Is It Ok to Let a Baby Cry to Sleep?

Not at 6 weeks, no.

Some people do "sleep train" their children at around 6 months, and this involves a fair bit of crying. I never did, or would, but plenty of people do. But I don't think it's ever done with an infant this young.

Honestly, I'd be concerned about a pediatrician recommending this for a baby who's practically a newborn. If it were me, I'd be looking for another doc.

I wouldn't. Especially at 6 weeks old.
What you describe sorta, almost, a little bit, sounds kinda maybe a little like the Ferber Method (but not exactly). But even that isn't recommended until closer to 6 MONTHS. Not 6 weeks.

At 6 weeks, I pretty much held my babies. Period. LOL

You need a new doctor, do not walk.............run!

Even Ferber, the master of CIO has revised his stance and pushed the age to at least 6 months of age.

Your new baby is different then your other children. do not compare them, she obviously has different needs then they did.

Horrible advice from your pediatrician! Find out why your baby is crying and fix it, not ignore it and let it finally pass out from sheer exaustion after releasing huge amounts of stress hormones that is damaging to their development. Especially at 6 weeks old.
Check her clothes to make sure nothing is binding our cutting, even a piece of hair wrapped around a finger or toe. Are the clothes too scratchy? Too cold? Too hot?
http://askdrsears.com/topics/parenting/sleep-problems Take a look at one of my favorite pages, Dr Sears. It has a lot of ideas of what to try to see if something is wrong and help your baby sleep. Could your baby be high needs? My first was and no matter how tired he was he would not give up and sleep. My second and third are not high needs. It gave me vindication that there was nothing about my parenting or anything else, it was just how he was born and is wired.
I wish you the best that you help your baby find peace.

6 weeks is too young to let cry to sleep. She wants you to hold her... or at best feed, burp, and swaddle.
Crying it out doesnt start until they are at least 6 mos old... and even then it's not easy to do.
She's your BABY... babies cry and need comfort... they are insecure.

No, not at this age... when she is about 6 to 8 months or so.. then the cio method and "sleep trainers" is usually more acceptable.

Dr. Sears is an expert in this area and he has some excellent sleep advice for babies here:

http://askdrsears.com/topics/parenting/sleep-problems

Your pedi frightens me to give that advice. Some babies cry due to acid reflux, gas and such. Others cry out of boredom, or just needing cuddles. She could be wet, hungry, uncomfortable, cold, overheated... A few minutes of crying is okay, we all can't respond immediately, but more than 5-10 minutes shouldn't happen at this age.

I have never heard of a pediatrician that says to let a baby cry to sleep before 6 months old. I would switch pediatricians honestly.

Google "the happiest baby on the block" and check out some of those techniques to see if they help. You may also be able to find the DVD at your library. Some babies need extra comfort, especially during the first 3 months after being born because their systems are still adjusting to being outside the womb.

6 weeks is too young. Your pediatrician sounds like a quack. Rock your baby, sing to your baby, feed your baby, cuddle your baby...ignore the doctor.
My daughter's pediatrician was giving me a hard time for waking up to feed her in the middle of the night when she was 6 months old and for rocking her to sleep at night. That was my cuddle time with her!! Guess what? She is 19 months and she has been sleeping through the night at 9 months. AND she just "told" us a couple of weeks ago that she just needs her lovey and her binky and doesn't want us to rock her or sing to her. She is sleeping just fine.
We DID have to do a go in, pat her back, let her cry, repeat for 1 week when she was about 9 months old. It was really hard. But we didn't just leave her in there to cry. And my HUSBAND had to do it because if I went in then she just wanted to nurse.
Anyhoo, my point is that 6 weeks is too young. your daughter is too young. L.

Just because they are doctors doesn't mean they have a maternal bone in their body!! Our pediatrician in town had two kids a boy and then a girl. She got rid of her girl because she didn't want a girl!!!! Total truth! Listen to your maternal instinct on this! Listen to what your baby is telling you. At this age its probably a tummy issue or something. Cuddle your baby and rock her to sleep. My second one who is 5mos now sometimes just wants me to cuddle with her. So I lay down besides her wait til she falls asleep and switch her to her bed. Also have you considered colic? My niece was colic and worst time was nighttime..? Just a thought..

6 weeks old is WAY WAY TOO Young its more like 6-8 months before starting the cry it out. just cuddle her and maybe top or off with warm forumula and burp her and lay her down drousy

Well I am no doctor but all my baby books and books I have on the cry it out method say 6 weeks is way, WAY too early to let her cry herself to sleep. She is too young for this. She still needs to eat through out the night and needs to be soothed and comforted. Whether that's by you, a bottle, the swing, bouncy chair etc. I am all for the CIO method but only when they are older and for 1 don't need to eat at night, and 2 are old enough to understand "bedtime" and that they can fall asleep on their own. Sometimes babies this young hate to be put down and wake up as soon as you do so. This can be hard but it is just a phase, she will get better as she gets older. Don't let her cry it out right now.

I have no problem with letting a baby cry themselves to sleep, assuming you know they aren't hungry or wet, and that you check on them so they know you're still there.

However, 6 weeks is much too young. Everything I have always heard is a minimum of 4 months old AND 14 pounds. Some docs recommend 5 months and 15 pounds. Younger than that and they just aren't developmentally ready. Smaller than that and they may truly be hungry and need milk.

Does your daughter cry a lot, even when she's not tired? Could it be possible that there is something else going on, like reflux?

I'm sorry you're having a rough time and I hope it gets better soon. Just do all that you can to soothe her, but I wouldn't let her cry to sleep now (maybe for a few minutes if she's just fussing and not full out screaming, but otherwise, no).

