Cry it Out (CIO) method and why it's not the best approach

The Cry it out method is advocated to help "teach" your baby to sleep through the night. This implies to let your baby in the crib crying until she falls asleep, checking on her every 5 minutes or so. Many parents claim that "it works" but before rationalizing this as a method that "teaches" your baby to sleep let's ask ourselves important questions about a baby's sleep.

Is it normal for a baby to sleep through the night? We all know that she needs constant feeding in order to grow and thrive,  digestion resumes in about 2 to 4 hours (depending if she is breastfeed or bottle feed) so it will be logical to assume that a baby wakes up during the night mainly because she is hungry - also after she is feed we can notice she is calmer and usually just goes back to sleep. So to answer this question I would say NO, it's normal for a baby to wake up several times for feeding and sleeping in the same room as your baby will help to attend this need before she becomes too active - when crying is established and it's more difficult to comfort her.

But my friend's baby sleeps through the night and wakes up happy! All babies are different, and if your friend didn't use the CIO method I would say that this baby was ready to sleep through the night. If CIO method was used I would say read the following article and choose for yourself the future you want for your child.
http://www.drbenkim.com/articles-attachment-parenting.html (Article with full references at the end)

And this one about cuddling http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/04.09/ChildrenNeedTou.html

This shows they will feel insecure, be less sociable, have difficulty in trusting others... Babies need to be feed during the night (yes, I know it's hard, I am a mother 15 month old boy that only started sleeping through the night since he was 10 months old), they need cuddling, affection and love. Over time they build their own independence, knowing that mum and dad will always be there if they need it.