I can't sleep...I'm tired, but something is wrong. Am I hungry, or does my stomach just hurt...? My…

Both my kids cried it out and our perfectly fine happy babies who know when bed time is and how to sleep on there own, and still know there mommy loves them and will be there for them if and when they need me.

Sorry I am not being rude or telling you that you're not parenting right, because what works for you is your choice as a parent....however, this isn't an opinion. It may not be the case for every child, but this is FACT not just an opinion that crying it out is damaging to their little minds. I am not here to argue over parenting choices, I am here to educate people on the medical and psychological facts. @macey404

Preach it @hellosweetie sometimes people just don't get that it's proven that the CIO method actually damages a baby. My daughter knows when bedtime is but she is rocked and never left to cry.

Btw for anyone wondering, I have practice attachment parenting and exclusively breastfed my baby from the moment she was born and she has been sleeping 8+ hours per night straight since 2 months of age. She is 8.5 months and still sleeps 8 to 10 hours straight a night, in her own bed! She barely cries over anything, is ahead of all her milestones, super friendly, and is VERY adventurous and independent! So please know that myths about "spoiling" babies with love have NOTHING to do with those things! Sleep is developmental, they learn to sleep when they are ready to whether we "teach" them or not!

My husband says I spoil my son but the reality is that he won't be a baby for very long and I'm going to miss singing and rocking him to sleep in my arms! So I'll do it as long as he'll let me

I feel the same way @santistevanmommie, as I just stated above I have ALWAYS come to my daughter when she cries and she is the best sleeper! I have done countless hours of research on this "method" and it is proven to cause harm!

My thoughts exactly @mommy_faith! One day she won't need me to nurse her to sleep or hug her when she feels scared or lonely....when that day comes I will miss my little cuddle bug, but until then I will cherish the time I have with her, because she only has one chance at a childhood! She will grow up and love her own life someday...

Yes I also practice attachment parenting. My daughter wakes through the night but I've always looked at it like she'll sleep through the night when she's ready. @mommy_faith my grandma always says "that baby isn't spoiled, she doesn't stink!"

So true. I love nursing, holding, rocking, soothing him lol even when it's a pain and I need to get stuff done and it'll end all too quickly and then I'll be sad😩😢

SORRY SO LONG..... my mom always said that I am the way I am like I have bad anxiety and everything fighters me and all because she think it's my dad's fault for not letting her grab me .. he wanted me to cry it out and he'll scream at me as a baby to shut up and I'd just keep crying.. and with my sister my dad actually let my mom grab her when she cried and she doesn't have anxiety or anything.. my mom said she think that has a big part with why I am the way I am.. I' don't let no one close.. I argue before someone makes me cry.. and if I do cry my anxiety goes through the roof. she said she wished she could've stand up to my dad and grab me because Wayne I'd be as happy and mellow as my sister when I'm not... I don't let my daughter cry it out either. I I give her 20 sec to see if it's her just wanting attention and if she keeps going I grab her. I wouldn't want my daughter to feel the same as I have.. let's say it may not be true that it screwed me up getting older.. but it screwed me up as a baby and that was basically me what you posted just with a bit worse going on. but because of my dad I'd never let my Eli go through it.. and I'm glad her dad is as supportive on not letting her cry it out .

@myjulyprincesseli, I'm so sorry to hear that, I struggle with anxiety as well and it is so hard, sometimes I will cry histarically and not want to be touched or even seen, I hide in the bathroom....I have panic attacks so bad sometimes I literally can't leave the house. I try so hard to keep it together now with my girl but I have to make dad hold her sometimes because of my anxiety....I told myself that I would NEVER do this to my own child, I am always there when she cries....if she doesn't settle quickly I will place a hand on her and talk sweetly, if she still wants me then I will pick her up, hug her close, and nurse her to sleep if need be...she RARELY needs to be settled back to sleep, RARELY cries at night, only sometimes when she has nightmares or recently when she is cutting a tooth. She will either cry out and fall back asleep by the time I lean up to check on her, or she will get loves from her mama. I have never and will never leave her or let her be scared on her own....

