Rating: 
Summary: It worked for us!
Review: It might not work for everyone but it worked for us and we are quite happy with the results. Sleepless and ready to leap out of the window, we tried his method and found it to be workable for our son. As with anything else, you will just have to try it with your own baby. Don't listen to others - only you can prevent losing your sanity during the 3 to 4 months of the constant roller coaster ride in the early days of baby's life. After you do find a method for you whether it's this one or note, my husband and I would also like to recommend one other book that has met our personal needs with the older kids and with our newest edition as he grows: Mommy-CEO, by Jodie Lynn. It just has tips from many parents and she is a real trooper when it comes to treating moms like the real CEO in life. She has a few baby tips (especially on colic, baby food and language) but mostly for when the baby gets older. It's worth the money and will be an excellent match with this one. Buy them both today and just see for yourself.
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Summary: Awesome Recource!
Review: I'm bewildered at the negetive comments about this book! This book has been a gift from God for us!!! There's nothing wrong with ensuring that your baby sleeps and eats adequetly. Nowhere in the book does it say to starve your child or let him scream for hours! This method has pretty much healed my sons colic and helped us to enjoy him. He's 2 months old and is sleeping for 6 hours at night and having several 1-2 hour naps during the day.
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Summary: Ignore the "politics" about this book, judge for yourself
Review: My wife and I are big fans of this book. I don't think its the only way to care for a newborn, but its a valid method.Some of the other reviews I've read here contend that the Baby Wise method is a form of child abuse, that children raised on this method are not as alert and healthly as with other methods, etc. All I can respond with is this: everything this book said would happen did come true. Our children are great sleepers (including naps). They are extremely well-behaved (although extremely active 4- and 2-year-old boys). They are happy, trustful, and very intelligent (the 4-year-old is almost reading, for example). A lot of the criticisms of this book are not well-informed. For example, the claim that this book encourages you to let your child go hungry. Nothing could be further from the truth -- several times in the book, the authors clearly state, "If your child is hungry, feed him." The book also does not instruct parents to force their children onto a 3 hour feeding schedule even if the child is hungry. What this book *does* do is help parents understand how 1) the biology behind an infant's dietary needs 2) verify that their children are getting the nutrition they need, and 3) establish a healthy routine of eat, wake, and sleep without being a slave to the routine (flexibility is key to making this work). The book includes excellent checklists that help you track the number of feedings, the number of wet and/or soiled diapers, the number of naps, etc. that your newborn needs at different stages. These were extremely useful at helping reduce the natural anxiety we had as new parents of whether we were properly feeding our baby. In the end, we were able to guide our children -- gently -- into good sleep habits while always being confident that they were getting the love and nutrition they needed. This style of parenting may not fit you, and that's fine. One thing I wish this book didn't do was be so strongly judgemental about parents who go with on-demand feeding. I don't think either method is wrong. What's important is that it fits your family while always always ensuring that your child is properly cared for. Keep that in mind, read this book, and decide if it makes sense for you. With one exception, of the many parents we know who have used this book, every one of them has been satisfied with the results (the exception started several weeks after the baby was born and did not try the method for more than a week).
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Summary: Isn't life a routine?
Review: I just have to say after reading the reviews, why are the negative reviewers filled with so much hatred towards this book? Do we not all want what is best for our children? This book offers a routine oriented parenting style. At what point do the child centered parents establish a routine? As far as I can tell life is a routine. We used these routine techniques and they worked beautfully. Sleeping through the night, happy babies and our twins are both healthy kids. No one book is going to give you the solution to parenting. Read the book and make your own decision.
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Summary: I Highly Recommend Babywise!
Review: My son is now 18 months old and is confident, happy, healthy, easy going, a great sleeper and eater, and very friendly. The parenting philosophies in Babywise are great. I am sad to read the negative reviews that seem to contain inaccurate information and lies about this book. Obviously, you are the parent and should make wise choices for your child and pay attention to what is best for him (that is what Ezzo says in his book!) It is hard work in the beginning, but well worth it. I think all parents should read this book and discuss using these principles in your family. I am a much better parent when I get sleep and my child is a much happier child when he gets rest. This book isn't just about sleep. It's about taking responsibility and chosing to teach your child. A baby doesn't know what he needs that's why he has parents. Anyway, I recommend this book to all new parents because I have a son who is living proof that this is not a dangerous method or a selfish way of raising your child, but a loving and responsible approach.
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Summary: Worked for me!
Review: My newborn had her days and nights mixed up. For the first six weeks she kept me up from 11pm to 5 am. During the day she was snacking every 30-40 minutes. I was a reck. After reading this book my daughter straightened up the night and day mix up after 2 days and her feedings changed to every 2.5 hours. I didn't starve her, I just made sure that she had a full feeding at meal time. This book saved my sanity. I did not, however, follow the advice about letting her cry it out. I felt that she was too young for that. I did though, when fussy and tired, let her "whine" a little until she fell asleep. My daughter is loved, rocked, cared for and is now a happy, well adjusted baby with a well rested mom. I am now going to purcahse the second book and recommend the first one to all parents needing help with sleeping and eating problems.
