Rating: 
Summary: torture for both parent and child
Review: Being a sleep deprived mother of a nine month old, I decided to make this book my last resort. However,as desparate as I am, I could not convince myself of Ferber's philosophy. The idea of "crying it out" did not agree with my instincts as a mother. Ferber also believes that if your child cries to the point of vomitting, it's still okay. I feel that this method not only desensitizes the parent of their child's cry, it also ruins the trust between infant and parent. Ferber makes it sound like it will be so easy...two or three night of "minimal crying." However, Ferber does not address the extremely high need child who will fight this process until they collapse from exhaustion. My son cried three straight hours the first night and only slept for twenty minute intervals throughout the night. He missed all naps because he cried longer than "the one hour rule." This continued for the next day and night. He woke on the third day with swollen red eyes and dark circles. He was so traumatized, that he would not let me leave the room or set him down for a week afterwards. Yes, I stopped the madness and turned to Dr. Sears for help. Dr. Sears may not have all the answers, but his philosophy coinsides with my maternal instincts. I am still sleep deprived, but my son's happiness is more important. Like one of the previous reviewers, I threw this book in the trash.
Rating: 
Summary: i never thought it would work!
Review: I'm a single mom with a 6 1/2 month old son when i finally broke down and decided to try this method...i was up every hour on the hour, all night long, every night..it was like clock work, i'd have to nurse him to get him back to sleep.....i had him sleeping in his car seat because it seemed he didn't like sleeping in his crib and plus when i'd put him down he'd wake up crying....i tried EVERYTHING...rocking, singing, sleeping on me, sleeping in my bed, giving him benadryl, tapes, nothing was working....finally i went to a behavioral specialist and he told me it was all habit now and i had to break the cycle, buy this book and just do it. well i thought like MANY of you, i can't do it , it's cruel, mean, how can i do this to my son, well its the BEST thing i've ever done...my son goes to bed at 830 and doesn't wake up till 7-8 in the morning, usually only waking once during the night, most nights i don't even have to go to him he puts himself back to sleep..its only been two weeks and its a LIFE SAVER. but what a difference, i feel normal again.....don't get me wrong, its HARD listening to them cry, the first couple of nights were so painful for me, but its working...its a must coming from someone who was very set against doing it...
Rating:
Summary: I'm alive again and not sleep deprived
Review: This book was awesome! I'm not sure why some people think that it's barbaric. That is not the case at all. It's a must read before you make any sort of judgement. I didn't need to read the whole book. I only read the section that pertained to our son. It took me all of one hour to read and has now created 10 hours of sleeping.Our 18 month old was still on a bottle and sleeping with mom and dad. I finally took away the bottle at 19 months. He wasn't too happy, as a matter of fact, he was MAD! He began sleeping with us so that it'd make it easier...mistake! He would wake every 1.5 hours screaming hysterically. We figured that it was due to the missing of the bottle but after 5 days thought, something else must be wrong. So, I bought the book and put him in his own crib and with no bottle. The first night he cried about 4 times and all under 5 minutes. Last night was the 4th night and he slept from 8:30pm until 7:15 this morning without a peep. This book isn't about simply crying it out. It's about letting your child know that you ARE there for them if they really need you. Needless to say, my little boy wakes up in a much better mood and so do we.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book _before_ there are problems.
Review: The best time to read this book is the first few weeks after your child is born (BEFORE there are any sleeping problems). It gives you a good understanding of the patterns and stages of an infant's sleep as well as what you need to do (and avoid doing) to encourage good sleeping habits from the start. When I read this book, my son was 6 weeks old. He would fight off sleep even when obviously tired, rarely napped during the day, woke every three hours each night to be fed, and had hour long cranky periods during the day when he cried and couldn't be consoled. After reading the book we made two changes: 1) We started moving him to his crib before he fell asleep, not after and 2) We changed from trying to maximize the amount of his nightly feedings to just feeding enough to get him to go back to sleep. Two weeks later he is sleeping from 8pm to 6am with a single nighttime feeding in between and is taking three 1 hours naps each day. His long cranky periods have disappeared. This was without resorting to the 'crying with periodic checks' method for which Ferber is (in)famous. That method is really meant to be used for older infants after a sleeping problem has already been introduced. It is not the entire scope of this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Lifesaver!
