Crying it Out : How it worked!!

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When my daughter was seven months old, each night she would wake up every two hours and cry. Initially blaming teething pain, we rocked her, fed her, comforted her (sometimes dosed her with infant Tylenol) and she would smile and go back to sleep. This continued to happen until one night, my husband, Puneet and I made a decision: that night it was going to stop.

Our daughter's Pediatrician had told us, after 6 months, babies can sleep through the night (5-6 hrs) and they don't need to be fed. They wake up at night by habit and at that young age they still don't know how to go back to sleep on their own, so they cry. They need to be sleep trained. A skill, like any other skill, that they can master, if given an opportunity.

Coming back to that night, after five minutes of crying, we gave her a bottle with water in it. According to the Pediatrician, this would gradually, break her habit of being fed at night and she wouldn't bother waking up again. Well, Aanya, didn't even drink a sip. She got furious.

Puneet put her in her crib, and she cried. Oh God! She cried. I had never thought I would let my child cry it out. It sure takes a lot of strength to ignore your baby's cry and I felt awfully selfish. She fell asleep after 40 minutes of crying and I awake much longer, wondering if she knew we still loved her. Maybe we destroyed her trust. I suddenly had these kinds of negative feelings. This was the first time she was denied something she wanted badly, her parents comfort.

The next morning, Aanya was her smiley self. Come bedtime, she slept 7-8 hours straight. And since then every night, she's gone to sleep on her own, even if she woke up she slept back on her own. And since then, we've been having a good night's rest.

They say the short-term pain of a few tears is far outweighed by the long-term advantages. I am happy we took this step and helped our daughter be independent at that little age.