cry it out

present singular third person cries it out · participle present crying it out · participle past cried it out · past cried it out

1. Of a baby: to be left alone to cry until falling asleep (recommended in some approaches to parenting).

   Clearly, crying it out is too brutal, and no-cry sleep solutions are too slow; the only ideal way to deal with sleep problems is to avoid them in the first place.

   2010, Cathryn Tobin, The Lull-a-Baby Sleep Plan

   1 more example

   The same rules for maintaining sleep should be used for autistic children as for typical children—short interventions that are not repeated, and a period in which the child “cries it out.”

   2007, Bryna Siegel, Helping Children with Autism Learn