Rating: 
Summary: Works Best For Formula Fed Babies
Review: I read this book and used it as a feeding/sleeping guideline for my baby. I know some people who have had excellent results from following the book rigidly. As for me, the book was helpful in preventing my baby from getting her days and nights confused during her first few weeks, however I did not follow the book rigidly am convinced that the system works best for formula-fed babies. I am a nursing mom and, now that my baby is 10 weeks old, I must feed my baby more frequently than suggested by the book in order to maintain an adequate milk supply for my growing baby. Also, my baby did not respond well to putting herself to sleep without any assistance. After 30 to 60 minutes of crying, she would only sleep for 15 minute intervals whereas she would/will sleep for hours if she initially falls asleep in her bouncy seat, car seat or in our arms. We now put her to sleep by holding or rocking her but she consistently goes to sleep between 10 and 11 p.m. and sleeps until somewhere between 5 and 7 a.m.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it and make up your own mind
Review: I don't insist that my friends follow the advice in this book, but I do push them to read it and make up their own minds. (In fact, I'm looking at this because I just ordered a copy for a friend.)We've had good results from this scheme. We demand-fed #1, and I spent a lot of time walking around the living room in the middle of the night. When we eventually put him on a schedule, he went from 2-hour sleep segments to 6-hour segments in less than a week. Unfortunately, *we* weren't very scheduled, and so we never kept him on a schedule for very long. With #2 we were more settled and more convinced that a schedule was a good thing, so she's been on one from day one. At 8 weeks she's not sleeping through the night yet, but the schedule makes life enormously easier - she's more predictable and we've been getting an almost acceptable amount of sleep. When she's on the schedule, she's happy and we're happy. When she falls off the schedule, she turns cranky and so do we. Buy it, read it, and make up your own mind.
Rating:
Summary: i live by this book
Review: I recieved this book from a friend who highly recommended it when i was pregnant with my first child. I read it at decided to try it, after all it made sense. My child was sleeping through the night at three weeks and on such an easy scheduel. I knew when she was going to be hungry, when she would be sleepy and when she would be active. It helped so much in planning my days. My family told me how lucky i was to have such an "easy baby". I just told them i was a baby wise follower. Read this book and you'll understand.
Rating:
Summary: It worked for our quintuplets!
Review: We are big proponents of the methods taught in the book "On Becoming Baby Wise," by Gary. All our quintuplets were sleeping through the night (8 hours) by 12 weeks (they were born at 33 weeks). Within another month they were all sleeping 12 hours per night plus two naps daily (2 hours each). One of the keys (from the book) is to keep the babies on a 2.5 to 3 hour schedule, just like the hospital/NICU does. The schedule is something like this: wake up and feed, then play/stimulate the baby as long as you can keep the baby up (30 to 60 minutes), then put the baby down for a nap again. Do NOT feed the baby again until 2.5 to 3 hours have lapsed from the previous feeding (unless you know the baby is crying for food, and not a dirty diaper, etc). If the baby cries, check for a dirty diaper (change it), gas (burp him), or any other problems. The key is not to let the baby snack in between feedings (then he won't eat well when he is suppose to, and he won't have enough food in this stomach to take a long nap... or for you to rest!). After 6 to 8 weeks (or longer, if born prematurely), you can usually stretch the evening/morning feeding cycle to 4 hours and drop one of the early morning feedings. For us, we were initially feeding 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm, 2am, 5am. After around 10 weeks, we delayed the 11pm feeding till 12am (which meant they were hungrier and ate more), and then fed again at 4am and then 8am. After 2 more weeks, we were able to drop the 4am feeding. At this time, we also stretched the daytime feeding intervals to 4 hours. The "Baby Wise" book goes into more detail on how to implement this feeding/sleeping cycle and how to handle different scenarios. Everyone we have given the book to that followed its guidelines has thanked us profusely after a couple months...
Rating:
Summary: Effective, practical advice
Review: This book is a lifesaver for exhausted new parents. I found it to be a very helpful common sense approach to parenting. I am not sure that any of the people who have so far negatively reviewed this book even took the time to read it. The book never claims to be a medical advice book, nor does the author claim to have a medical background, it is simply a look at a common sense way of raising a baby. The book does differ with attachment parenting, but in no way does it advocate ridgid scheduling and not feeding your baby when he or she is hungry. The book teaches about flexible scheduling, meaning a basic guide for your baby's day, and helping the parents have some time for themselves as well. By all means the book tells you to feed your child if he or she is hungry, so I am not sure why some of the reviewers believe the book to be abusive for babies. Those who had babies that dropped weight by using this book must not have been feeding their child often enough, simple as that. It is sound advice that a baby or child should wake up, eat and then get some play time in before taking a nap again. This book and its principles just make sense. I have used the principles for my baby and he is thriving. I have seen an improvement in his moods because he knows what to expect and has full feedings and naps, so he wakes up happy. He is never a "fussy baby" that doesn't know what he wants. He is happy and alert during his wake time and a good sleeper during nap time. People always tell me that he is a good baby, and I believe it is because I have learned to read his cues from Babywise. I know when he will be tired and when he will want to eat again through flexible scheduling. I don't think anyone wants a baby that "snacks" every half hour and sleeps in spurts here and there. Like the book, I do not think it is right to nurse a baby to sleep as they will depend on it to get to sleep when they are older. The book helps raise independent and confident children without insecurities because they know how to be comfortable putting themselves to sleep instead of needing a body there in order to fall asleep. I don't think it is healthy for a children to sleep with their parents on a daily basis. The best thing to do is to read the book. If it doesn't seem to work for you, then don't do it. There are many parenting styles out there and I don't find it fair that people are so negative about the principles found in this book. Those who are so negative must be hard core attachment parenting advocates that wouldn't like any book that went against that style of parenting. My advice to new parents is to read a lot, including this book, before making any decisions about how they choose to parent. And don't believe the reviews that say this book leads to child abuse. That is absolutely absurd. It advocates an extremely loving home and teaches the importance of a loving relationship between the parents for security in your child. After all, it talks about the same ideas that are used by "The Baby Whisperer", another popular book.
