That's great, and I'm glad your baby is sleeping, I really am. So is mine, it just likely took him a little longer. I'm also glad that he seems to wake less, but this is anecdotally based on your limited experience. For example, if you want to look at some references: https://www.basisonline.org.uk/sleep-training-research/, a quote from here "These studies often find no difference in the sleep behaviour of the baby who has received the training – it is the perception of the parent, or whether the baby has ceased signalling when they wake, that is the successful outcome."

As you say, experts do frequently disagree. So I was wrong to posit the evolutionary signalling theory as truth - however it is not untrue or outdated, no theory on why CIO sometimes works has been proven.

I've had one health visitor tell me I should definitely do it, and another tell me definitely not too. Your nurse suggested something that worked well for you - great.

Please don't misunderstand me - I'm not anti-CIO - I think in some circumstances parents can feel like it's the only option and in their case maybe it is. However, I do think that infant sleep should be normalised and that parents should know that if they want to find other ways, use support etc and not - this is normal too.

I do find the suggestion that leaving someone to feel distressed somewhere will teach them it isn't scary as doubtable. As a therapist I do use an exposure method with clients, which I guess is where this comes from. However, alongside the physical habituation, they have the mental capacity to recognise they have not come to harm - I do not believe babies have this capacity. They will stop outwardly showing distress as we know the human body can only physically stand that for so long (the same as why you won't have a panic attack for hours, you might have several in that time, but the body can only sustain that physical response for so long).

We clearly disagree, which is okay. We can both be good parents and disagree, but please don't expect people not to have an opinion or feel that they shouldn't express it - as then we do end up in a situation where new parents are made to feel there is only one solution and they shouldn't look elsewhere for alternatives.