Good advice here, I will not repeat, but you need a new doctor. With advice like that, I wouldn't trust ANY other "guidance" she gives. Sounds like baby has colic. Try white noise. My son had the same issue. Find another doctor and address this.

Nope. Too young. I really miss those precious times with my girls, who are all grown up now. Hold her and love her and enjoy it. They grow up so fast.

Well, I'm not a Dr...

I think 6 weeks old is FAR too early for this. If you look around online, it seems that is a general professional consensus. She has been on this earth for 6 WEEKS, if she is crying, she needs something. Something doesn't feel good in her body, she needs food, she needs physical contact (holding,) she needs something. I'm curious, does she also spit up a lot, or seem to have digestion issues? That can many times correlate with crying a lot, especially when the child is laying down. It might be time to see a pediatric doctor who specializes in reflux, if that's the case.

Wait, do you have the Dr. that told you to put rice cereal in the bottle? I think you need a new doctor...he doesn't sound like the best. I would not trust ANY doctor that told me to do that to a 6 week old.

I will give you a tip, though. Try probiotics. It was a lifesaver, for my sister's colicky baby, who had reflux. Go into a natural food store (or vitamin store), and look in the section where they keep the refrigerated vitamins. They will be in powder form, so you can put them in the bottle. They will specifically say they are for babies. They will ONLY help your baby, in one way or another. My son has had them every day since birth. They are completely safe. They help regulate the gut naturally.

Six months is a good time to try this, but not six weeks. At six weeks you might want to wait a few minutes just to make sure she is really crying and not just fussing. I know with my first I was always in too big a hurry to pick him up the moment he fussed that I never let him fall back to sleep. With my second I got rid of the baby monitor, so if he was just fussing I didn't hear, and that way I was only picking him up when he actually cried.

I agree with the others. The cry it out method can work but NOT at 6 weeks old. She is FAR too young- at this stage she needs to be attended to. That's all part of the bonding thing and the child learning she can depend on you.
I would be a bit concerned about a ped recommending something like that at this age. Reminds me of the ped we had that told us that to stop our daughter from putting her fingers in her mouth we should tell her that if she put her fingers in her mouth she was going to have to go stay in the hospital without Mommy or Daddy and would have to get lots of shots. Our daughter was 3 years old. Same visit she fake gave her a shot 2 times before giving it to her. (Waved the needle around, said okay here it comes, put the needle near her arm, made a noise like she was doing it, laughed and started waving the needle around again) Scared her even more. Not cool. We switched doctors.

Hi Mama
Never agreed with or tried CIO method.

B. k

I did CIO it out with both of my children but not until they were close to 1, (which I waited too long) but I do not think 6 weeks is ok to let a baby cry, without soothing her. Some babies need to cry a little to relax themselves, but what we do at my center is pat their little behind, or rub their back, but never just leave them there to cry. After feeding, changing, and there is no gas, and they are still crying then we will lay them down and do as I said above. I don't think it is ok to let a baby cry that young, they obviously need something, or something is bothering them. It could be reflux, gas, or try swaddling, but I wouldn't just let them cry that young. If you are using formula maybe she needs a formula change, it could be it's not agreeing with her. Good luck!!

6 weeks is pretty young for 10 minute stretches. My last has been a horrible sleeper. I never had the same problems w/ my older two when it came to sleeping.
But with him, we tried it all. I recommend at this age not letting her cry that long right off the bat. Try getting her into a pattern when it comes to nap and bed times. She may need a fairly strict schedule. WITH IN REASON. I am NOT saying don't feed her if its "off schedule" but stick to ball park times to feed, rock, burp etc before naps. And try to keep it the same every day. When she seems tired use some cues verbal "time for bed" or something like that, dim lights, play soft music etc. Lay her down if she starts crying wait 1-2 minuted, pick her up comfort her, lay her back down. Extend it every time by a minute or so before you go back and pick her up.
Its really hard for babies this young to soothe themselves.Keep working at it, she'll get it. Don't let her or you get upset and frusturated

I don't and will not let my babies cry to sleep this young she is 6 weeks old not 6 months old she needs you to soothe her to sleep it is precious time with baby pick her up feed her,change her burp her swaddle her rock her sing to her do what you gotta do to make baby happy it is all about her right now.Now by the time 6 months rolls around i'll let baby cry for a bit longer than before if she cried for 2 mins till I can get to her as a newbie i'll strech it to 5.Yes I have 3 others to look after but they all understand that mam has baby too and treated all of their needs as needed

Yes, it IS absolutely OK to do this, but NOT for ten minute periods. A baby can cry, it won't hurt the baby. My second daughter wouldn't go to sleep by herself at first, and I absolutely was NOT willing to get her into the bad habit of sleeping on me or with me, or being rocked to sleep. She was about six weeks old when I decided just to let her fuss for a few minutes. She only needed about five minutes or less, and she'd be asleep.

If your baby is changed and fed, yes, it's okay to do this. I did it with mine, and they turned out fine. I assume that you are talking about night time, is that right? The other thing you can do is sit in the floor and put your hand through the crib slats and pat her leg so that she knows you are there. That helps keep you from rocking her to sleep, or holding her til she goes out. It is the beginning of sleep training - helping her to put herself to sleep instead of you doing it for her.

I had to go to work when my babies were 6 weeks and 8 weeks. I couldn't get up with them all night long or I would have lost my job. My doctor told me that as long as they were of a certain weight (12 pounds) that I could let go of night feedings. I took his advice exactly how he said (and your doctor's advice is the same) and it worked just fine. It took 4 nights and they have slept like champions ever since.

All babies are different, and yours is a crier. It's just a different temperment.

Dawn