What Every New Parent Should Know
The Natural Child Project All children behave as well as they are treated. This is the best spring-board website I have seen for learning about how babies and children should be treated, and about the consequences of treating them disrespectfully. It IS possible to discipline without pain or humiliation!
Getting wise to "Babywise" "Babywise I" and "II" have also become the most controversial American child-care guides in 20 years or more. In response to the books' radical departure from current pediatric and psychiatric advice, scores of concerned medical, lactation science and child development experts are speaking out against what they see as potentially dangerous child-care guidance, being offered up with little in the way of credible supporting research.
Growing Kids God's Way? Although there seem to be some valuable aspects of the GFI material in providing directives for new parents, it is difficult to sort out what claims and pronouncements are sound advice and what are unsubstantiated opinions of the authors. This is primarily due to a finding that the material seems to offer advice and theories based on misrepresentations, half-truths, or data unsupported by research and supplemental material. The Ezzos, to date, have not provided material or advocates to dispel this contention.
More than a parenting ministry Parenting programs authored by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo and promoted by Growing Families International (GFI), including Preparation for Parenting and Growing Kids God’s Way, are both wildly popular and highly controversial. The programs mix sound parenting advice with highly disputable ideas, but this does not fully account for the controversy. GFI has provoked unprecedented public censure from Christian leaders because, although it is not a cult, it has consistently exhibited a pattern of cultic behavior, including Scripture twisting, authoritarianism, exclusivism, isolationism, and physical and emotional endangerment.
In God's hands? Kearney finally saw the familiar thread. All four of the women were familiar with the same religious-based parenting program. All were very concerned about their babies' feeding schedules.
Wise advice for babies? Nancy Williams, a Santa Maria, Calif.-based certified lactation consultant and, for the last 16 years, a local leader for LaLeche League International (the Schaumberg, Ill. breast-feeding support organization), says that she is aware of at least 100 cases of low weight gain connected to the Ezzo programs. Williams and Kathy Nesper, president of Apple Tree Family Ministries, based in Artesia, Calif., along with three others, have amassed 60 first-hand reports of mothers following Prep or Babywise whose infants failed to gain weight adequately; several cases resulted in hospitalizations. These reports came unsolicited from such sources as lactation consultants, nurses and parents themselves. An additional 30 cases since 1991 have been seen directly by Katharine West, a Sherman Oaks, Calif. certified lactation consultant and home health nurse who has observed Prep for 10 years; and 10 cases have been reported by Kathleen Huggins, a nurse and the San Luis Obispo, Calif. author of the popular breast-feeding guide The Nursing Mother's Companion.
A Review and Commentary of Preparation for Parenting The Ezzos' purpose in writing the program is commendable. They wish to guide parents in caring for infants in a godly fashion. They encourage parents to make the baby a welcome member of the family and not the center of it. "Democratic parenting," they write, "the idea that reduces parents to an equal status with their children, was never God's intention. "(page 31)1 They speak out against child-centered parenting, a practice that caters to a child's every whim and teaches them they can get their way with their parents. I agree, and fully appreciate why the Ezzos felt it necessary to create this program. Unfortunately, in his attempt to avoid child-centered parenting, Mr. Ezzo errs in the opposite extreme. PFP is a parent-centered program that insists adults are more important than children and encourages parents to selfishly put their own desires ahead of their newborns. In doing so, they give out what appears to be sound medical advice, but is unsubstantiated by medical literature. They deliberately disparage other parenting styles, using the extremes to show how they fail rather than the norms which show their success. They justify their methods by covering themselves with Biblical arguments. These are frequently tenuous and occasionally even twist the Scripture to support their own opinions.
Warning: Babywise Isn't The Ezzos teach that in order to avoid a spoiled child authority must be asserted from the moment of birth. They claim babies must be fed on a strict schedule and other activities, such as sleeping, playing, and bathing, must be scheduled as well. The claim that responding to a child's cry "can set the stage for child abuse." They advocate "chastisement" as a method of discipline. (Ezzo defines chastisement as "inflicting pain with controlled force to amend an inner attitude." He advocates using an "instrument with flext to it," so that the sting will redirect the child's behavior.)
Unsubstantiated Medical Statements in Babywise There are numerous medical statements made throughout `Babywise' without any references or research backing it up, many of these are the antithesis of well known medical research, even though Dr. Bucknam claims that Babywise contains "medically sound principles" (p. 14). A fewof these examples by Mr. Ezzo and Dr. Bucknam follow. Some of the statements contain the names of fictional examples, Chelsea - a parent directed fed baby, and Marisa - a demand-fed baby.
Jan Barger on Dr. Bucknam's Babywise commentary On p. 43 it is stated: "The erratic nature of the demand-feed (or free-feed) theory negatively impacts Marisa's metabolism." Further down the page, it says that "...lack of regularity sends a negative signal to the baby's body, creating metabolic confusion that negatively affects his or her hunger, digestive, and sleep/wake cycles." Where are the references for any of these statements? Is there a single article in the medical literature that discusses metabolic confusion secondary to demand feeding? A Medline Search of over 2,000 articles found none. Or is this a new theory, developed for the purpose of this book sounding medically authoritative to the uninitiated parent?
