Understanding the "Silent Technique" for Excessive Infant Crying
I believe you may be asking about systematic ignoring (also called "extinction" or "cry it out"), where parents allow infants to cry without immediate intervention, though this term is somewhat misleading as it's not truly "silent" but rather involves planned non-response.
What Systematic Ignoring Involves
Systematic ignoring consists of allowing the child to "cry it out" without parental attention except to ensure the physical well-being of the child 1. This approach has been studied specifically for nocturnal awakening and crying episodes in infants and young children.
Evidence for Effectiveness
Research demonstrates that systematic ignoring reduces spontaneous awakening and crying episodes more effectively than control conditions during 8 weeks of treatment, with sustained benefits at 3 and 6-week follow-up 1.
During the first week of treatment, systematic ignoring was found to be more effective than scheduled awakenings (where parents preemptively wake and console the child before typical crying episodes) 1.
Critical Safety Considerations
However, it is essential to understand that staff and parents should know it is normal for babies to cry during examinations, and they should remain tolerant while ensuring proper care—the success depends mainly on absence of movements during procedures, not on stopping the crying 2. This highlights an important distinction: crying itself is not harmful.
When Crying Becomes Dangerous
Programs have been developed specifically to help parents cope with infant crying because excessive crying is a known trigger for abusive head trauma 2.
Educational interventions teaching parents about normal crying patterns and alternatives to use when infants cry have shown a 47% decrease in abusive head injuries over 5 years 2.
The Period of PURPLE Crying program uses video and written materials to educate parents about normal crying and improve their behavioral responses 2.
Evidence-Based Soothing Alternatives
Before considering systematic ignoring, parents should understand effective immediate soothing techniques:
Five-minute carrying promotes sleep for crying infants even during daytime when infants are usually awake, but this effect only works for crying infants, not non-crying ones 3.
Swaddling, sound, and movement promptly induce a calming response in infants, with decreased fussiness and heart rate during both parental and mechanical soothing compared to lying supine 4.
Younger infants (under 6 months) respond with a stronger calming response to parental soothing than to mechanical soothing 4.
Important Caveats
Parents should never try to force babies to stop crying through physical means or become frustrated to the point of shaking or harming the infant 2. The distinction between:
- Acceptable approach: Allowing crying while ensuring safety and monitoring the infant's well-being 1
- Dangerous approach: Using physical force or violence in response to crying 2
Context Matters
Systematic ignoring has been studied primarily for nocturnal awakening and sleep training in otherwise healthy infants 1.
For daytime crying or distress, immediate soothing through carrying, swaddling, sound, and movement is more appropriate 4, 3.
Approximately 20-30% of infants cry excessively for no apparent reason, causing significant parental stress 3.
Practical Implementation
If parents choose systematic ignoring for sleep training:
- It should only be used after ensuring the infant's physical well-being and safety 1.
- Parents must be emotionally prepared and supported, as this can be extremely stressful 2.
- Alternative approaches like scheduled awakenings (waking the infant 15-60 minutes before typical crying episodes) show similar long-term effectiveness with potentially less parental distress 1.
The key message: crying itself is not harmful to infants, but parental response to crying can be—either through harmful physical reactions or through complete emotional withdrawal that compromises the parent-infant relationship 2, 5.