On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep
AuthorsGary Ezzo
Robert Bucknam
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectEarly parenting
Media typePrint
Pages160 (1993)
279 (2012)

On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep is a Christianity-based infant management book written by Gary Ezzo and pediatrician Robert Bucknam in 1993.[1]Baby Wise presents an infant care program which the authors say will cause babies to sleep through the night beginning between seven and nine weeks of age. It emphasizes parental control of the infant's sleep, play and feeding schedule rather than allowing the baby to decide when to eat, play and sleep.

On Becoming Baby Wise One by Anne Marie Ezzo.Distinguished pediatrician Dr Robert Bucknam, M. And co-author Gary Ezzo are two of the world's leading experts on infant management concepts. Schedule For NewbornBaby Wise ScheduleNewborn Baby TipsNew Born Feeding ScheduleBaby Sleep. On Becoming Babywise - Unabridged Audiobook [Download] (503) by Gary Ezzo. On Becoming Babywise - Unabridged Audiobook [Download] By: Gary Ezzo. Buy Download $14.98. 4 out of 5 stars. Add To Cart Add To Cart. On Becoming Babywise - Unabridged Audiobook [Download] By: Gary Ezzo. Treasure Publishing / 2009 / Audio Download.

The Baby Wise program outlined in the book came under criticism from pediatricians and parents who were concerned that an infant reared using the book's advice will be at higher risk of failure to thrive, malnutrition, and emotional disorders.[2][3][4][5] The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warned against the book, stating that its advice could result in infant development problems such as dehydration, poor weight gain, slow growth, delayed development and failure to thrive, as well as lack of milk supply in the new mother and involuntary weaning of the infant. The Babywise series of books was observed to be in direct contradiction to the AAP's own policy statement, 'Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk,' which recommends 8–12 nursing sessions every 24 hours for newborns, feeding until the baby is sated.[5]

  • 1History

History

Religious

In the late 1960s, Gary Ezzo studied at Mohawk Valley Community College in New York state, but did not earn a degree.[6] In 1983, he enrolled at Talbot School of Theology in a program giving a Master of Arts degree in Christian ministry to people who did not hold a lower degree, but had already been active in ministry for two years.[7][8] In 1984, Ezzo and his wife Anne Marie Ezzo began teaching parenting classes at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California; a 10,000-member evangelical megachurch.[6] Anne Marie Ezzo was raising two children at the time and had for a short while trained as a nurse in a hospital pediatric unit.[9]

In 1984, Anne Marie Ezzo wrote a four-page paper 'Parent Controlled Feeding'. In 1985,Gary Ezzo received his Master of Arts degree emphasizing Christian Education from Talbot;.[10] Subsequently, the Ezzos continued to investigate early parenting and with five other couples formed Growing Families International (GFI), organizing as a non-profit in 1987 and becoming a for-profit in 1989. Based on the earlier paper the Ezzos wrote a Christian parenting guide for GFI: Preparation for Parenting: Bringing God's Order to Your Baby's Day and Restful Sleep to Your Baby's Night. The book was published in 1990. Grace Community Church was initially supportive of the Ezzos and their parenting ministry, but in 1997 after four years of discussion, the church reversed its position, criticizing them for creating a divisive atmosphere between parents following the book's practices and those who favored demand feeding for infants, sleeping with their infants, and sling-type carriers for babies. The church elders banned the books for 'stifling the mother's desire to comfort her children', for ascribing Biblical qualities to the concept of scheduled feeding, and for failing to address the church's concerns regarding theological issues .[11][12] The Ezzos left the church along with a few sympathetic families.

The infant-rearing investigation the Ezzos conducted was performed by GFI and not published or subject to peer review.[9] In training the infant to follow the recommended eating and sleeping schedule, their method expected that at certain times the infant would be left alone to cry when hungry or wakeful. The book justified the act of leaving a baby to cry alone by comparing that choice to the crucifixion of Jesus: 'Praise God that the Father did not intervene when His Son cried out on the cross.'[3] The Ezzos wrote that leaving the infant 'crying for 15, 20, even 30 minutes is not going to hurt your baby physically or emotionally.'[9] To counter the book's conclusions, Laura Bassi Zaff, PhD, an expert in childhood cognitive development, wrote that careful research has shown that leaving a baby crying may result in emotional harm, perhaps manifesting as 'attachment disorder, or anxiety disorder, or crippling problems with self esteem and interpersonal relationships'.[9]

Secular

Later editions of the book separated 'Babywise' into two words.

