Diane W. wrote:

<< Or
 could it be that we'd rather not acknowledge what children themselves think
 of sleep training... >>
I wonder if other cultures where meeting a baby's night needs are more
accepted, still have depression to the extent that we do. If not then I would
venture that is it more cultural expectations, most of the time, ( some
people do so seem to need more sleep that others)/ I agree that the phrase
"controlled crying" is a euphemism to distract from the out-of-control
hysteria that this can put a baby through. I would not presume to say that
the end never justifies the means, I have seen some women absolutely close to
psychosis with their real or perceived lack of sleep, and the physical and
emotional toll this took on them. Some of them really seemed to need at least
9 hours of sleep over a period of days and then things smoothed out. The
woman I am thinking of had the husband take over all night care for a while,
then went on to get nursing going to her satisfaction.  I still don't think
getting sleep necessitates the baby screaming until he is out of energy and
then grieves his way into sleep. That is one of those strategies that comes
from the lack of recognition of what it actually does to the baby, and the
conflict again between mother's and baby's rights, I think.
Judy

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