In my very first post on this blog, I said about parents who use “cry it out” (CIO) sleep training methods, that we who oppose it “need to turn up the heat, tighten the screws” because “I want parents to feel that if they CIO, it’s going to be something they have to feel nervous and at least a bit guilty about.”
Now today’s Globe and Mail features an article which first of all is helpful (despite the lame headline calling the alternative to CIO “coddling”, ugh) because it notes that “new research on infant sleep appears to deal a blow to those in the cry-it-out camp” and quotes a Penn State researcher as saying “Quite frankly, not too many researchers advocate that any more”.
But what really caught my attention was the closing paragraphs of the piece:
Although the method worked for them and their daughter, now eight months old, Mr. Reynolds is reluctant to discuss it with all the parents he knows.
“With some friends, we don’t really bring it up, as there is a lot of criticism out there.”
Toronto mom Carolyn Weaver [says:] “It’s gotten so controversial…People who are opposed truly believe that you are torturing and tormenting your child.”
Yes! Just exactly what I was talking about. This is a great sign of progress. Most parents, I think, are reluctant to do something they have to hide like a dirty secret from the rest of the world. Another couple decades, and new parents will wonder how this could ever have even been a debate.
FYI, there’s a discussion going on here: http://www.phdinparenting.com/2010/08/17/emotional-availability-and-infant-sleep/
The Globe and Mail headline appears to misrepresent the actual content and message of the study.
Thanks, Shasta. My interest in the story though was more for the quotes from parents who practise CIO but feel under siege by increasingly negative public opinion.
Wonder if the negative CIO image is a regional thing, too, like breastfeeding norms.
Southern California seems to be a fun mix of so-called liberal parenting ideas and old-school conventions. People don’t seem to care one way or the other about CIO but God forbid you don’t breastfeed!
I can see that. The breastfeeding might be an upscale, sort of yuppie trend in a way; while at the same time busy yuppie parents might like the idea of scheduling and sleep training. Just a hunch.