Rating:
Summary: The day common sense came back to parenting
Review: I am absolutely amazed! My wife and I have a 2 year old. She is the light of our lives. In reading the simple and straight forward advice in this title by Gary Ezzo, we have been refreshed to see common sense being applied. It helps me remember how my mother must have raised my two brothers and I when dad had three jobs and was a student. Mom had to put us on a schedule or she, along with every mother in the world today, would have gone mad. I see the need for a schedule in my own wife as she sacraficially gives her whole day for our child. She isn't controlled by our child, and yet she has the freedom within this strucuture to be a loving mom who sets guidelines. Those guidelines came from the early establishing of schedules. What is so amazing to me is that as this book is one of America's fastest selling products on parenting, all reviews of it are either 5 stars, or 1 star. And all the people who give it one star, feel it necessary to "sell other books" in their comments or reviews. I, for one, would like to ask you if you as a parent plan to use common sense with your children as teenages by teaching them how to be on time, maintain a healthy schedule, and not to be too busy with classes, friends, and jobs, why not start teaching them this concept before they even learn the English language? Its common sense, you are still in charge as the parent, and it is magnificently effective.
Rating: 
Summary: This book leads to child abuse
Review: BEWARE!! Be very scared of this book and the material inside of it. I did practice this style of parenting and now look back and feel ashamed that I listened to someone who has no medical backround, someone who is a self proclaimed expert. This book leads to child abuse and child neglect. It goes against best medical practices from the American Acadmey of Pediatrics, World Health Organization and La Leche League. Please for the sake of our chuldren do not use this book. You are more of an expert on your child than Mr. Gary Ezzo ever will be. Listen to your heart!
Rating:
Summary: Dangerous advice
Review: Please don't buy this book. The American Academy of Pediatrics said that following Ezzo's advice has caused dehydration, malnutrition, and failure to thrive in infants. I'm convinced that Ezzo doesn't like children. If you want a good book on baby sleep, try Nighttime Parenting by William Sears.
Rating:
Summary: It does not take an Ezzo to raise a child
Review: I have eight children ranging in age from 22 years to 2 years. I have never felt the need to resort to Ezzo's draconian methods to parent my children. Ezzo's advice is dangerous, contradicting good medical advice. Ezzo twists scripture to fit his agenda instead of tailoring his agenda to agree with scripture. Ezzo creats an adversarial relationship between children and parents. There is a constant tone of negativity instead of sacrificial love and giving ("parent directed" feeding, "couch time" being "parent centered" etc. etc. etc.) Ezzo also creates a "straw man" a warped version of children reared with more gentle methods. He writes of these children as though they're monsters who cannot adapt to social life and school. NOthing could be further from the truth. I breastfed all eight of my children (from one year for some to well into toddlerhood for others) I have slept with my children and have disciplined them using gentle methods. My older children have turned out well. My oldest is managing a nursery. My second is about to go to medical school. My thirdborn is in basic training for the Marines (she's been able to adapt to a strict millitary life well enough that she has been made the platoon guide leading the other recruits in her platoon) My school aged children are doing well in school in advanced classes. My youngest is pleasent and well adjusted. They are *not* the attachment-parented monsters that exist in Ezzo's imagination and on the pages of Babywise. You do not need to use the draconian methods in Ezzo's books to do a good job of rearing your children...believe me. Debra Baker
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book that we highly recommend.
Review: This book is a refreshing step towards common sense. Ever wonder how grandma raised 12 kids with no convienience foods no automatic dishwashers,washers or dryers? Here it is. This is how kids were raised before we turned them into social experiments. Our twins were born in 1999 and slept through the night at 9 and 9 1/2 weeks thanks to this book. They are extremely healthy, happy and well adjusted. People ask us how we managed and we are proud to give cedit to this book. We know many people with twins that are exhausted from kids that cry constantly and never sleep through the night. Its sad for us to see this, when a simple common sense schedule would give their whole family peace. We were pleased to see that the schedule in the book was exactly the same schedule as the maternity ward at the hospital used. At every doctors visit our daughters were at the same number of feedings that our doctor recommended. Most important of all was the praise from grandma who stated "your twins are far easier and more enjoyable to babysit then any of their cousins." IF you don't like this book I would bet you haven't read it.
| 