To create a secular version of the book, Gary Ezzo partnered with Robert Bucknam, a pediatrician from Louisville, Colorado, to write On Becoming Babywise: More Than a Survival Guide which appeared in 1993. A pediatrician for less than a year, Bucknam first heard of the Ezzos while taking a class for new parents. He has been described in Babywise materials as a faculty member of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, but Christianity Today wrote that 'three sources' at the medical school confirmed Bucknam had never been hired as faculty.[13]

Ezzo and Bucknam wrote a new edition published in 1995: On Becoming Baby Wise: Learn How Over 100,000 Babies Were Trained to Sleep Through the Night the Natural Way—this edition used the single word 'Babywise', later split into two words: 'Baby Wise'. Further editions of the book were published in 1998, 2001 and 2007. Changes in the later editions include removing the assertion that the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is not heightened by placing the baby to sleep on its belly, and removing the notion that feeding the baby whenever it appears hungry will give the mother 'an abnormal hormonal condition' which could lead to postpartum depression.[3]

Summary

Baby Wise describes an infant management plan built around feed/play/sleep cycles. The authors term their approach to feeding 'parent-directed feeding', or PDF:[9] 'Our conviction is that a baby should be fed when he or she signals readiness. With PDF, a mother feeds her baby when the baby is hungry, but she takes advantage of the first few weeks of life to guide the baby’s hunger patterns by a basic routine. This is cooperative parenting.'[14]

The book includes instructions for the care of babies from birth through six months. It primarily covers infant sleep and feeding practices, and emphasizes parental control of infant training. The infant is presented not as the defining center of the household but as a 'welcome addition', subject to larger household order.[14] The material presented in Baby Wise is a re-articulation of various practical methods which are reminiscent of parenting styles advocated by some Evangelical [14] as well as secular (such as Tracy Hogg in Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, who deems the routine E.A.S.Y. = Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) child-rearing advisors.[citation needed]

Ezzo and Bucknam describe their stance as a middle ground between feeding the baby on demand (when the baby indicates hunger) and feeding based on a strict clock schedule.[15] In contrast to advice given by popular pediatrician William 'Dr. Bill' Sears, the Baby Wise authors do not condone co-sleeping;[1] Ezzo wrote, 'The most serious sleep problems we've encountered are associated with parents who sleep with their babies.'[16]

The sleep advice given by Baby Wise is similar to Richard Ferber's advice given in his popular book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems.[14] The Ferber method of getting a baby to sleep similarly includes putting the baby to bed when awake[14] The baby is expected to learn how to fall asleep alone. Both methods warn the parents against using aids such as a pacifier to ease the baby into sleep, and both methods describe putting the infant to sleep without rocking, cuddling or nursing applied for the sole purpose of putting child to sleep. 'Crying it out' is expected from the infant during the early training periods, until about eight weeks of age.[14]

A foundation of the book is that 'great marriages produce great parents.'[17] Ezzo and Bucknam recommend that the new parents continue to schedule dates with each other and have friends over.[17] The book was intended for mothers wearied by the demands of attachment parenting, in search of more freedom and time for themselves including the pursuit of careers and other interests.[14] The book promises that following its plan 'will not leave mom ragged at the end of the day nor in bondage to her child. Nor will Dad be excluded from his duties.'[17]

Reception

Baby Wise has been criticized by mainstream health care professionals for giving dangerously wrong information about infant growth, feeding, sleep and development. Critics include, for example, T. Berry Brazelton, developer of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale;[2] and Arnold Tanis, of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.[4] The Baby Wise program has been associated with infantile failure to thrive, dehydration, malnutrition, problems with milk supply in breastfeeding mothers, and involuntary early weaning.[5][18][19]

In 1998, Bill Sears, evangelical author, pediatrician, and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, best known as the foremost proponent of attachment parenting,[14] said of the book, 'People began calling me about the stuff in this book several years ago, but I basically ignored it, thinking that it was so far out that it would just die out.'[3] Sears regretted not speaking out earlier, and said about the book that it was 'probably the most dangerous program of teaching about babies and children that I have seen in my 25 years of being a pediatrician.'[3]

