Is the Ferber Technique the Last Resort?

Most parents have strong views about the Ferber Technique.  Love it or hate it, the technique has been shown to be very effective-  but at what cost?

Many parents have found ways to adapt the Ferber technique to make it more fitting to their situation and some have also enjoyed great success with other, less drastic methods of helping their baby sleep through the night.

I was wondering what experience you have had with this technique?  Have you tried it?  Are you for or against it?  What other tips and techniques do you use to get the little one down?

Thanks

ive never heard of it?

For bedtime, my eldest has always had bath milk cuddle story bed, no bother and slept through from 6weeks old.

My baby howevers been difficult, just never seemed tired and couldnt settle herself. but now following my eldests routine shes settling at 7.30 and sleeping 14hrs! has done for a week now!

Not heard of ferber technique-would you tell us about it please?

My 2 have milk,a story and a cuddle then that's it-usually both sleep from 7.30 til between 7am and 8am,have done since 9wk old

Hi

It's great that you haven't had to resort to techniques such as this one.  It is only meant for babies who have real trouble learning to comfort themselves to sleep and cry for long periods every night.  That's why I consider it a last resort and wondered if others agree. 

The ferber technique was invented by Dr Richard Ferber in 1985.  Since then it has taken on many names such as, cry it out, self-soothing, sleep training, crying down and many more.  Some techniques vary slightly in the details but they all work along the same basic principal as Ferber first proposed.

The basic idea is to leave baby to cry for a small duration of time before going into check on him.  This length of time gradually increases every night until the baby learns to comfort himself back to sleep without screaming the house down!

Sometimes we've had to do that.Ours have always had a good routine and give no trouble at bedtime.A good routine that suits you,consistancy and a dollop of common sense,you can't go far wrong.

Kids will try it on from time to time,crying at bedtime is worth a try.Maybe it's called controlled crying,maybe a while back it was the Ferber technique,but I can't say it's ever taken long to get things back on track.I did look after a couple of babies who've never been able to settle themselves to sleep and it's worked for them too.

Can't say I'm big on following this technique or that,I just do what works for us

Thanks to everyone here, it's good to read about your experiences with this. This is really useful, not just on a personal level, but because I'm planing to write a guide to the Ferber Technique/ Controlled Crying to help new parents who are stressed out!  If you're interested, you can read more about this and other baby-sleep issues here:  lullaby-babies.co.uk/blog

 Thanks