food when they wake up at night. If you feed your baby sometimes and not other times they will be confused and the message won't be clear.
Begin shortening each feed by two minutes each night until you no longer feed them at that time.
If they wake on their own, don't feed them. The message has to be clear, waking up and crying doesn't equal food. You won't have to worry that they are hungry because you woke them up and fed them multiple times.

Eventually you wean the dream feed and white noise (we haven't gotten there yet)

This whole process takes a lot longer than CIO and it takes a lot of patience and not a lot of sleep during the multiple wake ups but it worked for us and we feel good about it.

Hope this helps and hopefully we will all be rewarded with a good night's sleep soon!

Designermomma · September 2014

How long did you try these methods till it worked?

hpatalano · September 2014

Good question! It took 3 weeks to get where we are now. However, we also transitioned him out of the swaddle and he started rolling onto his tummy at night and can't roll back so those two things were set backs.

It took about 5 days to get the sleep/wake tactic working so he self soothed at night. We still have a ways to go but it's soooooo much better now.

hpatalano · September 2014

Update: he is now sleeping 7 hours straight through the night. Hallelujah!

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