Is it okay to let my baby to "cry it out" alone?

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Is it okay to let my baby to "cry it out" alone?

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For many years now, it has been thought that one way in which we maximize the chances of a baby becoming independent and competent in life is to enforce solitary infant sleep and to require the baby to do what is called self sooth himself back to sleep. The discoverer of that pattern that is the the self soothers and those that need to be comforted for sleep was Tom Anders, Dr. Tom Anders. And he regrets that that has been adopted as seemingly a stage of development that is important for babies, that is to say to self soothe. Indeed, no baby on the planet needs to be sleep trained to get them to conform to the patterns of their family. And that has never been maintained by any responsible scientific body. That is a cultural ideology and it usually is a concept that emerged not so much to benefit babies because there is not evidence whatsoever that it helps infants developmentally. Indeed, it wastes energy that could be going into brain growth and just simply body sematic growth. But it is a convenience. All babies learn to sleep through the night. They cannot help but do that. The question is will they learn to sleep through the night on the timing of the parents, which is a very different issue.

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James McKenna, PhD

Anthropologist & Author

Professor James J. McKenna is recognized as the world’s leading authority on mother-infant co-sleeping, in relationship to breastfeeding and SIDS. In recognition of his work in 2009 he was admitted as a Fellow into the select body of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's most prestigious scientific society. That same year and in recognition of his extensive work with television, radio, and print media he received from the American Anthropological Association the “2008 Anthropology In The Media Award” one of the top three awards presented to anthropologists by the association in recognition of his distinguished work in educating the public to the importance of anthropological concepts. He received his undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970, his Master's Degree from San Diego State University in 1972, and his PhD in biological anthropology from the University of Oregon, Eugene, in 1975. Professor McKenna has published over 139 refereed scientific articles in diverse medical and anthropological journals on co-sleeping, breastfeeding, evolutionary medicine and SIDS, and both here and abroad he gives over 20 lectures especially to pediatric groups and parents. Here in the United States he remains one of the primary spokesperson to the media on issues pertaining to sleeping arrangements, nighttime breast-feeding and SIDS prevention. He has also published two monographs on SIDS and infant sleep, and co-edited two books:  Evolutionary Medicine and Evolutionary Medicine And Health: New Perspectives. His first trade book for parents was published in 2008 entitled: Sleeping With Your Baby: A Parents Guide To Co-Sleeping, and was recently translated and available in Spanish and Dutch.

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