Slate writer Emily Bazelon was worried that cry-it-out guru Dr. Richard Ferber's new edition of his book was gonna be all backtracky and soft about co-sleeping and stuff. Apparently, she needn't have worried. The book still has charts and timetables to follow with reassuring precision; he still steels your spine for listening to your kid cry "for what feels like hours (and a few times was), [?!]"; and he still provides for new parents just what he's always said they should provide their new kids: clear limits and self-controlling discipline.
To her credit, Bazelon doesn't get sanctimonious; she sticks largely to her own and her family's experience as she preaches [sleep technique zealots take note.] Me, I have no interest in weighing in. If a conscientious, moderately self-aware parent is in need of some extra firmness and limits and authority and whatnot, I'm going to let them make his own decisions.
The Science of Baby Sleep [slate]
The title says it all: buy Ferber's Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems : New, Revised, and Expanded Edition on Amazon [amazon.com]
