On Becoming Baby Wise: Learn How over 500,000 Babies Were Trained to Sleep Through the Night the Natural Way

Rating:
Summary: Common sense approach to parenting,benefiting parents & baby
Review: This book truly changed my day to day life with my baby. It not only helped me with my baby's daily schedule and taught me how to get my baby to sleep through the night ( as early as 4 weeks), but it gave me back the control that so many of us relinquish once a baby becomes part of our daily lives. I thought my baby was colicy, only to find out that my feeding routine was the key to his behavior. It has also allowed me and my husband more time to spend together. I recommend it to all parents and expectant parents of newborns and infants. Clearly and brilliantly written and sequenced with simple and practical applications of the techniques recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent guidelines for establishing a daily infant routine
Review: Babywise provides excellant direction in setting up a household for a new infant without loosing site of the priority of marriage. Unlike today's conventional wisedom, babywise reflects back on traditional structure within the home where a child adds to the family but does not become the primary focus of the family. The authors offer proven ideas on establishing feeding schedules, daily routines, and successful nighttime sleeping. My child and others successful began sleeping through the night at 12 weeks after following this program. I suggest using it as a "guideline" to establishing your own family routine. As with all child rearing books - you pick and choose what information fits your lifestyle.

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Summary: Definitley Baby Wise...
Review: I have read others reviews and they are very negative. I have a 15 1/2 month old son who has been sleeping through the night since he was 9 WEEKS old, thanks to this book. Schedules are very obviously a GREAT thing for babies b/c they always know what to expect and thus become happy and well adjusted babies. My son is happy, go lucky and has great sleeping habits. I plan to utilize the tools with my son, Jakob, who is due in July 2005, as well!!!!

I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK 200% FOR ANY NEW MOTHER. I would just say that it may be a better idea to begin the scheduling after about 2-3 weeks of age b/c babies need to adjust to being outside the womb first before being comfortable starting a schedule. You'll see, it's a great guide!!!!!
Melissa

Rating:
Summary: Interesting - though take will lots of grains of salt!
Review: Two things that I agreed with and did out of this book was feeding my baby right after she woke up, and the fact that the baby is part of the whole happy family - not the end-all be-all center. In that respect, I liked the book/method. Otherwise, the method and extreme structure of this book/method was both unrealistic and harsh.

As one educated in Early Childhood Development, I found the unresponsive parenting methods dictated in this book quite disturbing. The beginning months are especially important for babies to learn that they can trust their parents and environment. When they cry, they should by all means be responded to! There are many other points that are brought up in this book that would have most caring and rational people questioning this method.

My suggestion, as with most books, would be to check this book out from a library, skim over it, find the interesting points you agree with, take a few notes, and let the rest go. It's definitely not worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: Sleeping through the night.... at what price?
Review: I have sat here and read all the glowing reviews for this book, and the one thing they seem to have in common is "my baby slept through the night EARLY!!!"

But is this a good goal? Who does this benefit? According to infant specialists, not the baby. Babies are meant to wake up at regular intervals for the first several months. This has several purposes, one is to eat... especially for a breastfed infant. Breastmilk is digested very rapidly, and infants require REGULAR feedings to fuel their rapid growth at this stage. Why should they be expected NOT to eat for long periods of time at night when the rest of the day they are eating every 2 hours or so? An infant can get up to 1/3 of their total nutrition in night feedings. Are they supposed to make up for this during the day? And with the Babywise feeding schedule and the "no snacking rule", where are these extra feedings going to come from? You are in effect taking away at least one of your infants MEALS... and to what purpose? So mom and dad can sleep longer?

Another problem with "sleeping through the night" is that it puts the infant at an increased risk for SIDS. Infants who sleep for long periods of time often have trouble rousing themselves from deep sleep, which has been found to be a factor in SIDS deaths.

The sleep training method outlined in this book can result in a great deal of crying before the infant "gets the idea". Infant crying for extended periods has been shown to cause brain trauma due to the release of stress chemicals that can actually cause lesions in the brain tissue. Far from being "normal" for infants to cry for extended periods, it CAN cause permenant damage emotionally and physically. Even actual infant sleep experts (such as Ferber) do not recommend any form of "sleep training" before SIX MONTHS of age,(not six WEEKS as described in this book) and then only for infants with actualy sleep disorders, NOT for a normal child.

