Come on. I cannot believe that his argument is actually rearing its ugly head again. Marsha Weinraub has written an article advocating ignoring infants that cry at night. This recommendation flys in the face of common sense, empathy and kindness.
Let’s start with an imaginary scene. You are 90 years old in a nursing home. You have a cold. Your lungs and nose have filled up with fluid and you need to blow your nose or have someone aspirate you. Oh, sorry the world has listened to articles like the one by Ms. Weinraub and applied them not only to babies but to nursing home patients as well. You can wait until the morning to clear your nose. OK, not vivid enough for you? Now imagine that you are 90 years old and have well, you know, for lack of a better term tinkled and pooped in your pants. Again, the world has listened to Ms. Weinraub’s advice and you will now wait until morning to get changed and cleaned up. May I ask, how long would it take before your relatives were suing the nursing home for following Ms. Weinraub’s advice for babies, applied it to you and continued neglecting you?
Just because babies can’t sue us it doesn’t mean we have the right to ignore them either. Babies cry because they need something. They are either hungry or in discomfort or pain. If you ignore them how will you know they don’t need help? Is she really saying if a baby cries, in order to let us know that he or she has a gas bubble and can’t burp, we should ignore them? How can she in good conscience publish something that says ignoring a baby is a good idea? If they have soiled themselves it is an inhumane and illogical idea. How can she say ignore a baby when maybe the baby just needed their nose aspirated and by ignoring them you are going to make them gasp for breath until the morning? I am flabbergasted at the least and heartbroken at most for all of the infants who will suffer in their cribs night after night because of the conclusions of this study.
If the mothers in her study were depressed they needed to seek professional help not choose to just not bother to check why their children were crying. As parents we need to be at our best, always, because we are always responsible for the care of our children.
You can read these 2 articles about the recent study by Marsha Weintraub:
http://news.temple.edu/news/2012-12-13/let-crying-babes-lie-study-suppor...
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/49673
And this article that explains why letting babies cry is just wrong:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/21/leaving-baby-to-cry-brain-development-damage
And please feel free to post your comments here.
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