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Study Finds Parents Can Allow Babies to Cry at Night

Crying Baby
Dylans Mom, Flickr

Babies can be exhausting enough during the day, but when they cry throughout the night the so-called bundles of joy can leave their parents cranky and depressed.

However, a new study that was just published in Pediatrics could give wary moms a bit of a break. The research found that babies don’t suffer psychologically when parents let them cry themselves to sleep and also found the extra rest moms get when they ignore night crying improves mothers’ overall mental health.

To reach this conclusion, Australian researchers studied two groups of parents and their young children. The first group of parents were taught techniques which allowed them to quickly wean themselves from attending to their children when they cried at night and the second group just practiced their routine care.

The researchers found no difference between the children in the two groups in terms of mental and behavioral health, sleep quality, stress, and relationship with their parents. But what they did find is that moms who allowed their babies to cry at night were less likely to suffer depression or other emotional issues.

Now the trick is teaching yourself to sleep through your baby’s wails.


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