Reply to Cry it out is the most heartless and cruel thing you can do to a child…

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I dunno.  Subjecting your kid to sleep deprivation is pretty cruel, too.  We sleep trained because our baby was *clearly* exhausted.  She needed sleep, too.  [/quote]

+1000.  Sleep deprivation is recognized as a form of torture by the UN Convention Against Torture. Letting my child cry it out tortured [i]me[/i], but the immediate change in his temperament-- from cranky and unhappy to cheerful and energetic-- was dramatic and a total vindication. One of the best parenting decisions I ever made. [/quote]

Comments like this lead me to believe that a lot of this argument is based on having very different babies with very different sleep issues.

I didn't sleep train my baby and this in no way led to sleep deprivation for her. It was at times challenging for me but I figured out how to get the sleep I needed. But she slept fine, it's just that she didn't STTN until 9 or 10 months. She'd wake up once or twice, I'd nurse her, she'd fall back asleep within 5-10 minutes. Eventually she stopped waking up. At no point was she getting so little sleep that she was cranky. She also napped well that first year. And she's never had any sleep issues beyond a few minor regressions since learning to sleep at night on her own.

I am guessing people who sleep train have babies who are not merely waking up at night, but doing so frequently and are not going back to sleep quickly or easily as mine did. I'm guessing this is precisely what sleep training is for -- babies who have a hard enough time sleeping that it impacts their mood and temperament.

So for some people, sleep training is essential, and for others, it is superfluous. That's why these comments about how people who sleep train are cruel, or people who don't are cruel, make no sense. You should only do it if your baby has a problem with sleep that needs solving. My baby didn't have a problem with sleep -- she was good at it and got plenty of it. It's just that for a long while she'd wake up in the middle of the night and want a snuggle and something to eat, and we gave it to her. No sleep deprivation. Not cruel at all.[/quote]

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