From 'Crying Expands the Lungs' to 'You're Going to Spoil That Baby

How the Cry-It-Out Method Became Authoritative Knowledge

Bibliographic Data

ID2348113
AuthorsJennifer G Rosier (0000-0002-6703-5529, James Madison University, corresponding author), Tracy Cassels (EvolutionaryParenting.com, Milford, ON, Canada), Tracy G Cassels
Year2021
Volume42
Issue7
Pages1516-1535
Publication date2021-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Family Issues (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0192-513X • E-ISSN: 1552-5481
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0192513x20949891
OpenAlexW3048596424
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

The cry-it-out (CIO) method is a sleep training method that encourage parents to let their infants cry at night by themselves for increments of time in order to get them to eventually sleep through the night, on their own. The purpose of this analysis is to explore how the CIO method was constructed as authoritative knowledge to become a normative practice among modern parents. Drawing on various forms of media relevant to laying the groundwork for the promotion of the CIO method over the last 200 years, we examine how parents' methods for getting babies to sleep have changed. We then argue that the CIO method ascended as authoritative knowledge mostly via the use of fear-based messages, enabling parents to feel validated when they decide to ignore their infants' nighttime cries so that they can achieve better household sleep

Crying · Developmental psychology · Normative · Political science · Politics · Computer Science · Infant Health and Development · Law · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Neuroscience of respiration and sleep · Psychology · Social Psychology

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