By the advice of my babies pediatrician it was suggested that we start the "cry it out" method. Our baby is 6 months old. Will not go to sleep unless she's in someone's arms or on my chest. She was a great independent clock work sleeper 2-4 months then everything went downhill and she needs us there constantly to sleep. Her doctor said I will end up with a 3 year old still in our bed if I don't try to get her to self soothe. 

Is it bad that I let her cry 3ish-5 minutes then go in and rub her back? I'll rub her back a good ten minutes, if she isn't settled then I'll leave the room those 3-5 minutes and repeat the back rub. She has done well and doesn't even keep crying for most of it. Since there's moms on here passionate about "cry it out" and "no crying it out" please just help me. I'm a first time mom and would love ideas for independent sleeping even if it's not cry it out. I also understand this room isn't for support so I'm asking for your honest point of views.. Thanks 

Edit: thank you all for the awesome feedback from both sides of the spectrum!  To me and what I'm comfortable with is soothing her until she's comfortable to drift to sleep, but if she wakes still unhappy I do the 3-5 minute wait time to let her fuss and repeat going back in there to soothe. I don't plan on ever increasing that crying time at this time until she's older 9mo+ but Last night I laid her down and she coo'd, then rolled over and fell asleep 😳 slept 9 hours straight and woke up an extremely happy baby. Yesterday she was also laid down for a nap and did some roley poley rolls and fell asleep on her own for 2 hours. 😳😮