post #41 of 41
10/6/07 at 6:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ndakkitten View Post
I started going over to him and he stopped crying as soon as he saw I was getting up. My mom piped up, "See, he's manipulating you. He doesn't really need anything." I kept going, picked my son up, glared at her and said "He stopped because he knows I am going to fix whatever is wrong. He was fussing because that's how he communicates at this age. How else is he supposed to let me know?"
Exactly. Yet another thing I don't like about CIO for bedtime is that people seem to then extend it to waking hours too. Someone on my (mainstream) new mom's group (we all have 4-month-olds) was just saying the other day that she ignores her baby's fussing until he really started crying, if she knows "he doesn't need anything" (which to her means not hungry/wet/etc.) and was wanting to know if we thought she should ignore the outright crying too for a few minutes. So he doesn't get "spoiled."

I was like, what if what he "needs" is that he's bored or lonely? What else is he supposed to do about that if not fuss? At 4 months old, it's not like he can ask mom nicely "Please pick me up" or walk over to the toybox and find something to do!