is it ok to sleep-train your baby (the Ferber method)? she cries so hard and so long that i feel she might be hurting her throat. also are there any psychological effects of not picking up the baby after she cries?
I'm happy that you have asked me to assist you with your child and hope that you can benefit from my many years of helping parents like you.
I can tell you from both personal (3 kids, 6 grandkids) and thousands of patients in my 33 years that the Ferber method not only does not hurt children but helps everyone in the home since they all get to sleep at night. I literally had to sit on my wife, who is a neonatal intensive care RN, to keep her from going in to pick up our first child 34 years ago but after only 2 nights he was sleeping all night and now he has 3 of his own who have been "Ferberized". In fact his youngest, a 2 year old little girl, had to have a little remedial work when she spent the night with us Saturday night and she did fine and still loved Nana and Pop the next morning!
This is best used beginning at around 6 months of age since all children should sleep ALL night by their first birthday. When they are old enough to climb out of bed (as our granddaughter did) you then have to resort to confinement (we put the portacrib back up!).
Please let me know if you have any questions about what I've said here and if not even after you (hopefully!) accept my answer you may return to this conversation later at NO additional charge from me.
I'm going to switch us to the Q&A mode as chat keeps timing me out waiting for you to return.
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