The fact is, sleeping through the night is NOT an important goal for an infant. The promise of having a child "sleeping through" at a young age is only a benefit to the PARENT, and poses a health risk to the child.

For more information about the author, check out www.ezzo.info

Rating:
Summary: Sleep in Heavenly Peace (You and Baby)
Review: On Becoming Babywise is a useful tool for parents. I tell my friends who are expecting that one of the greatest gifts I have given my children is teaching them to sleep (refreshed-ready to learn, laugh and play). My three sons slept through the night by eight weeks (and still do) and seemed to truly enjoy their nap times. My youngest is four months old. He wakes up from his nap or night time sleep by cooing. I go into his room and am greeted by a large toothless grin. He is a very happy and pleasant baby. He was over 9 lbs at birth and is nearly 18lbs now. He has a beautiful complextion, bright eyes and a quick smile.
I am not writing this to defend myself against the crazed rantings of some of the other reviewers. (I would have been okay if they'd simply disagreed with the book, but to imply that those who use the book are heartless child abusers is way over the top) I am writing it to let expectant parents and those who struggle with children who won't sleep know that I have used this book and applied its principles (with love and patience not cold-hearted cruelty) for all three of my children and have had excellent results.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: This book was a lifesaver for my family. Like many others, I took what was written with a grain of salt and used common sense to apply the methods discribed. Within 48 hours of reading this book, my 6 week old daughter was sleeping and eating better and my husband and I were finally able to get some sleep. The PDF schedule worked very well for my daughter and she is a wonderfully healthy and happy 1 year old today.

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Summary: PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS TO YOUR BABY
Review: The methods in this book can be very dangerous to your baby. Do any internet search on Gary Ezzo and you will find horror stories of poor babies that have been PYHSICALLY harmed by these methods. The American Academy of Pediactrics are against these methods.

I have been practicing attachment parenting (the complete opposite of Babywise) for my baby. He sleeps with me every night, I feed him when he is hungry, not at a scheduled time, and I pick him up when he is crying.

He started sleeping 6 hours at night when he was 2 weeks old! By the time he was 8 weeks old, he slept the entire night only waking for one feeding. By 12 weeks, he was sleeping through the night with no waking. Now at 7 months he still sleeps through the night (8:30pm - 7:30am). Everyone comments on what a good baby he is and he is so happy. He has smiles and giggles for everyone!

Please, please, please, do a little research on these methods and think very long about how you want your baby to grow up, trusting his parents to take care of him, or wailing away in a crib wondering why Mommy and Daddy don't love him enough to FEED HIM WHEN HE IS HUNGRY.


Rating:
Summary: Ezzo also advocates CORPORAL PUNISHMENT for toddlers
Review: Read it for yourself at http://www.nospank.net/granju2.htm
A true eye opener, more valuable than hearsay. You owe it to yourself as a parent and more importantly you owe it your baby. Be wise, be knowledgeable and never ignore your maternal & fraternal instincts - EVER




Rating:
Summary: Against a mother's NATURAL instincts!
Review: Read the effects of forcing an infant into a feeding/sleeping schedule by "crying it out", as wriiten by Dr. Sears who is a REAL doctor unlike Ezzo who has NO credentials of any kind.
"A baby who is dutifully scheduled, left to cry it out, and whose well-meaning parents fall prey to the fear-of-spoiling advice, learns early that the caregiving world is not responsive to his needs. He learns to stop asking. This baby learns to ignore his feelings at an early age. He learns neither to identify nor to express them. On the surface, this little person is a "good" baby; he doesn't bother anybody. He adjusts to the inflexible schedule, sleeps through the night, and is convenient to have around. This "good" baby, seemingly so "well-disciplined," is at risk for becoming a withdrawn child and an internally angry, depressed adult. Other disconnected infants cry harder when they receive no response, becoming obnoxious and openly angry. These babies become children who are very hard to manage. They carry these feelings into adulthood, and like the "good" baby are at risk of ending up in the psychologist's office. (This "good baby" or "obnoxious baby" is different from the temperamentally easy baby or difficult baby.)" http://www.askdrsears.com/html/6/T061600.asp
If this doesn't break your heart I don't know what will....