Parenting: The Challenge

I recently read an article about a new book that came out discussing how sleep training can damage babies’ brains.  In her book, “The Essential First Year,” by Penelope Leach she says that letting your baby cry for prolonged periods of time can put them at risk to brain damage. She says that long, hard crying brings on stress and releases the “stress hormone” cortisol. Too much cortisol can cause damage to their brains. Apparently there are no real claims to this as Leach has not revealed any of her sources to back up the evidence to support her argument. I did sleep training with my son and though it was very hard. We never had him crying longer than 45 minutes and it was never so hysterical that I believed he was not under any harm. It worked well for us and he is now a great sleeper for the most part. I could see that leaving your baby to cry hysterically for long periods can cause a great deal of stress on your baby and I would not recommend it. Every child is different and parents need to figure out what they are willing to put up with and be comfortable with whatever approach they decide to take.