Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

DS is a horrible, horrible sleeper. Ive posted about his sleep issues before. Nothing works with him. He goes down in the crib and will stay asleep for maybe an hour or two and then is up every 15 minutes. We would put him in the swing, which would work to keep him asleep for maybe a 2-3 hour stretch. Now the swing isn't working either, and he is getting up at least 10 times a night.

DH and I are completely burnt out, and are at a loss on what to do. He is swaddled, we sush, we do everything the books say to do.

Next week they will turn 5 months... is this too early to try CIO? We are desperate, but I don't want to do something he is developmentally or emotionally not ready for.

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

We did CIO at 5 1/2 months. After 3 months of ds getting up 5 times a night... we were exhausted. I almost fell asleep at the wheel one day and that's when i said enough. I couldn't go by what everyone else thought or how it's a no no to not do it until 6 months. I had to do what was best for my family and my son having a mother around... is what was best. Plus he was miserable since he wasn't sleeping, so CIO was the best thing for him most of all.

Best decision we ever made.

When we did it, we decided that getting up to feed him once a night was fine by us. But getting up 5 times a night...

So we set a time. If he wakes between 12-2am, we'll feed him a bottle. Any time before or after that, we let him CIO. It only took 2 nights.

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

I think "they" say 6 months is the magic number but I am sure one month does not make THAT much of a difference

do what you are comfortable with, I was a CIO faillure and rocked my dd to sleep until she was 12 months. But once she was asleep, she never woke. I might have done CIO if she was waking up all through the night

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

i did CIO at 5 months. it was the BEST thing i ever did.

my advice (that i got from another mommy ) is to set a time limit for how long you will let your DS cry, whatever you feel comfortable with. after reading other CIO stories on here, DH and i chose one hour.

now part of the problem we had was that DS needed his pacifier to fall asleep, and if it fell out while he was sleeping, he would wake up and start crying, and we would have to run in 4, 5, 6 times a night to put it back. so when we did CIO, we also took his pacifier away cold turkey - and completely. he didn't get it during the day at all.

we decided to give him a "lovie" as a substitute and that worked perfectly.

it is also a good idea to start a bedtime routine (it can be as simple or as complicated as you want) if you haven't already. for us it's just changing him, reading goodnight moon or another book, and then putting him down with his sleepsack, a lovie, putting his aquarium on and putting on his cool mist humidifier for the white noise.

if i recall correctly, the first night, DS cried for about 1/2 hour. the second night, 20 minutes. after that he barely cried at all.

of course now he does have his nights where he is overtired and cries HARD for a few minutes, but we don't give in, ever.

even now, he doesn't always fall asleep right away, but he does put himself to sleep (usually without crying) and sleeps 12 hours a night.

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

IMO not too early

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

I started modified CIO with Ronan around 5 mos(maybe 21 weeks) He was sleeping in his bouncy seat and i had to get him out of it. So the first night we put him in his crib. He cried for about 20 mins-we did go in and give him his binky, but did not pick him up.

Now with Declan he was also sleeping in his bouncy andn he was just getting too big for it, so Sunday I put him in his crib. He fussed, and again i went in a gave him his bink, soothed him, rubbed his belly stroked his head etc. but did not pick him up. Yesterday I realized he will fuss for 20 mins and then fall asleep. I made a rule that I will go in twice in that 20 mins to replace his bink but thats it. Its working out well. They will be 6 mos on the 24th

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

Re: Is 5 months too young to do CIO?

i started at exactly 5 months. after 8 horrible nights, he slept through the night and has ever since! the first night he cried for 3+ hours (i can't remember how long). it was hard to hear, but he wasn't choking or throwing up, just crying which i knew couldn't hurt him. eventually he feel asleep earlier and earlier each night--it was rough but SO worth it!