Child Sleep Training Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Child Sleep Training - Essay Example And if the baby just goes along with the flow and does not cry as much, this baby is regarded as a good baby, as he is very compliant. Though parents absolutely love a baby that does not give them trouble and sleeps through the night, sleep training is detrimental to the emotional and physical development of an infant. When a baby is sleep trained, he is kept to a very regimented schedule with very few deviations. He is to sleep and eat at certain times of the day, as everything is governed by a clock. When a clock says a certain time, the baby has to do the task that is to be done at that time, and this includes sleeping, as everything goes hand in hand with the sleep training process. An excerpt from Fleiss' book titled, "Mistaken Approaches to Night Waking," describes the sleep training process in great detail. The article states that babies must be put to bed at the same time for naps and at night, and the parent is not to go in and comfort the baby if he should cry. The baby is to be conditioned to learn to self sooth. He will cry himself to sleep until he realizes that bedtime is bedtime and that the parents will not be coming back into the room. Despite how loud and frantic the baby's cries become, they are to be ignored. Eventually, the baby will stop crying and will give up and go to slee p. If the baby wakes in the night, its cries are to be handled the same way. Parents can make a brief visit to the baby's room to see that he is okay and comfort him verbally if they'd like, but there is to be no eye contact or cuddling. Then, they leave the baby's room, even if the baby is still crying. They can come back five minutes later and then leave again. They can repeat this process again at ten minutes, fifteen, and twenty: however, under no circumstances are they to pick up the baby. Eventually the baby will give up crying and fall asleep, as severe fatigue and exhaustion has overcome him (Fleiss, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P.). There is no doubt that this type of conditioning has detrimental psychological effects on the baby. For instance, let's say that he woke in the middle of the night due to having a bad dream. Despite needing his parents comfort, it is not given to him, as comforting and cuddling the child, despite the reason for needing it, would interfere with the child' s training. The article goes on to say that eventually, the baby becomes so trained that he is reluctant to call or cry out to his parents for help in the middle of the night, even if the help is badly needed. No matter how scared the child is, he will remain silent, forced to deal with his trauma all on his own because h has been taught that bothering his parents is a cardinal sin. He does not receive the reassurance that he so badly needs. While some children are resilient and can do fine when they grow up, sleep training has caused numerous adults to grow up feeling insecure. This is because they were never responded to when they were infants (Fleiss, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P.). In the first stage of human development, Eric Erickson states that the infant is learning how to distinguish trust versus mistrust. The infant develops trust when he realizes that his carers will supply all his needs and keep him safe. One article that discusses the stages of development in detail states that during the first stage of development, it is critical that a parent or carer meets a baby's every need and responds quickly. When the baby is responded to quickly and all of his needs