We all have our own opinions about letting our children cry it out. It also may be that some nights your child's cry sounds like a "scared" cry & other nights like just a "can't sleep" cry. As for myself - knowing what I know now about CAH, I would definitely not let my CAH child 'cry it out at night' for more than 15 minutes. Although I think it depends upon the individual child ... why the child is crying. If it is a "scared" or "lonely" cry, then I feel the child needs comforting of some sort CAH or non-CAH child. If it would be a "come on, mom/dad, I have learned crying makes you come in & I'm doing this because I'm learning to control you" - then the matter ought to be dealt with in some way so that the child doesn't learn how to control their parent's in life. BUT ALSO, KNOWING WHAT I KNOW NOW about CAH - I will not even let my 4 year-old surviving twin (her twin died in June 1999 to an adrenal crisis) cry for more than a few minutes in a fit. Nope, we get that matter solved & get her to stop throwing the fit. ALSO, THIS COULD BE VERY IMPORTANT - but a couple weeks ago we had this baby bunny die on us (it was abandoned & we took it in, the neighbors children found it) - a client was over at the time (she is a professional licensed counselor with a diabetic daughter). Amanda was really upset over the bunny dying ... sobbing & sobbing as she said "the bunny got sick and died" (ugh, figured recalling her twin getting sick and dying!). The counselor knows she has CAH & knows a ton about blood glucose matters ... and she said emphatically ... "Get some food in her immediately to maintain her blood glucose ... blood glucose levels begin going down and often real rapidly under emotional stresses." So, this could be a concern about a child "crying it out" - is that blood glucose level dropping (placing more stress on their body to make cortisol, glucose level going down even more, etc.). Truly, I firmly believe an adrenal crisis can happen from an emotional stress (and every single adrenal insufficient adult I listen to says emotional stresses alone can cause an adrenal crisis). Also, my oldest 2 children (non-CAH) are 13 & 15 now. I also never let them "cry it out" at night just because I figured something was wrong & we just needed to find out & fix it. Those girls have never had any hard-to-deal with sleeping problems, but they slept in the same room until they both agreed to have their own room, so they had each other for company. But, we had 3-4 times where for a couple months someone had sleeping problems (yes, I just let them come in with me then). NOW, 8-10 years later, those girls can tell me why they had problems sleeping at that time. One of the times and my daughter didn't tell me this until several years later - she was having nightmares - she would hear some scratching on the window (2nd floor) that sounded like someone putting a ladder up to the window - she now still says one night she truly thought she saw a ladder. We lived in a 'bad enough crime' area & did have really wierd things going on in our neighborhood at that time. Truly, I do not doubt that that could have happened (a 2 year-old was taken & killed that way, but my daughter didn't know that happened). I always locked all windows at night, hard to live that way, but we had to, and it was an elite neighborhood. In our case, each 'bad' sleeping period was due to 'being scared' about something, but they didn't always verbalize it that way. So no, I do not at all believe in letting any child cry it out for over 15 minutes & never have - and definitely the same for a CAH child. Also, I do know several parent's who did let their child cry it out, saying things like "that's silly you are scared, don't be a baby & cry" .. and they did have very serious sleeping problems that continued until their child was 10-12 years old (the child had "fears" of all kinds at night). Just my opinion. But before I would let a CAH child cry it out at night, I would definitely find out the truth about blood glucose levels falling in emotional stresses (that would increase cortisol needs) - and if true, no way would I allow the crying. Another thought, the MEDS CAN CAUSE STOMACH ACHES AND BAD ONES ... a small child can't say "my stomach hurts." Some children are prone to tummy aches at night. AND THEN ... being hungry, a hungry child can't sleep well, nor a hungry adult too well. Sorry so long.