On Becoming Baby Wise (Paperback)

by Gary Ezzo (Author), Dr. Robert Bucknam (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Theologian Gary Ezzo and pediatrician Dr. Robert Bucknam set off cries of alarm in their highly controversial 1995 publication On Becoming Baby Wise by arguing that some crying is natural and healthy for babies. In this updated edition, Ezzo and Bucknam present a comprehensive method to encourage a full night's sleep for the seven- to nine-week-old baby. It's easy to read, easy to follow, supported by research and by testimonials from parents and pediatricians, and includes suggestions for making the process fit into the reader's lifestyle. The authors believe a consistent sleep routine leads to happier, more responsible, and better-adjusted children. But a full night's sleep is just the short-term goal. The long-term goal is training parents to bring order and stability to their families through nurturing the marriage, providing a loving structure for one's children, and allowing flexibility in the process.

Twelve chapters cover feeding philosophies, monitoring baby's growth, establishing baby's routine, handling multiple births, and the ever-controversial chapter on when baby cries. The 52-week method involves four phases, beginning with "Stabilization" from birth to week 8. During weeks 9 through 15 ("Extended Night"), babies learn to sleep through the night. Ezzo and Bucknam attempt to teach the difference between a baby's many cries and advise parents on various responses to these cries. Critics dislike Ezzo's strong belief that "child-centered parenting" (feeding baby whenever it cries, sleeping with and "wearing" baby) fosters demanding, insecure toddlers. But for parents who are tired of being tired--or whose previous experience with child-centered parenting supports Ezzo's theory--it may be worth a read. --Liane Thomas

Product Description
Every parent who has welcomed a child into the world understands the longing to find a way to teach their baby to sleep contentedly and continually. This book is an exciting infant management plan that suc-cessfully trains children to sleep through the night. from a bounty hunter in this novel for 10-14 years olds.en.tudy today. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576734587
• ISBN-13: 978-1576734582
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (961 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,414 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 191 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Barely Babywise, February 20, 2001

By	Susan K. Carollo (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The first obvious questions any reader ought to ask before buying this book are: "Who is Gary Ezzo?" and "What relevant qualifications does he have to be giving advice about infant care?"

It seems very little. Gary Ezzo has a graduate degree in Christian Education from Talbot Theological Seminary. This hardly qualifies him as a trusted medical professional, much less a "theologian" (as the Editorial Review by Liane Thomas mistakenly refers to him).

On the positive side: I think many of the principles of this book are right on: Good parenting is not "accidental" but should be intentional. Parenting should be guided by reason and love -- not emotionalism. Secondly, raising great children requires parents to maintain a central focus on the quality of their marriage.

On the negative side: His approach is very misleading, alarmist and divisive. Many of his conclusions are developmentally inappropriate for young infants and are at odds with the advice from respected organizations such as the La Leche League and The American Academy of Pediatrics. But the medical establishment is not the only one with concerns. At least two of his former churches (Grace Community Church and Living Hope Fellowship) have rejected his curriculum and publicly rebuked him due to his "lack of truthfulness and refusal to be held accountable." Also, in January of this year (2001), Frank York, former Editorial Director at Growing Families International (Gary Ezzo's organization) wrote an open letter to Multnomah Publishers urging them to consider ending their relationship with Ezzo.

The area of main concern is his advice on scheduling feedings for newborns (with the goal of getting the newborn to "sleep through the night" by 8 weeks). Ironically, while this is the most attractive tag for his book, it is also the most weakly supported by relevant medical research.

To support his claims, Ezzo relies primarily on anecdotal evidence and results from his own research -- which taken by itself hardly constitutes a trusted body of medical data. Who else has conducted this research and come to the same conclusions? Has anyone ever did a longitudinal study comparing children raised under PDF with those who have not? For example, Ezzo makes bold claims about the long-term advantages of PDF over demand feeding (ie. children who have been raised on PDF have less likelihood of sleeping problems, are more independent, obedient and mature). Since Ezzo's material has been around for about 14 years, It seems there's been plenty of opportunity to study just how demand-fed children compared with PDF children over that time -- but Ezzo cites no such research. This is surprising, since this would help his case significantly.

Ezzo fails to demonstrate why "sleeping through the night by 8 weeks" is such an important goal to achieve -- except that it's convenient for the parents. Many newborns will naturally begin to sleep through the night somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks, anyway. But it is not clear how artificially accelerating this provides any value to the newborn. In fact, the AAP has found that Ezzo's program for newborns, in certain cases, has been associated with failure to thrive, poor weight gain, dehydration, breast milk supply failure, and involuntary early weaning. (See article in the April 1998 issue of the AAP News by Dr. Matthew Aney)

There is not enough room here to include all issues and concerns with this book. For specific concerns regarding Ezzo, you can write to the American Academy of Pediatrics, The La Leche League, Focus on the Family or the Christian Research Institute.

I would strongly suggest readers to exercise caution and discernment if you do buy this book. If anything, at least talk to a medical professional (specifically, a pediatrician or a lactation consultant) for their recommendations and insights. But in my opinion there are so many better books out there that are much less controversial, more substantiated by current medical research and more widely endorsed by parents, medical professionals and respected Christian organizations.

