I'll admit I didn't read the book. But I used a variant that worked spectacularly well.

It took a(very, very long) three nights to get my kid to sleep on his own. Each time he awoke and cried for me, I waited about 2 minutes, then I went to his room, comforted him and put him back to bed. And then left.

Lather, rinse, repeat every 10 minutes all night.

By the third night, he'd figured out that whenever he called, I'd show up. And then didn't feel like he needed to!

I seem to remember Emotional Intelligence being strongly against ferberization. Not positive though. In any event I'd recommend taking a quick look through the relevant journal articles to make sure you aren't going to be stunting your children's emotional development.

To all those who commented negatively on the book (and especially the person who voted me down):

Have you actually read it? And have you tried the methods? I have read the book, and can vouch for its methods. Yes, the baby cries, and you have to let it cry. It's not easy. But after a while, the baby stops and goes to sleep. And after a few nights (it took mine ~3 nights, with less crying each night), they learn to fall asleep by themselves.

Believe me, when you have a baby who needs its parents by its side for hours before going to sleep, you might view the book differently.

"don't object to making children cry until you've tried it"

read "the no cry sleep solution" by Pantley, Sears

it works, and you don't need to make your baby cry alone every night.

Seconded.

The Ferber method involves leaving your child, alone, even if he's crying. And you do it for progressively longer periods of time no matter how unpleasant he finds it.