THE SPOILED BABY
Seek to find out if possible—and it usually is possible—just what he is crying for. It may be for the pacifier, for the light, or to be rocked, jolted, carried, taken up and rocked at night, or a host of other trifles; and if he is immediately hushed on getting his soul's desire—then we know he is "spoiled."
The unfortunate thing about it all is that the one who has indulged and spoiled the baby usually does not possess the requisite nerve, grit, and will power to carry out the necessary program for baby's cure. And the pity of it all is that overindulgence in babyhood so often means wrecked nerves and shattered happiness in later life. So, fond, indulgent parents, do your offspring the very great kindness to fight it out with them while they are young, even if it takes all summer, and thus spare them neurasthenia, hysteria, and a host of other evils in later life.
This sort of "spoiled baby crying" can be stopped only through stern discipline—simply let the baby "cry it out." The first lesson may require anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour and thirty minutes. The second lesson requires a much shorter time, and, in normal babies with a balanced nervous system, a third or fourth lesson is not usually required.