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Summary: A most excellent guide for raising a child
Review: I just read the review entitled "How to be a really bad parent," and felt compelled to add a review of my own. I have read many, many of the reviews of this book on Amazon.com, and they all have one thing in common: the folks that pan the book have clearly never read the book, never tried the techniques in the book, or both. My son is 19 months old now, and every day I thank my lucky stars that several friends recommended this book. He is the most loving, happy, and playful boy ' well rested, confident, and with excellent eating habits. He is very personable, and, according to his pediatrician, 'advanced.' So what is this all about? After explaining why it is important, this book teaches you how to put your child on a flexible feeding schedule - feeding him whenever he is hungry, but making sure he gets a meal and not a snack. (there is NOTHING anywhere in the book that says to feed your child only every four hours.) My son never, ever was made to go hungry, yet only wanted to eat on a three-hour cycle by the time he was 10 days old. Do you want your child to eat when he or she is hungry, or do you want him to eat just because he feels like being held? If he wants to be held, you hold him and love him - you don't shove a nipple in his mouth, teaching him that eating is the solution to feelings of insecurity. How many times have you seen a baby fuss a little bit and mom responds by delivering a breast? I cringe when I see that, and see the makings of an obese person ' one who associates food with love. Our son was breastfed for 9 months. He easily took to the bottle during that time (so dad could feed him too), then to a sippy cup a while later. As for the sleeping schedule, that too is flexible ' but it is a schedule. Our little guy was sleeping through the night at 14 weeks. Never, ever did we make him starve through the night. If he woke up hungry, we gave him a full feeding and put him back down. Then one day, he just didn't wake up until the morning. It was a very natural and healthy process. Did we ever make him cry himself to sleep? There were some occasions where we let him cry for 5 minutes ' never more. After 5 minutes we would go in his room and love him, then put him back down. We had to do this a couple or three times on a very few occasions, but that was the exception. Once he learned to sleep (yes, learned), he would often run to his crib at nap time, wanting to go to sleep. Does that sound like a child who was forced? Nope, this is a child that, through Baby Wise, learned how to put himself to sleep without all of the 'tricks' that many parents use. Ever driven your baby around town in a car to jostle him or her to sleep? I haven't. Also, because he was on flexible schedules for eating and sleeping, it was very easy to tell what was wrong if he was fussing. If it wasn't meal time, chances are he wasn't hungry. If it wasn't nap time, chances are he wasn't sleepy. Taking out those two variables made me a much more responsive and helpful parent. Ever tried to feed your child because you thought he was hungry, only to realize that he was really just over-tired? I haven't. At the end of the day, this is a great book that can fit well into most people's philosophies about raising a child ' and yields amazing results, happy children, and less stressful parenting. I highly recommend it and suggest you do this: any time someone tells you it is bad, ask them if they have actually read it or tried to use it. I guarantee you that they will say 'no' and that their conclusions are based on something they read or that someone told them.
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Summary: Are we reading the same book?
Review: I am shocked by some of the negative responses....did we read the same book? At no time did I read you should just let your child scream and never comfort them. I am a mother of an 11-month old who LOVES this book. Yet I cuddle and nuzzle my daughter constantly! My daughter had a hard time with sleep when she was a tiny infant. Getting her on a schedule was the best thing for her and for me. She was sleeping through the night (6 hours) around 2 1/2 months (and I NEVER...really...NEVER had to let her cry to do so. Eating meals as opposed to snacks did that.) She sleeps 12 hours a night, and I see her doing that for some time to come. This booked helped a new mother who so wanted her baby to be happy and healthy. A baby who never sleeps is NOT happy OR healthy. Ask any doctor. Again - I NEVER had to starve her or torture her. She didn't want to eat before the 2 or 2 1/2 hour mark. If she did (maybe she was in a growth spurt), then I, of course, nursed her. She is constantly loved, kissed, cuddled and can you believe it, rocked! Like another review said - you can not let any book be the substitute for your own judgement. However, this book provided to be a much needed guide for me. For fellow Christians, this book is very similar to the priciples in "Raising Kids God's Way".
Enjoy this book!
By the way, I love the 2nd book too!
Rating: 
Summary: Judging others
Review: It seems like a lot of people are judging parents who are looking for methods to help their children sleep. This book along with countless other books giving advice are not a substitute for your maternal instinct. Before you judge this book or the people buying it remember that many mothers are single moms with other children. They work for a living and must provide love and support to the rest of their families and do not have the luxury of feeding on demand or rocking their children to sleep. That doesn't mean that they can't be wonderful parents. What is better for the child...a few nights or weeks of crying or having a sleep deprived mother who may lose her job and means for feeding and caring for her family or who may resent her child and become abusive or neglectful to her children. Stop judging.
Rating: 
Summary: Caution, young parents
Review: When applied to the extreme, this method could be considered child neglect. I find it irresponsible to leave a fully awake, curious, and happy baby alone to cry it out. In my own family, I find my "ezzo-trained" grandchildren to be less verbal and slower to develop than those who were simply loved, enjoyed, and accepted. Parenting is hard, and sometimes requires parental sacrifice. Meeting your baby's needs now, will create a trusting reliance on you as the parent, that will bless your relationship always.
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