Debate Over Letting Babies Cry It OutThe Sears Method (No Tears) Vs. The Ferber Method (Cry It Out)CHARLOTTE, N.C. - On average, a baby cries for 51 entire days in its first year of life. As a parent, it's never easy to hear your baby cry. "Oh my gosh, it breaks your heart it really does," says Melissa Bedancourt. There's been a long time debate about how to put your child to bed. The sears method (no tears) or the ferber method (crying it out). Many today are choosing the latter. Once mom or dad put down that crying baby they make the situation worse with things like the video monitor. Not only are they hearing the cries they're seeing their baby in distress. "I would just sit by the bed and stare at it," explains Bedancourt. Bedancourt uses the Ferber Method which trains the child to soothe him or herself to sleep. "At first she would definitely cry and we would just kind of leave her a few minutes at a time and we'd go in and check on her and then leave again and go an check on her so it took a while to get used to it." While your mother-in-law or grandmother may not want to hear it, new research says allowing an infant to self settle may be best. "And we're talking just a few minutes, not talking about hours. It's just a few minutes that the baby all of the sudden realizes 'oh someone is not coming in I'm still ok, I'm still ok in this crib I'm still safe, I'm going to try to go back to sleep'," explains Pediatrician Dr. Anitha Leonard. Leonard says while the ferber method works not all methods are for everybody. "Again because things are unpredictable, human beings and behavior are unpredictable we kind of have to go with what works." You'll know what you're doing is working when you and baby are well rested. |
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