CIO moms please help

My daughter has been sleeping through the night and she used to fall asleep alone (until 5 mos) HOWEVER it is World war III getting her to fall asleep for a nap or for the night.

So.....I have been trying to let her cry it out but so far she has thrown up three nights in a row and after over an hour of crying I give in and rock her to sleep.

I have tried going in every few minutes to calm her down and I have tried going in right when she starts to show signs that she is so hysterical that she might throw up.

The problem is she has NEVER fallen asleep crying. She just crys and crys. Should I countinue the CIO method. I really do want her to learn to fall asleep alone... she is 8 months old.

Re: CIO moms please help

There are no shoulds. What do you want for you? If you don't mind rocking her to sleep, feel free to continue. There is nothing wrong with that if she is sleeping well through the night. If the thought of rocking her to sleep makes you want to jump out a window, then you can let her cry for as long as it takes.

Re: CIO moms please help

I remember a sleep expert talking about this technique.

1. Sit by her bed to calm the baby until they fall asleep. (3 days)

2. Move chair a little bit away from crib but stay until they fall asleep (3 days)

3. Move close to the door but stay inside the room until they fall asleep (3 days)

4. Sit just outside the room until they fall asleep (3 days)

5. Supposedly they should then be able to fall asleep without you being with them.

I'm pretty sure this was talked about by Jodi A. Mindell, Ph.D. author of "Sleeping Through the Night: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night's Sleep".

Good luck.

Re: CIO moms please help

I am just concerned that it is not healthy for an 8 month old to be rocked to sleep for an hour. Within this hour she falls asleep and wakes up about a dozen times (everytime I try to put her down) I feel like that kind of sleep can't be healthy, she doesn't know how to soothe herself.

I guess I am trying to see if any Moms have had the same problem and if they stuck with the CIO method.

Re: CIO moms please help

Re: CIO moms please help

My only real advice is if you make the commitment to cio, stick with it.

If you go in and pick her up, even after an hour, it will just make things worse because she will learn keep crying and you will come.

I went through the same thing and decided if I was going to let her cio I had to do it, giving in after awhile is just torturing her because she will never understand.

I swore she could never cry herself to sleep but she did, the first night is the worst. She made herself throw up too.

I do think it is possible though that with some babies CIO just won't work.