Dangers of babywise!

wends89@hotmail.com · June 2012

I'm not normally someone who posts anything, but if I can save some new moms the pain and suffering my baby went through, I will!

I read Gary Ezzo's On Becoming Babywise because it was so highly recommended on some forums as well as through word of mouth. Please do some research on Gary Ezzo and babywise methods before you choose to follow them! He doesn't advertise this, but he is a right-wing Christian minister with absolutely zero qualifications for advising mothers on how to feed their infants! Four days after my baby was born, he had lost almost 2 pounds, was severely dehydrated, and I hate to say, but probably starving!!!!!! It makes me sick just thinking about it. We spent a week in the hospital trying to figure out what was wrong with him. This man does not know what he is talking about. If you want to know about how to feed your baby correctly and help them sleep, consult professionals-pediatricians and lactation consultants! Oh, and just listen to your baby, they will tell you what they need.

And, by the way, when I was following babywise, my baby and I were both miserable. I felt like a prisoner to the clock and my baby did not sleep well at all and I had issues with milk production. Since consulting with my pediatrician and lactation consultants, my baby is healthy, happy, and sleeping great! All I can hope is that I didn't harm my baby's brain development in the four weeks that I followed babywise.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do or how to feed your baby, just warning you that you may want to look into Gary Ezzo and Babywise before you go following his methods!

JWSchwarz · June 2012

Someone gave me that book. I read it before I had DS and it all sounded great. Luckily I looked it up on Wikipedia...psycho!!! It all sounds great in theory but yeah...the goal should be to feed your baby not get them on a schedule when they're newborns. And anyone that gets kicked out of a church which they founded...well not someone I want to take parenting advice from.

jewinkel · June 2012

I saw this book recommended on many forums here on the bump and actually bought the book. I told my husband about it and we did some research, we found it to be an unhealthy training system.

Many moms use this method and if it works for you thats great but I will continue to feed my baby on demand and work on sleep training come 8-10 weeks as my pediatrician suggested.

AimeeL85 · June 2012

If he's not qualified he's not qualified, but what does his political or religious affiliation have to do with it?

Emcgill477 · June 2012

Honestly, I thought that book was borderline child abuse. Completely ridiculous.

judahsmommy1 · June 2012

My cousin recommended Babywise (she actually sent me a copy) when I was pregnant with my first. I had to stop reading it when it was talking about teaching your 3 month old delayed gratification. I was ready to throw the book across the room. I have no idea what I did with it because I couldn't bring myself to donate it, but it's not currently on my shelves. I know I had a compulsion to burn it, but I don't think I did. It may be in a dump somewhere contributing to global warming. I know there are women who swear by that book and raise happy, healthy children. I just can't bring myself to try his methods and have very little respect for the man himself.

silvercamaro77 · June 2012

I think I must take things very differently than other people. When I read BW and Baby whisperer for that matter (they seemed pretty similar to me). My take away was to follow your baby's cues and they would lead towards the EASY routine. I didn't take it as you should make your young baby wait and only feed them if it's been 3 hours or more.

Maybe I should read them again to see where I missed the hard the fast timelines?

triagain2 · June 2012

From my understanding the original babywise book was changed because there were a fair number of failure to thrive diagnoses because some people took the book literally and strictly.

I agree its very similar to the EASY method and it worked for us. That being said, I don't take everything of any book, I took parts that made sense to me and threw the rest out.

I also didn't attempt any of it until 4 months. My son was EBF until 15 months, but didn't sleep through the night until 10 months. I didn't use it as a sleep training book, more as a way to avoid having to rock him to sleep for every nap and bedtime.

By Sleep, Eat, Play we avoided eating to sleep (aka nursing to fall asleep).

Imanurse03 · June 2012

My SIL used it for my nephew and I guess it worked well for them. She gave me the book to read but I didn't even finish it. I read it when I was pg. I didn't think that I could go by a schedule like that. I guess it works for some and not for others. But I didn't think I'd want to try that method.

We've been lucky in that DS is nearly 5 months old and has been STTN since about 2.5-3 months old. We didn't use any kind of "method." He just does it.

desdemona39 · June 2012

silvercamaro77:
I think I must take things very differently than other people. When I read BW and Baby whisperer for that matter (they seemed pretty similar to me). My take away was to follow your baby's cues and they would lead towards the EASY routine. I didn't take it as you should make your young baby wait and only feed them if it's been 3 hours or more.
Maybe I should read them again to see where I missed the hard the fast timelines?

Ugh Baby Whisperer. I stopped reading that book when she said that meeting a baby's demands creates a demanding baby, and that feeding on demand spoils children. What a crock.

el_twirpo · June 2012

our pediatrician's office gives us a newsletter at each check-up to offer suggested reading and what to expect at whatever age the check-up is for. and they specifically say NOT to follow that book. i didn't even know what the book was about, but if a practice is advising all parents to not read and abide by that book, there must be some fundamentally wrong information in it.

winelvr · June 2012

You clearly didn't READ the book!!! It says to feed baby on demand for at least the first 6 weeks.... Then it says to start getting into a routine and a schedule. Sorry, but it seems a little pyscho to let your baby drop two pounds in two days. That meant you were following this in the hospital and trying to get baby on a schedule??? I don't buy that for one second....

tokenhoser · June 2012

winelvr:
You clearly didn't READ the book!!! It says to feed baby on demand for at least the first 6 weeks.... Then it says to start getting into a routine and a schedule. Sorry, but it seems a little pyscho to let your baby drop two pounds in two days. That meant you were following this in the hospital and trying to get baby on a schedule??? I don't buy that for one second....

Perhaps she has an older edition? The only reason it says to feed on demand at all now is because of the many, many complaints of failure to thrive.

The religious affiliation is actually important because there are places where calling him a crazy cult leader that encourages really dangerous parenting choices is the equivalent of not being "Christian enough". It's scary.

Teresa1896 · June 2012

Not trying to flame, but.....how about we use some common sense instead of following a book to the letter? Authors are just people with opinions, just like anybody else. I read BabyWise and took away the "eat/play/sleep" schedule and discarded just about everything else. You're the parent. You're the expert on your child, and you get to choose what to believe and do.

Christina_Diane · June 2012

OP - do you have an older edition? The book clearly states to feed a hungry child. It even provides many ways to monitor their growth.

We follow baby wise in our house, but we also apply common sense. It is a book, not the bible. We take what we like and discard the rest. We follow the eat, wake, sleep routine, avoid CIO, encourage LO to sleep without any props, etc. in the hospital, the nurses told me to feed LO every 2.5-3 hours, which is very similar to what Enzo and the aap say. During his 6 week growth spurt, he was on my boob every 1.5-2 hours for 48 hours. The book suggests you evaluate fussiness before automatically offering the boob.

I feel a lot of people bad mouth the book before actually reading it. It is working for us, but like I say, I am also applying common sense.

tokenhoser · June 2012

Why would I take any advice from an author that advices such terrible things?

I can take my advice from non-a$$holes.

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