There was quite an animated response earlier this week, when the journal Pediatrics published a study claiming that babies who are allowed to ‘cry it out’ – or settle themselves back to sleep – do not experience any more stress than those who are comforted by their parents.
The finding, published by scientists at Flinder University in Adelaide, once again raised what has proven to be a very divisive topic in the past – and judging by the conflicting research for and against the CIO method, it’s not hard to see why.
Here are some of the research findings and proposals put forward regarding the CIO method, in the past:
The argument in support:
The American Academy of Paediatrics previously approved the 'cry it out' method, and can refer to a 2012 study to support this view. In this five-year study of eight-month-olds, researchers split the children's parents into two groups – the control group, and the group provided with a 'check-and-console' sleep plan. After carrying out stress tests on the children at different stages of their lives following the experiment, the researchers observed that there were little to no differences between both groups – meaning the self-settling method had had no lasting negative impact on the children in the first group.
The AAP's view is supported by an Australian report from a year later, published in the journal Developmental Psychology. As part of the study, researchers observed 326 children over six months, with sleep problems, divided into two groups: the 'sleepers' (waking about one night per week), and the 'transitional sleepers' (with seven reported nights of awakenings). After their initial experiment, the researchers went back and observed the children five years later and discovered little to no difference in both groups' emotional health, behaviour, or sleep issues. They determined, subsequently, that applying the 'cry it out' method on babies over six months would have no lasting negative impact on the majority.
The argument against:
One of the most famous studies relating to the 'cry it out' method is that which was carried out in 2011, among infants aged between four and 10 months. The study, which was published in the journal Early Human Development, examined the impact on both babies and their mothers when the infants were left to 'cry it out' and settle themselves back to sleep. The researchers found that when the babies were left to settle themselves without their mothers' soothing, stress levels in both Mother and Child were high. An indication of the long-term impact was suggested through the finding that, while the babies showed no signs of distress after a matter of days, their stress levels were indeed still high – they had just learned to camouflage it.
Elsewhere, one leading expert who has been very vocal in his opposition to the 'cry it out' method is Dr Allan Schore, an academic at UCLA, who has spoken out against the method on numerous occasions. He claims that his studies have shown a link between leaving an infant to settle itself back to sleep, and brain and emotional development issues. For Dr Schore, it all comes down to the raised stressed levels – when a baby cries intensely, its brain is flooded with the stress hormone cortisol, which can cause damage to nerve cells in the brain. This, he believes, can have a negative impact on the baby's development, possibly even resulting in an emotionally 'unattached' child.
What are your thoughts on the new research?