Ferber method founder Richard Ferber, Director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital Boston, concurs with Baby Wise regarding some of its sleep advice, but he warns against expecting too much. Baby Wise predicts that the 8-week-old child will be sleeping 7 to 8 hours in a row at night, and the 13-week-old child increasing the nighttime sleep period to as much as 11 hours. Ferber said, 'Parents shouldn't expect babies to sleep that long that early, although a very few will on their own' and says that the book may frustrate parents of babies that are not sleeping so much; the parents may wonder what is wrong with the infant.[3] Ferber says that if a baby sleeps through the night, the parents may actually need to wake it for feeding.[3]

James Dobson, founder of the Focus on the Family ministry, commented on the controversial book, saying 'I've never attacked it, but I don't endorse it... I'm not out campaigning against the Ezzos; I'm just not their greatest fan.'[15]

In response to the controversy[13] Multnomah Books stopped publishing the text in September 2001.[20] They returned the book rights to GFI. Subsequent printings have been produced by Parent-Wise Solutions, an imprint formed by the Ezzos to publish their books.


Editions

  • (1990) Preparation for Parenting: Bringing God's Order to Your Baby's Day and Restful Sleep to Your Baby's Night, Growing Families International, ISBN9781883035099 (Christian edition, written by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo)
  • (1993) On Becoming Babywise: More Than a Survival Guide, Growing Families International, ISBN1-883035-99-6 (1st secular edition)
  • (1995) On Becoming Baby Wise: Learn How Over 100,000 Babies Were Trained to Sleep Through the Night the Natural Way, Multnomah Books, ISBN0-88070-775-5
  • (1998) On Becoming Baby Wise: Learn How Over 500,000 Babies Were Trained to Sleep Through the Night the Natural Way, Multnomah Books, ISBN1-57673-458-7
  • (2001) On Becoming Baby Wise: The Classic Sleep Reference Guide Utilized by Over 1,000,000 Parents World-Wide, Parent-Wise Solutions, ISBN0-9714532-0-9
  • (2007) On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep, Parent-Wise Solutions, ISBN1-932740-08-2
  • (2012) On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep, Parent-Wise Solutions, ISBN1-932740-13-9

On Becoming Babywise Pdf Download Free

References

  1. ^ abNiesslein, Jennifer (2008). Practically Perfect in Every Way: My Misadventures Through the World of Self-Help—and Back. Penguin. p. 121. ISBN978-0-425-22132-7.
  2. ^ abKranz, Cindy (1999). 'Brazelton Answers: Our Parents' Panel of Questions for Child Development Expert'. Cincinnati Enquirer. 5.
  3. ^ abcdefgGranju, Katie Allison (1998-08-06). 'Getting Wise to Babywise'. Salon. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  4. ^ abLa Mendola, Bob (1997-06-28). 'Feeding Schedule For Babies Causes Debate'. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  5. ^ abcAney, Matthew (April 1, 1998). ''Babywise' advice linked to dehydration, failure to thrive'. AAP News. 14 (4): 21. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
  6. ^ abTerner, Kathleen (November 13, 2000). 'Unprepared to Teach Parenting? Two churches long associated with Babywise author Gary Ezzo denounce his character and fitness for Christian ministry'. Christianity Today. p. 2. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  7. ^Webb, Cindy (January 2000). 'BabyWise? Be Wary! (Part 1 of 2)'. Tulsa Kids. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Archived from the original on February 14, 2006. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
  8. ^Rein, Steve. 'Timeline'. Evaluating Ezzo Books & Programs. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
  9. ^ abcdeZaff, Laura Bassi. 'Civilization and its Discontented Babies: How Growing Families International, 'Babywise' and the Ezzos May Be Making Psychological History'. Family Source. Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  10. ^Ezzo, Gary; Ezzo, Anne Marie (November 2000). 'GFI Responds to Christianity Today'. Growing Families International. Archived from the original on March 2, 2001. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
  11. ^'A Statement Regarding Gary Ezzo and Growing Families International'. October 16, 1997. Archived from the original on February 3, 1999. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  12. ^'Grace Community Church Explains Why They No Longer Use Any GFI Materials'. Archived from the original on January 28, 1999. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  13. ^ abCorrie Cutrer (July 9, 2001). 'Babywise Controversy: Babywise Almost Dropped'. Christianity Today.
  14. ^ abcdefghLewis, Camille Kaminski (May 5, 1999). 'On Becoming Baby Wise: Gary Ezzo's Chivalrous Child-Rearing Ethic'(PDF). Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  15. ^ abHulbert, Ann (2004). Raising America: experts, parents, and a century of advice about children. Random House Digital. pp. 449–51. ISBN978-0-375-70122-1.
  16. ^Allhoff, Fritz; Warner, Judith (2011). 'On 'Crying It Out' and 'Co-Sleeping''. Motherhood – Philosophy for Everyone: The Birth of Wisdom. Philosophy for Everyone. 23. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 141–53. ISBN978-1-4443-3028-1.
  17. ^ abcGoren, Lilly J. (2009). You've come a long way, baby: women, politics, and popular culture. University Press of Kentucky. p. 146. ISBN978-0-8131-2544-2.
  18. ^Hotelling, Barbara A. (Winter 2004). 'Styles of Parenting'. The Journal of Perinatal Education. 13 (1): 42–44. doi:10.1624/105812404X109401 (inactive 2019-05-24). PMC1595189. PMID17273376.
  19. ^Strahan, Esther Yoder; Dixon, Wallace E.; Banks, J. Burton (2009). Parenting with Reason: Evidence-Based Approaches to Parenting Dilemmas. Parent and Child. Taylor & Francis. p. 2. ISBN978-0-415-41329-9.
  20. ^Rainey, David (2008). Faith reads: a selective guide to Christian nonfiction. ABC-CLIO. p. 140. ISBN978-1-59158-602-9.
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Publisher Description

