Sleep Schools

As to my hopes of getting my boy to sleep through the night... I did some research into control crying and whether I should start trying that out or any other variations of that method (comfort crying etc) for that matter. I stumbled on an article called Commentary: sleep in German infants--the "cult" of independence by Stephan R. Valentin . Pediatrics. Jan 2005 v115 i1 p269(3). It basically says that the control crying or the advocacy of independence in babies or early childhood is a German and Northern Europe thing (and eventually the Western culture took it on as well) where parents fear that the child will grow up not having the skills to be independent to make it in life. In Asian countries like Japan, it's found that the focus is to get the child to be open to people and to be community oriented. So control crying is not even considered.

Well, I can now be at peace with myself when someone asks, "Have you not done control crying?". I don't need to. I don't need to teach my son how to leap before he can walk. All in good time. He will be independent when he's secure and that's what he needs right now-security. With that type of independence (the one that is the result of attachment formed at early childhood), he won't have a problem with interdependency that is an essential ingredient for healthy relationships.

I'm sure control crying is good for mothers who have no choice but to go back to work full-time and to make sure they have a good night sleep because they have to be alert at work the next day. But I can just shuffle my days to suit myself if I've had a bad night, so why bother about control crying or confort crying or whatever?

Sometimes too many advices are given but not knowing the background of those advices may sometimes be bad advice.