Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Query

Why are there so many books, articles, Internet sites devoted to how you should let your baby sleep? I'm not talking about the "never let a baby sleep on it's tummy" kind of directions. I'm talking about the let your baby cry it out, put your baby on a sleep schedule, never let your baby cry it out, wake and feed your baby every 2-4 hours, co-sleep, don't co-sleep kind of crap. What the heck IS all of this? Why does every need all these instructions? Can't we just do whatever is convenient? I doubt that using a reasonable method that works for us is going to seriously mentally damage our child. Something in me thinks that perhaps John Wayne Gacy's issues can not, in fact, be traced back to the fact that he slept in his parents room until he was 8 months old or that Son of Sam was allowed to cry it out and that caused him to become a serial killer. I mean, really, do we need a book for every little thing? Can't we just get a book for the hard stuff that you probably wouldn't just naturally figure out? Like how much tummy time a baby should have and when to start, or when exactly do they start solid foods? Those things seem so much less intuitive than figuring out a sleep method that works for you & your baby. Perhaps it is just me, maybe it will be harder than I think when I have my baby, but I think the sleeping thing (aside from being sleep deprived), should be relatively low on the totem pole of difficult baby-rearing techniques.

2 comments:

Dog Mom said...

Aside from probably not contributing to serial killer tendancies, the fact that all of these books seem to have opposing points of view says to me that there is no right or wrong answer. Not even the Tummy time thing. When we were kids, our parents were told to never lay us on our backs because if we puked we'd drown in it. Now there are telling parents never to lay baby on their stomach because they could move their head into the blankets and suffocate or puke and drown in it. All I know for certain is that babies who never get any tummy time have really flat heads.

Unknown said...

The reason is because EVERYONE HAS A DAMN OPINION and thinks that EVERYONE should know it! LOL

You SHOULD do what feels natural. If something is dangerous for the baby, like eating honey before a certain age or sleeping in a crib painted with lead paint, your friends, relatives and doctor will tell you (or your own damn common sense will alert you)! You know more than most of the population will give you credit for just because you are a brand new mom. Trust yourself. :)