it completely sucks .. can't function what so ever with anxiety!! I had it so bad when I had my baby I never felt that bad I went to ER and they were going to prescribe me medication for it but I didn't want to take it because I was breastfeeding at the time and they told me that I would get my baby all woozy and tired and she would be asleep half of the time with me so I thought that was basically like drugging my baby so I rather not take the medication and I guess till now I still haven't went back for them and I don't know I get it but very little and I'll also do the same.. give her to my husband and go hide in the bathroom with the shower running trying to relax.. it sucks how overwhelming it can be.. but I can never let her completely cry it out.. that's so sad :( but everyone has they're way of parenting I just couldn't do that

So I mostly practice attachment parenting as well.. I'm with him all day and he is 6 months and is EBF.. Anywho... He had a really bad sleep regression when he was about 4.5 months, he went from sleeping 10 hours at 5 weeks old in his own crib to waking up every 45 min and sometimes I couldn't even get him down in his crib and he would start to scream. During this time he stopped sucking his thumb and pretty much had no self soothing skills. This went on for a couple weeks and I was going crazy. It was literal insanity doing the same thing every night with the same result expecting it to somehow magically change itself. Finally one night I totally broke down and put my baby in his crib and went and took and shower and cried the entire time. My baby cried for 6 minutes before he fell asleep. I cried for a lot longer than that because I felt like the worse mother ever. Anyway, long story short, I did the same thing the next night and he cried for half the time. And now he might complain for 30 seconds at most. With all that being said, I nurse my baby to sleep every night, I wait for him to unlatch before I put him in his crib. While I was totally against the CIO method, I modified it for my own sanity and honestly for his well being. My son never screamed in his bed, but he cried. And I know his cries well enough to know when he is just tired and bitching or when he really needs me. And when he needs me I never let him cry it out. As an adolescent counselor myself all I could think of was that I am damaging my son and he will be sitting on somebody's couch someday… But I honestly don't think that is true now. I think that there are ways to do things and breaking points that people reach. For whatever reason my son had to be reminded that he can self soothe himself. On the rare occasion now that he wakes up in the middle the night I am there in a heartbeat and when he wakes up in the morning I pull him into bed with me and nurse him and we fall back to sleep together for an early morning nap. If he grows up with anxiety I honestly don't think it will be because for a handful of nights for a handful of minutes and he cried in his crib…

@sev1226, as I mentioned above these studies aren't saying that ANY crying is bad, if you can't get to your baby right away for instance while driving, or as you said to take a sanity break, then it is not the same as allowing your baby to cry every night for longer intervals until they just stop. What you did isn't the "cry it out" method, it isn't "controlled crying" it is moments where you need to gather your sanity. All children are different, and all parents are different.....my girl went through the 4 month sleep regression too, she didn't fall asleep until 4 to 6 in the morning EVERY NIGHT and went from sleeping 8+ hours a night to maybe 5 if I was lucky, she was cranky all day and I was losing my MIND. I took a few breaks during the daytime with her and she would angrily yell for me but after a minute or so I'd go back into the living room and come up with a way to destract her. For sleep, I kept my patience. She finally got back on track around 6 months, out of NOWHERE she just decided to knock out at 9pm and slept for 11 hours that night. She got over it. All by herself. This may not be the case with every child, but my point is we all handle things differently, but as a parent we should never completely ignore the cries of our children because as these studies have shown, it can cause a lot of damage if we do it wrong. I am not here to bring shame to all the moms who had to take a breather while their babies cried, I am here to educate people in the hopes that the CIO method will be abolished. I can't BELIEVE that with all this research and all these findings that people STILL think this is a good idea and doctor's (including our old doctor) STILL recommend this to parents!!! It's just like reading research on how smoking causes cancer, but your doctor still recommends smoking and everyone in your family tells you it's alright, they smoke and they are just fine! It's the SAME THING only we are messing with the mental health of our children, not the lung health of ourselves.