S.M.
Wow, some of those responses!! I don't think that letting them cry it out is necessarily cruel... However, I don't agree with it at 5 months. Babies can't fully grasp the concept of object permanence until 6-9 months... He doesn't fully know you aren't coming back yet!! They are too young to just lay in the crib and cry it out, in my opinion. My son is 4 1/2 months old, and sometimes he sleeps through, sometimes he doesn't. When he wakes up from a nap, in the day time, I don't leave him to fall back asleep on his own, or to entertain himself. He is probably hungry... And you don't want to starve him right? I'm not trying to be mean (although, maybe that's what some other women thought, and they were a little mean at times) but if he is going through a grow, you don't want to avoid giving him what he needs to be healthy. I think you should wait a while longer to just let him cry it out. If he was sleeping through the night, and now all of a sudden he isn't, odds ARE that he's growing. I'm a first timer here, so maybe I'm wrong. But I think what baby wants is a bottle, and a cuddle. We can't keep that from them. Good luck though. (maybe you should try a walk before his bedtime feeding, the fresh air works wonders)