Episode 3 -- I decided to let the baby cry to sleep

Here’s the story we discuss this week:

“When my first boy was born, I was so overwhelmed and confused about everything. My boy Is a sensitive child and until today he needs a lot of reassurance and I did not understand why during the first months. I was so exhausted with breastfeeding and lack of sleep and just overall holding and hugging all the time. One night my husband and I decided to let the baby cry to sleep since so many parents and "well intentioned" advisors were insisting us to try it out. I was just seating there watching my boy on the monitor screaming like crazy. I was crying too. It really was too much for me so I went in the room and tried to grab his hand and put my hand in his chest to calm him down. He was so desperate for touch and holding. I was sad. I did not hold him until later but I stayed there with my hand in the crib. Until now that he is eight he has catastrophic thoughts about must things in his life: that he is going to be alone in difficult situations, that we are going to leave home without him, that we won't pick him up from school, etc. Sometimes I wonder if that night we made a terrible mistake that we cannot fix, no matter how many times we have been reassuring him since then when we realized that this parenting style was not ours. It breaks my heart. We keep reassuring him but I keep wondering if his fears are rooted in that early experience.”

Here's an article about sleep training.