According to a National Sleep Foundation Poll, about half of new parents are getting less than 6.9 hours sleep per night and are being awakened six to seven nights per week by their crying infant. Since the late 1940’s parents have been encouraged to let their baby cry to sleep. Recent research doesn’t agree with this unnatural response to your baby’s cry to be comforted.
Dangers of “Crying It Out” - Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D, Published December 11, 2011 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201112/dangers-crying-it-out.
Crying is your baby’s primary way to communicate a need and discomfort.
Meet your baby’s basic needs first, then play Terry’s research-backed “Heartbeat Lullabies” recording and follow his suggested nurturing bedtime routine. Your baby will quickly stop crying and soon learn to sleep all night. Consequently, you and your sleep deprived family gets the rest and sleep you need to cope with everyday challenges. Rested parents make more rational choices, make fewer mistakes, have fewer accidents, less absenteeism, and have a better attitude on the job and at home. If you have been told that babies cry sometimes for no reason at all, check the following reasons before you come to that dangerous conclusion.
Some Reasons Why Babies Cry
- Hungry or thirsty
- Gas or air in stomach- needs to be burped
- Diaper rash or soiled diaper
- Too hot or too cold
- Startled or frightened by loud noise
- When your baby wakes in a place other than where he or she went to sleep
- Sick or in physical pain or allergic to something
- Over tired or over stimulated.
- Afraid of dark or an unfamiliar person
- Moving and startling your almost asleep baby from in your arms to her or his bed.
- Wants to be nurtured by being held
- Formula doesn’t agree with your baby
- Handled too rough or too much
- Needs to release tension
- Itchy clothing or clothing tags irritating
- Something in your baby’s eye
- Hasn’t learned to self-calm or colicky
- Sun in your baby’s eyes or lights too bright
- The pacifier fell out of your baby’s mouth
- Teething, unpleasant smell or insect bite
- Feeding solid foods or sugar too early
- Sibling mishandled baby, pinched or hit
- Foot or arm caught in or bumped into something
- Frustrated because you don’t get it