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Babies need to cry. There is only so many times you can comfort a child before he or she realizes that everytime they cry or whine, you will be jumping to get them and to calm them down. You need to teach your child at a very early age that it is okay for mommy or daddy to come sometimes when they cry, but other times they need to work it out themselves.

My daughter is only four months old and she is learning this already. Her pediatrician said it will be very good for her when she gets older and she will not be so codependent but more independent. I agree with him strongly and I think she will learn to work problems out on her own.

Right now, yes, we do pick her up most of the time, my fiancee moreso than myself. He feels that it is neglect if he does not pick her up at the drop of a dime, but I always tell him to let her cry it out for a bit and then if she continues to cry, then we can go in and comfort her. I tell him that if he rushes to her right away, she will get attached to that and expect it all the time and she does go to daycare a few days a week and it is not always possible for them to pick her up everytime she whimpers.

I love to comfort her more than anything, I love to see her smile and giggle when she knows she is safe in mommy or daddy's arms, but sometimes she crys just for the attention. We do give her attention, but we have learned NOT to pick her up. We go over and talk to her and make silly faces at her and usually just the sound of our voices calms her down quickly and we get that little girl laughing and giggling again in no time!

This also goes for when we put her to sleep. She gets a bottle at nine oclock and then we lay her down while she is still awake, this way she can learn to get herself to sleep. Sometimes she crys and sometimes she does not. Most of the time when she does cry for a prolong period of time, we do go in and pick her up and more than likely, it was a burp that was trapted and hurting her.

Overall, I do not think it hurts to let the baby vry themselves to sleep, it will prevent problems you could face later on in life and they will be more independent at night and not need you to sit there with them until the fall asleep. Some nights though I know I hate putting her down, but most nights we follow our routine!

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