EASY method?

jarjules8208

I've heard people reference this in terms of a type of "schedule" for their LO.  What exactly is this?  I haven't heard of it before.  I've also heard people recommend the book, "Baby Wise."  Are they similar?  

SushiNoMore

EASY is Eat, Activity, Sleep, You (as in "You Time").  It's from The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer.  We don't exactly stick with it, but I really liked the book.  I thought it had some great insight on how to get your kid on a routine.  In my mind, a routine is a little different than a schedule.  I liked that the book taught you how to read your baby's cues, and I'd highly recommend it.

Baby Wise is more strict, I think.  I've never read it, but, from what I understand, it's about getting your kid on a rather strict schedule with the ultimate goal of getting him to sleep through the night.  It's a pretty controversial book, and I read somewhere that it had to be revised because there were parents who were adhering to it whose babies suffered from a failure to thrive.  Basically, the parents were sticking too strictly to the schedule and were not feeding their babies enough. 

I know people who have had a lot of success with Babywise, and I think it probably depends on the temperament of your baby as much as anything else.  Since our son was in the NICU and was on a strict 3-hour schedule while he was there, I used to joke that he was "The Accidental Babywise Baby."  When I was EPing, he stuck very easily to his 3-hour schedule, but it went out the window when I started EBFing.  We probably could have followed Babywise without much trouble since he was already on a 3-hour schedule when he came home from the hospital.  I think it would have been a lot tougher if we would have just brought him home at term, though, and we weren't planning to put him on a schedule if he had been born around his due date.  We feed on-demand (something both The Baby Whisperer and Babywise urge you not to do), and that's what works for our family.  Our son sleeps 3-4 hour stretches at night, and, given that he's 2.5 weeks old (adjusted age), I'm pretty happy with that.

Lisa7310

I am only about half way through Babywise, but to me they push a routine, not a schedule. This could be due to the revision, or just the way I interpret it. I tend to take what I read and mold it to how I see fit anyway. I agree with the PP and stick to a routine vs a strict schedule. I try to make sure I feed DS right after he wakes up and work on him falling asleep on his own. The only part that I consider a "schedule" is that if he is not awake after 3 hours (during the day), I wake him to feed him. With my first DS, I nursed him to sleep, and this turned into an awful cycle with him waking multiple times throughout the night. With the EASY method, you tend to get the baby to eat more in a nursing session, therefore allowing them to be more satisfied and last longer through feedings. With DS1, he would nurse less, but more often.

mayowife

I've read Babywise, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, and Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems (Ferber). To be honest I have baby brain and can't remember everything exactly.

I decided that Baby Whisperer (EASY) was best for our family for the newborn stage and then we incorporated the progressive-waiting approach from Ferber's book. I think EASY is a gentle, yet structured approach. It made things easier later on because DS never developed many of the habits sleep training breaks.

I don't have it bookmarked on this computer, but when DS was a newborn I found a helpful message board for The Baby Whisperer. Google it.