In particular, I would recommend any book by the American Academy of Pediatrics or the American Medical Association. From a Christian perspective, I would recommend "Focus on The Family Complete Book of Child and Baby Care" (not actually written by James Dobson, but by their Physicians Resource Council). Also, two great books on general child rearing and discipline are "Raising Great Kids" and "Boundaries for Kids" by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend.

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly researched, alarmist and divisive, February 27, 2001

By	Dan Carollo (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This 1998 edition of Babywise is Gary Ezzo's second attempt to get it right (The earlier edition was just published in 1995). This edition vastly improves on the scant research of the first edition. In the 1995 edition, Ezzo provides only 10 footnotes in the entire book. Of these, only two medical research articles are mentioned -- one from 1982 and another from 1986. Neither of these articles are relevant to Ezzo's case for "Parent-Directed Feeding" or getting the newborn to "sleep through the night by 8 weeks". The newer edition does much better -- with at least 30 footnotes that includes more current sources. One interesting change in the updated edition: Ezzo revises his expectations for getting newborns to "sleep through the night" from 5-8 weeks (1995 edition) to 7-9 weeks.

Although this edition is much improved, Ezzo persists with same pattern of fallacious reasoning and divisive tone that plagued his first edition. Ezzo also seems to be subconsciously aware that some of his views are not supported by conventional medical research. His quote on page 39 is very telling:

"The best evaluation of any parenting philosophy, including Babywise, is not found in the reasoning or the logic of the hypothesis. End results speak clearly. Let your eyes confirm what works and what doesn't"

Ezzo supporters seem to echo this same mentality --- dismissing concerns from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other credible sources with the defense: "It just works! We got our baby to sleep through the night by 5 weeks. Don't judge the book until you try it for yourself!" But two things ought to be said this: First, this kind of logic falls prey to what is known as the "pragmatic fallacy" -- that is, the notion that "if something works -- it must be right". However, when we say something "works", all that means is that a certain set of results were achieved from a certain set of expectations. But this says nothing about whether the expectations themselves are realistic, appropriate, medically sound or even safe! Secondly, while many parents in fact report success with the Ezzo method and have healthy and thriving babies, these anecdotal success stories alone do not merit adopting the PDF method as a standard practice -- especially when a wide body of medical research seems to caution otherwise. The Ezzo program may work well for many families whose pre-conditions are already compatible with scheduled feedings. But it is NOT clear it works for everyone -- as Ezzo thinks it should.

This book raises a great deal of red-flags, and new parents should be asking a lot of questions (especially from respected medical or family-advocate sources) before jumping head-first into this book. For starters, I would suggest writing or emailing the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, The La Leche League, The Christian Research Institute or Focus on the Family.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Confessions of a former EZZO parent!, December 27, 2000

By	E. A Johnson "lizzies_books" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would like to publicly apologize anyone I might have encouraged to use the Ezzo methods while I participated in some of their classes. In our Ezzo classes at church, we were told repeatedly that the Ezzo methods were God's Way, yes, with a captial G, and that only Ezzo parenting was the Right Way. We were also told that parents who DIDN'T use the Ezzo parenting methods, including attachment parents, would have spoiled, self-centered children. The Ezzos include fictional descriptions of children in their books and course materials, showing a child raised on THEIR methods as being a perfect little angel, and the child NOT raised on their methods as the one who pushes little kids off swings and having no consideration for others.

I have two daughters, a pre-teen and an elementary school child.. With the first I got into an Ezzo-type schedule, only nursed for a short time, pushed her into a crib and then into a toddler bed before she was ready. I tried to maintain this level of "deattachment" and schedule with my second child. How I wish I could have known then what I know now. My duaghters would have benefited from less emphasis on schedule and more empahsis on loving interaction.

We finally took Ezzo classes at church out of desperation and were TOLD they were completely practical, non-dangerous, and a life-saver. Instead of the techniques improving our relationship with our daughters (especially our oldest), our relationship suffered. It was after this happened that we started researching the Ezzos on the net, and we were shocked to find they had so little foundation for their teachings. We were shocked that we were so gullible to beleive that this was "biblical parenting" and God's Way to raise our children. Ezzo has primarily antedotial evidence ONLY that his methods work, coming from people who have bought into the belief that his is the "biblical" way to parent. He is not well-versed in what is normal child development. His wife was a nurse for a very brief period of time MANY years ago. Dr Buckman had only peen a practicing pediatrician for a year or two when the first Babywise book came out with HIS name on it as a "leading pediatrician."

Unlike some people who believe others blast this book out of hand, I have actually read a lot of the Ezzo's work, both the secular ____wise titles and their church materials. I know what I am talking about.

I heartily recommend that new or experienced parents of an infant do their research about child development and what is best for their childen before launching into the world of Ezzoism.

For the parent who would like to raise a well-behaved and thoughtful child, you don't need the Ezzo methods to achieve this. Babies will achieve a routine and eventually sleep through the night. They have been doing so since time began. You don't NEED Babywise to accomplish this.