I want
to begin by saying that this is my personal opinion of this book and it is
based on my deep personal convictions about health, babies, and mothering. If
you do not agree with me, that is totally fine. Everyone must form their own
inner convictions about this subject. If you have already read this book and
lived by it please do not take this personally! I am not trying to make you
defensive or angry. I am merely expressing my own opinion of this method of
sleep training and if you are interested and open minded enough to listen I am
humbled that you are willing to hear me out. Thank you!! This book is really,
in a nutshell, a CIO method of sleep training and how to routine/schedule you
baby’s every moment of life.
Why I do not like the method of this book and would not
recommend it to others:
1.
She teaches self
soothing and not parent soothing. I
can see how self soothing is a good thing, and I am not opposed to the self
soothing itself, but I am deeply opposed to it replacing parent soothing. (I
realize that she is not saying to NEVER parent sooth, just almost never when it
comes to sleep. Only for special reasons. (illness, pain, etc.) My question is
“how can you know for absolute certain that there is nothing
wrong with your baby when they are crying or awakening?” What about hidden
emotional or physical problems? My second question would be “why do we need to
make our babies independent so early on?” Shouldn’t they get to be a
baby for a while? What is wrong with parent soothing your baby to sleep? I
prefer it. I encourage it. I personally want to take advantage of every chance
I get to love and cuddle my baby- the first year is gone in a blink. A BLINK!!
2.
She has a routine for everything.
Routine, routine, routine! Routine for sleep;
baby must be trained how, when, and where to sleep. You must stick to the
routine. Routine for play; this is
your play time when I say it is. Routine for sustenance; you must nurse/feed on a schedule. Babies only “need”
to eat a certain amount. And by no means must you night nurse after the newborn
stage! This last routine is the biggest kicker for me. I mean come on, what
could be more horrible than to nurse your precious baby at night? You would only
get to enjoy closer emotional bonding which creates more emotional stability
for both of you, quiet peaceful alone time together, relaxing hormones that are
released to both of you that will soothe and help you become peaceful and ready
for more sleep, and the added bonus that breastfeeding a lot helps to delay
ovulation. This is a great, God given, natural way to help with child spacing
for those who do not believe in using birth control. To me all of the sleep
training, life scheduling seem so domineering and crushing. I do not believe in
letting your baby rule the roost, but this is just too much for me. It stresses
me out and exhausts me to think about it. And I tend to be Type A; this makes
me feel like we are going to Baby Boot Camp. I prefer to enjoy my short
Babymoon instead. Another thought is how does all this scheduling affect the
other family members as well?
1. What CIO Really means
2.
How CIO Sabotages the Parent-Child Relationship
3.
Sensitive Sleep Training That Does Work
4.
Science Says: CIO May Be Harmful to a Child’s
Health
This book is my personal recommendation for baby sleep
literature- for what that is worth.The Sears' also have a fabulous website as well: askdrsears.com
4. I also find
it quite interesting that the author is not in any way more professionally
qualified to be giving out advice on baby sleep that I am. She has a MA in Ed.
Big deal- so does my mother! I would rather get advice on baby sleep from
pediatricians who have personally conducted scientific research and carefully
studied the scientific research of others on the subject of baby sleep, CIO,
and how important breastfeeding is for the physical and emotional well being of
the baby and mother. I prefer to get my advice from a credible source, ponder
it, and then make my decision. And please forgive me for saying this, but I
find the biggest irony in all of this to be that most of the people who
recommend and follow this book (and others like it) are the same people who will blindly follow (and
advise others to do the same) doctor’s advice simply because “they are the
professionals and they know what is best for our health”. As if we do not have
the mental capacity to learn, know, and understand these things. Not to mention,
do we not have an obligation here to know what is being done to our bodies and
the bodies of our children through the teachings and medical treatment of these
physicians? What I would like to know is why are these people so readily
willing to take the advice of a non-professional on the subject of baby sleep
and suddenly not the doctor’s? I am not willing to risk damaging my baby physically
or emotionally just for a little sleep. You
can always sleep later, but you can only take care of your baby now. I hope
this has not sounded like I was “going off”, but I am so distressed by this
teaching that I am weary from holding it in.
Totally agree with you.
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