Tricia linked to a news story:


>Here's another example, saw
>  this little tidbit in the news last year, a study showing its okay 
>to let your baby cry it out, published in Pediatrics. 
>http://abcnews.go.com/Health/parents-sleepless-babies-cry/story?id=17197389


Ugh and ack and :( :( :(

This is an example of the very worst of media reporting of science.

1. the headline sensationalises and falsifies the story - the 
headline says "Parents Can Let Sleepless Babies Cry It Out: Study" 
when the research does not actually say that and when the methods 
being looked at don't even include 'cry it out' (known on parenting 
forums at least as 'CIO').  The study compares 3 things -  'cotrolled 
crying' which is a less brutal response than 'CIO', 'camping out' 
which we call 'gradual withdrawal' (where the parent sits with the 
kid as he goes to sleep, moving the chair further away each time, and 
no intervention. CIO was not used, as far as I can tell, though of 
course it might have been, in the no intervention group (I'm not 
looking at the study, just this media report)

2. They get experts to spout some rubbish ""While stressful for the 
infant, it almost certainly falls under the 'positive stress' 
heading," said Rahil D. Briggs, director of the Healthy Steps program 
at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. "Positive stress creates 
growth in the child, in the form of coping skills and frustration 
tolerance that serve to be critically important throughout the life 
span."  Yeah yeah.....And what about this for an  "er.....say WHAT?' 
moment: "It's kind of like having the ability to get a rental car at 
the airport, but why would you get one if a limo shows up?" said Dr. 
Ari Brown, an Austin, Texas-based pediatrician and author of "Baby 
411." "The parent is the limo."  How RIDICULOUS.

3. The study includes kids from age 6 mths to 6 years (!!!!) - the 
original paper may have been a perfectly ok study of this, but no one 
should extrapolate from such a wide range to suggest what parents 
might do with a baby.....what you do with a five year old who is 
having 'sleep problems' (undefined in this report) might be quite 
different from what you do with a baby

No wonder parents are confused :(

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 

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