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Summary: Our twins started sleeping all night at 3-4 months!
Review: A great book and a great way to parent! Sure, you can't take it all literally and you have to use common sense. But there's no shortage of good advice and solid parenting techniques. We started using this book on the late side, but it wasn't long before our twins could sleep from 7:30pm to 7:30am (yes, that's 12 hours without food, water, diaper changes, or coddling!) They can do it, and it's very natural. Best of all, everyone is happier the next day!
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Summary: Danger Alert!
Review: I bought this book when my son was three months old because he was having some sleep problems, and we needed to end our family bed situation. I was appalled at the feeding schdule they advocated for breastfed babies. It goes against what both my pediatrician and lactation consultant told me. Feed your baby whenever he's hungry, and you'll know that he's doing well by the number of wet and dirty diapers he's having, and by weighing him periodically to make sure he's gaining roughly half a pound a week in the first three months. Not feeding a child who's obviously hungry, just because he ate 2 hours ago, and not the book's recommended 3-4 is silly. We taught our child to fall asleep on his own without any kind of feeding schedule, and without abandoning comfort nursing, by reading Dr. Richard Ferber's book, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems.
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Summary: It really works
Review: The parent-directed feeding method described in this book really worked with our second child. The advice for letting your baby cry may seem harsh, but it may be necessary to get him to sleep through the night. Our first child was nearly two when he began to sleep through the night, but our second child began sleeping 7+ hours each night at around 3 months. It's now not uncommon for him to sleep 12 hours at night.
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Summary: CHILD ABUSE!!
Review: I am a mother of 3, and NO good reputable pediatician would recommend such things as are listed in this book. IF you LOVE & CARE about your child YOU will NOT get this, or practice these EXTREME mesaures as discriped in this book This is pure & Simple CHILD ABUSE.
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Summary: Read This Book For Yourself!
Review: I truly fail to see how this book gets such bad press. How can your baby become "failure to thrive" when you are following the action plan in this book? You are feeding every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, cuddling and talking to your baby while feeding her, spending at least one hour after daytime feedings singing to your baby, playing with her, and teaching her how much you love her. That equals at least 6 hours a day of one-on-one attention, and at least 8 feedings in a 24 hour period. If you only read the part that said it is okay for your child to cry sometimes and let that be the only lesson you learned from this book, you are just an idiot or a very poor parent! This book stresses the importance of flexibility to the schedule and common sense parenting. As with every parenting book, you should use good judgement and decide what works best for your child and you. We read this book when our baby was 8 weeks old. The difference that it made in our lives was incredible. We had been letting our baby fall asleep during feedings or immediately thereafter. Once we started making sure he stayed awake for about an hour after daytime feedings, he napped better and longer and wasn't fussy anymore. Before that, we were exhausted all the time and constantly passing a fussy baby back and forth. He was just not getting the right amount of quality sleep. As for the "let your baby cry" statements; read the book! You should be using a clock and watching how long your child is crying. We did not want to let our baby cry. We only let him cry one night for ten minutes. Then we went in and gave him his pacifier, spoke to him softly, and stroked his forehead. He went to sleep. From that night on he slept longer and longer. Within five days he was sleeping seven hours at a stretch. His disposition changed dramatically. He woke up happy and playful, not screaming or cranky like before. Now at four and a half months of age, he sleeps twelve hours a night and is a delightful baby. We are always hearing, "What a happy boy!" from everyone who sees him. We know that it is because we are Babywise parents. Read the book for yourself.
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Summary: NOT what my pediatrician recommended!!!
Review: i read this book all the way through while i was pregnant, and it sounded reasonable. but once my son was born i realized how harmful some of its recommendations are. a baby (especially a newborn or young infant) should never be put on a feeding schedule. my pediatrician said to feed my son when he was hungry and pick him up whenever he cried. which i did. he slept through the night at 9 weeks. he is now 7 months old and falls asleep every night at the same time, sleeps 10-11 hours straight and eats 3 meals a day - these evolved naturally. a routine is probably healthy for a baby, but a schedule is not. my son is healthy and happy and self-reliant. i would be very cautious about following much of ezzo's advice.
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Summary: RUN!!!
Review: in the description, it says this book is " authorative"? Well, Ezzo is NOT a pediatrician. He has ZERO medical experience with children. He is a minister, NOT a pediatrician! Babies have been admitted to the hospital for dehydration due to Ezzo's schedule feeding. children have been removed from their homes because good,christian parents have read and adopted the practices from Babywise. Don't take my word for it-research Ezzo for yourself, and find out what he really is...
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Summary: It Works!
Review: For a first time parent with nothing to compare to except friend's kids and nieces and nephews I have nothing but good things to say about this book. I bought and read the book before I delivered and started the 2 1/2 - 3 hour feed schedule in the hospital. By 10 weeks my son was sleeping 8 hours and by 12 weeks 11 hours a night. Every night he goes to sleep without a peep and most naps happen the same way. I can only attribute it to the methods in this book. My son is both healthy and happy and knows how the events of the day will happen. I never once felt like I wasn't doing the right thing for my family. I have loaned my book out to all my friends with kids who were interested by my sucess and willing to give it a try. The authors were right, people do say you're lucky to have a baby that sleeps through the night. I now know its not luck.
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Summary: do your homework
Review: Be very careful when make a decision about your infant and his/her sleeping and eating needs. This book is very controversial. Just go to yahoo.com and type in babywise to see a sample of the conflicting opinions. I was very envious of the Babywise mom's in my mom's group and thier ability to sleep through the night. Then I read the book by MR. Ezzo (not Dr. Ezzo) and it sounded good to me. Before proceeding with his PDF plan we read the other opinions (those of physicians and lactation specialists). Mr Ezzo expresses facts and quotes that are completely unsubstantiated and can be dangerous. His rigid schedule of "training" a baby is NOT "natural". We threw the Babywise book in the trash.
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Summary: This was extremely helpful for our family.
Review: My husband and I found this book to be a very useful guideline. We found the principles to be useful when used in a consistent but flexible way. We have highly recommended it to other parents we know. Our child has thrived with this method. We didn't use it right away but after trying it noticed a big and very positive difference. I don't think the method is intended only to make life more convenient for the parent (although it does make life easier) without regard for the child. I think that it helps parents to focus on identifying the child's needs, teaches them how to set up a schedule (children thrive on a schedule) to meet the childs needs and then also how to be flexible with it. As some people might beleive, it's not about leaving your child to cry alone in his/her crib and ignoring him or her. It's about understanding why the baby is crying and then responding to the cry in an appropriate manner (and sometimes the best response is to do nothing). For example, if s/he is tired and crying because s/he is tired then let him/her go to sleep. It's also about forming good sleeping patterns which ultimately helps a child's development. And there's lots more in the book. I found the book to have a common sense approach with lots of good advice for parents. We are very happy that we read it.
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