Sunday, 3 August 2014

By Annabelle Holman





Parents, especially first-time parents, do not always know the best way to care for their child. Every child is different and might have its own needs when it comes to certain things, including sleeping. Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam are the authors who wrote the controversial book On Becoming Babywise, which is supposed to be about giving an infant the gift of sleep.



The book was originally published by Multnomah Books, but is self-published through Parent-Wise Solutions, the publishing company of Ezzo himself. More than 200,000 copies have been purchased. Ezzo is an evangelical Christian adviser and Bucknam, a pediatrician. This was initially used as a church-based resource with information on how to raise an infant.



In this publication, an infant care program is suggested. This program, the others say, will make the baby sleep throughout the night from the young age of seven to nine weeks and beyond. As many people know, infants typically wake up numerous times during the night and early morning hours needing to be fed. With this program, the emphasis is on parental control of the baby's sleep, feeding and play schedule instead of allowing the child to make the choice of when it wants to sleep, play and eat.



The ideas behind this book is what has attracted some criticism. This has come from both parents and professionals. The concern is that people are being taught to rear the infant based on the advice given in the book, which could ultimately lead to a higher likelihood of malnutrition, failure and emotional disorders.



Ezzo called on Bucknam to help make the work more secular. The new edition that featured both authors was released during the early 1990s. From there, four other editions were published between 1995 and 2007. The book talks about infant management plans that are built around the play, feed and sleeping cycles of infants. PDF, or parent-directed feeding, is the name of such plans.



In this book, there are directions related to caring for infants from birth up to six months old. It primarily covers topics of feeding and infant sleep. There is emphasis placed on parental control with infant training. According to the work, a baby is not to define the center of the household. Rather, they are just welcomed add-ons to the household who should follow with the order of the house. The things discussed in this book are not radical or new and might even be considered restatement of what Evangelical parents and even secular parents have been doing all along.



The two authors have said that their stance is in the middle between feeding based on a strict schedule and doing so to meet the demand of the baby. They also do not condone the act of co-sleeping. The advice given in this book is similar to that given by other publications.



There are critics of this work, mostly those in the health care field who believe this includes misinformation on infant sleep, growth, development and feeding. Still, some might get help from this. Many opinions exist regarding how to raise a child. It is important to note that every child is different and will respond in his or her own to rearing.









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