What Age Is Too Young to Let Her Cry It Out?

Oh my... you're trying to train a seven week old to sleep on her own? Seriously? It's not even possible - babies simply do not have the mental and physical capacity to put themselves to sleep regularly at that age.

As for CIO -- the real method, not just letting a baby cry -- definitely not before 6 months old. Before that, a baby can not self soothe.

You can train a baby younger than 6 months to stop crying, but they don't stop because they've soothed themselves (which is what CIO is supposed to teach). They stop crying because they learn that there is no one there to meet their needs.

All research I read when my kids were born said not before 6 months. That gives baby enough time to develop a trusting relationship with you. She needs to learn that you are there to take care of her and meet her needs.

It is not suggested until around 6 months old or so. Sleep training too early can backfire.

Dr. Sears has some excellent expert advice for infants and sleep though:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp

Holy cow... 7 WEEKS old and you want to sleep train her? She's far too young. Don't even think about crying it out in any form until she's at least 6 months old, and if you do "cry it out" then you need to research it and do it as intended by Dr. Ferber where not once did he ever call it crying it out. He never ever suggests leaving a baby to cry to train them to sleep.

A baby so, so, so very young needs her mommy to reassure her and help her. She wakes frequently to feed because she's ONLY 7 weeks old and has a tiny tummy that digests food quickly, especially since it doesn't hold much food. She's still a newborn whose routine you need to work around and work with. Keep a journal of her eating and sleeping and pay attention to patterns that show up so that you can plan your day around them.

I think 6 mos would be about the right time to give it a whirl.

5 months, but 6 is better.

My husband and I started the "crying it out" when our son was 4 months old. He never slept in our bed. He slept in a bassinet next to our bed. It took 3 nights and his night time sleep has been really good ever since. I think having a child sleep in your bed makes it harder to transition them to their own crib. Also, it is dangerous to have a baby sleep in your bed.

Good Luck!

6 months is the youngest a child should be.

I think you should wait to see what your 7 week old's personality & sleeping habits are before you consider CIO. There's a chance you may not even need to CIO.

I can only tell you what I did my my kids. At 8 months old, when my first was waking up once a night, the doctor said that at that point she can sleep through the night without a feeding. So we started then, and she was very easy (only a couple of nights). My son, on the other hand, was more difficult. He went to four years old waking me up (now he is 6). Nonetheless, we probably started him at 10 months because he was a bigger baby and hungry more often.

No younger than six months. I would suggest reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

I highly recommend Elizabeth Pantley's "No Cry Sleep Solution". She recommends no sooner than 4 months old, but what you can do is try to put your baby to sleep alone in her bassinet or crib now. My second daughter has slept at night in her bassinet since she was 2 months.

good for you for doing the CIO thing. Giving your child self-coping skills is one of the greatest gifts you can provide, imo.

But like others said, I think it's too early yet. We did cio with both girls around 5-6mo. Worked beautifully. Usually the 3rd or 4th night its SO much easier.

GL!

We did a modified CIO with our daughter at 4-5 months, and it felt just about right. She wasn't falling asleep, but she was staying asleep. We worked to get her on a good routine before we did the CIO, so then it wasn't as big of a deal.
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is a fabulous book that helped us a lot.

Under 6 months, IMO. Certainly not 7 weeks.

Way too young. I don't believe in sleep training/cio but even the "experts" like Dr Ferber don't recommend for younger than 5-6 months.

I consulted with a sleep expert and I started my first at 4 months and 2nd at about 21/2 months. She said that u don't want to wait past 4 months because it will get harder and harder as they get older. I did CIO and my babies slept 12hrs/night at 4 months and r the HAPPIEST babies! BUT, the key to not having a lot of crying is knowing the signs that they r tired, having a daily routine / sleep schedule AND good eating. Eating and sleeping well go hand in hand. Davis is amazing and I highly recommend her '3 day sleep solution' -she is the BEST and I would just enjoy this time and do sleep training in a month or two. You can find her DVD online. Good luck!!

I was going to say six months also.

I think CIO for a few minutes is not a problem though. I see Moms just run, run, RUN to baby's side, which is a little ridiculous. When my daughter was a few weeks old, she would cry in her crib sometimes when she woke up and her paci had fallen out of her mouth but after a minute or two she would go back to sleep. Any longer than that, and I sure would have rescued her!

Hi M., I don't know who invented the CIO method, I'm 54 and my kids were born in the 80's and I know for me I rocked my baby;s to sleep everynight, I started putting rice cereal in with their formula the last bottle before bed time (My moms advice, she did it will all 5 of us) and they slept peacefully through the night, sleep comes naturally, I never slept trained my kids, i do baby;s sleep longer and more peacefully on their tummys than on there backs, baby's sleeping on their backs gives them a falling feeling, that's one reason they wake up and cry so much. I would never let a 7 week o0ld baby lay in a crib and cry. You sleeping with her started a bad habit. And by the way this is for all you parents who do this co-sleeping thing, around 500 babys die every year as a result from co-sleeping. J. C

6 months at a minimum.

Seven weeks? Yes, that's far too young. Most doctors will advise six months at the absolute youngest.

I have a 7 week old too! :) My other kids are twin girls who turn 4 this month. I never had to let my girls cry it out because I had them on a schedule during the day so by 12 weeks they were sleeping 10-12 hours a night. My little boy doesn't seem to like to follow a schedule so far but it's ok, like many moms said at 7 weeks they still need to be fed at night but I do try to have him on a feeding routine eating every 2.5-3 hrs or so during the day so he is sleeping from 10 pm to 4 pm on most nights and in a few weeks I'm sure he will also go longer like my girls did. Congrats to you and good luck!

i started at nine months but the next time i will start around five months. or four. seven weeks is too young i think. Good luck

Neurologically, babies are ready between 4-6 months old.

I agree, 7 weeks is too young. I'm inclined to say more like 6 months, too. Good luck!

That is way too young. My pedi didn't say to do that until my first was 6 months. It's not too young to start a night time routine though.

Being alone in nature would mean certain death to infants. They are programmed to be alarmed when they feel abandoned and letting them cry seems really cruel to me. I read next to my little son and hold him until he snoozes off. I only let him cry sometimes when he cried 24/7 for a whole month because I was so exhausted. Would it be so bad if you stayed with her while she fell asleep?