Review: My 7 month old's pediatrician recommended this book and it was wonderful! Ferber was very clear and thorough and the book was a quick and easy read. And the best part is that it worked! I thought for sure my baby would be one of the ones that takes 2 weeks for the method to work, but by the 3rd day, he was doing much better. Ferber does not come across as cruel, in fact, just the opposite. He is a very compassionate man. The cry-it-out mehtod is not the only method, either. The method you use depends on the sleep problem your child has. There are lots of different senarios in the book so you can pinpoint exactly why your child is having sleep problems and what to do about it. My baby's problem was that he didn't know how to put himself back to sleep because we used sleep aides to put him to sleep (i.e. rocking, nursing, pacifier,etc.). Now I just put him in his crib awake without a pacifier, he happily plays for about 5-10 minutes and goes to sleep. At night, if he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries, he stops after a few minutes and goes back to sleep. I feel like I am in heaven now and he is a perfectly happy and healthy baby, too. Make sure you read the book before making judgements and if you end up doing the cry-it-out method, be consistant and do what Ferber says, and it will work. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: cruel,selfish and self serving
Review: as adults we decided to have a child...it is not an easy taskand it is a never-ending 24 hour a day job. be a grown-up and exceptresponsibility for this human being you have brought into this world. this book is cruel and a "quick fix". my strong willed 9 month old cried 3 hours the first night and missed his naps for two days because he cried "the hour time limit." the second night he cried 2 hours and barely slept longer than 20 minute intervals. he woke with swollen red eyes with dark circles. this approach does not serve in the best interest of every child (or parent). i threw it away, brought my son into bed with us and proceeded to take responsibility for the life i created by providing love whenever my child needed it, no matter if it was at 2 in the afternoon or 2 in the morning. as for our sex life...if there's a will there's always a way.
Rating:
Summary: Eileen
Review: I highly recommend Dr. Ferber's book! It describes various sleeping disorders and offers practical solutions in an easy-to-read manner.
Rating:
Summary: Trusting others with your child
Review: We have a nine month old who is up three times a night. My husband and I are exhausted and trade off nights getting up so that one of us will at least be functional the next day. We called our pediatrician to get his advice on the situation. This is a man that we trust with our child's life and he is the father of three. He recommended getting Ferber's book and following the steps that he outlined. We are sleeping through the night and our baby has happy, alert parents who don't dread bedtime. There have been other reviews that we are hurting our children by doing this. I can tell you that parents hurt children when they are sleep deprived, short tempered, and angry. If my child has to cry for three days out of what will be a 75+ year life expectancy so that we all sleep better, then more power to the Ferber method....We're better parents now and our son is happier than ever because we ALL have energy at this very special time in his life ! Happy reading and sleeping!
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to be a Sears mom, but Ferber is what worked for us
Review: I want to reassure parents who feel Ferber is cruel. Ferberizing was our last choice. We tried nursing/rocking to sleep and co-sleeping first. I knew Ferber would work because so many parents had said so; but at what cost?, was my strong feeling. We finally turned to Ferber after the other two methods failed us. With nursing to sleep, our 7-month-old baby would wake up and wail as soon as we place him in the crib; we would repeat this cycle for hours each night, which exhausted everyone and deprived him of time he should have spent sleeping. With co-sleeping, he didn't cry but slept on my schedule (ie, way shorter hours) and showed fatigue and stress because of that. That was actually the worst in terms of the baby being tired during the day. And I slept badly because I was so aware of him next to me (important, but my sleep is not the first priority, his is). With Ferber's method, he cried 35 minutes the first night, 5 minutes the second, 15 the third, and less than one minute last night. Each day I scrutinize him for any signs of trauma, alienation, any problem, and he is as happy and engaged as ever, and clearly not tired the way he used to be. It is unbelievably hard to not respond to your baby's cries, that's for sure. But you have to make up your own mind on how to handle this universal problem. Sears parents sometimes go a little nuts: I know babies who still nurse all night at age 2 years, who have never tasted solid food, their moms are zombies and dad sleeps on the couch. But I know they are doing what they feel is best for their families. The bottom line is every parent is trying to do what's best, we each make different choices, and we should respect each others choices. But one more benefit of Ferber--it is so fantastic to have some quality time alone with my husband again each night. You need to keep investing in your spouse too; not just in baby. Good luck to all!
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't be happier
Review: Not one of the negative reviewers of this book ever tried the Ferber method! Yes, it was difficult to think about letting my 12 month old daughter cry herself to sleep. But we gave it a try after months of rocking her to sleep and getting up 3-5 times every night. I cannot believe how quickly it worked! She's going to sleep easily and happily at night and sleeping through the night. She's overall a lot less tense and more rested. We couldn't be happier and regret not doing it earlier.
|
