Video: Research: Leaving babies to cry harms their brains

Re the article what a load of bollicks - if we are talking about leaving them to cry for shorter periods (e.g not hours!). We left our children when a newborn to cry & learn to settle by themself and surprise surprise they are really well adjusted children who while loving and affectionate also know how to play independently. They have also slept through the night from birth and has never cried for longer than 15 minutes. When they have been fed, burped, changed and are ready for bed then leaving them to settle on their own is good for them. If you find that they are settling after 15-20mins then clearly something is wrong. Problem is a lot of new parents don't let them be for the first 15 mins so baby soon learns that if they scream they get mummy's attention 24/7. And this doesn't seem to change when they are toddlers & preschoolers. Too many parents are being held to ransom by their demanding children. Being firm doesn't have to mean being neglectful. Any good parent knows this.

I agree, that where a baby can be comforted to stop crying then that is what should happen. However, I have just had my fourth child and he crys a lot because he gets quite bad wind. I was up walking the floor with him, trying to get him to sleep for hours in the middle of the night, and then having to be up at 6am to my other children in the morning, so only getting 3 hrs sleep. I could not function on this amount of sleep and still be a good mother to my other children during the day, so I decided to let him "cry it out" in the best interests of everyone in our family.

After feeding, changing and burping him I put him back to bed and let him cry till he went to sleep. The first night was 50mins, second night 20mins and the third night 14 mins. Now he doesn't even cry at all - he knows it's time to go back to sleep.

In this case, letting baby cry worked for us, and I don't think people should be judged for how they decide to parent their children. I'm sure he won't have brain damage from crying! He was crying when I walked the floor with him anyway, so he may as well be crying in his cot!

Every family is different, and we are all doing our best. Each to their own I say, and why don't we just stop judging parents and what they choose to do!

My 5 month old daughter has never cried to sleep. I think when she is crying she is upset, therefore needs comforting. Not to be left to cry! If us adults were to cry and scream the way some babies are left to do, we would be tired, and have sore eyes and probably a headache. A baby would experience the same affect. My daughter has only ever woken once during the night from birth and now sometimes sleeps through the night. She will cry maybe twice a week but she has a happy enviroment and no need to cry. In my mind babies should be happy and we as parents need to do everyThing we can to ensure this. And now that studies have been done maybe more babies will get attention when they need it.