Are Jan Barger and I the only ones on Lactnet that got the message in this
episode? I did not see it as supportive of the Ferber method (or any method
that proposed letting the baby cry herself to sleep). It didn't matter that
Mabel had stopped crying, had finally given up and gone to sleep. Jamie
and Paul gave up their stance BEFORE they realized she had stopped. Jamie's
words said it all: they had HURT Mabel, now she "knows they won't always be
there for her". Her statement to Paul to "turn back the clock" was the
clincher. How many of us (who had babies in the 60s and 70s) didn't use a
similar method of letting the baby cry his/her self to sleep; and how many
of us would like to "turn back the clock". Maybe I'm personalizing too
much, but I doubt it. My misguided actions with my own children is probably
the driving force in my present guidance of new parents, and I doubt that
I am alone.
Mary A. Banaszewski RN, Lactation Specialist