The Science Behind “Cry It Out”
This piece was written for Studio Theatre as part of the Marketing Multimedia Apprenticeship.
Molly Smith Metzler’s Cry It Out features new mothers Jessie and Lina building a friendship over their shared experiences parenting their newborns, bonding despite their very different socioeconomic backgrounds and tackling a variety of parenting dilemmas.
While mothers of the past relied on advice passed down from female elders and their own intuition, in today’s advanced society, science has shaped more of our approach to parenting. In Cry It Out, both Jessie and Lina have an intuitive opposition to extinction-method (‘cry it out’) sleep training; but while Jessie reluctantly plans to sleep train according to her doctor’s suggestion, Lina is skeptical about the doctor’s advice. However, both women appear inclined to let each other go their own way, with their need for human connection outweighing their opinions about parenting.
Since the natural instincts of new parents are often to prevent their children from feeling any distress, the medical recommendation to avoid comforting a crying baby may seem appalling. Some parents and child advocates believe that allowing their infants to “cry it out” will cause permanent harm or interfere with a child’s attachment process. These ideas make sense, but are they backed by evidence? What does the science say?
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