Babywise audiobook

With over 3 million books in print On Becoming Baby Wise continues to gain international recognition for its immensely sensible approach to parenting a newborn. Now in its 18th year of continuous print runs, and translated into 18 languages, the infant management plan offered by Gary Ezzo and Dr. Robert Bucknam successfully and naturally helps infants synchronize their feeding time, waketime and nighttime cycles. The results? Happy, healthy and contented newborn babies who sleep through the night on average between seven and nine weeks of age.
The infant management concepts bring hope to the tired and bewildered parents looking for an alternative to sleepless nights and fussy babies.
The Babywise Parent Directed Feeding concept has enough structure to bring security and order to your baby's world, yet enough flexibility to give mom freedom to respond to any need at any time. It teaches parents how to lovingly guide their baby's day rather than be guided or enslaved to the infant's unknown needs.
Comprehensive breast-feeding follow-up surveys spanning three countries, of mothers using the PDF method verify that as a result of the PDF concepts, 88% breast-feed, compared to the national average of only 54% (from the National Center for Health Statistics). Of these breast-feeding mothers, 80% of them breast-feed exclusively without a formula complement. And while 70% of our mothers are still breast-feeding after six months, the national average encourage to follow demand feeding without any guidelines is only 20%. The mean average time of breast-feeding for PDF moms is 33 1/2 weeks, well above the national average. Over 50% of PDF mothers extend their breast-feeding toward and well into the first year. Added to these statistics is another critical factor. The average breast-fed PDF baby sleeps continuously through night seven to eight hours between weeks seven and nine.
Healthy sleep in infants is analogous to healthy growth and development. Find out for yourself why a world of parents and pediatricians utilize the concepts found in On Becoming Babywise.

Amazing

This book is awesome! Totally worked for us and our child! She slept thru the night at 6 weeks. 12 hrs by 10 weeks old! She is healthy happy and loves to go to bed!!!!!! Amazing! Best advise, be consistent and don't get lazy about the routines!!!

Terrible Dangerous Advice

On Becoming Babywise Pdf Download Torrent

I am only a few chapters into this book and already there are several red flags. It offers advice that goes against the AAP guidelines for reducing risk of SIDS with advice such as after 4 weeks remove baby from your room so you can sleep better! Newborns are not an inconvenience - they need love, care and attention night & day. I also discovered this book was originally published in 1990 as ‘Preparation for Parenting: Bringing God's Order to Your Baby's Day and Restful Sleep to Your Baby's Night', (Christian edition written by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo), the book was rebranded in 1993, which makes me feel uneasy.

Will get sleep after this read

If you apply the principles discussed in this book consistently, you will get more sleep in the first few months of being a parent.

Babywise Book Review

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