Thoughts on the Ezzo-method

Gary Ezzo remains quite a controversial figure in parenting circles today. I read his Babywise book before the birth of my second son and had a couple of major problems with it.

There was a blank chart inside where you fill in the times you want your baby to sleep and eat. I thought, "how on earth am I going to get a newborn to stick to this schedule?" I believe it's good to gradually guide a baby into a flexible schedule over the first few months, but timing it down to the minute? How's that possible?"

Crying. Many Ezzo-followers let their babies cry until the specified eating or sleeping or waking time. I knew I would never do that so I put the book down.

I'm so glad I did. My son would never have done well under the Ezzo method.

Not to say my son never cried. He did. Sometimes I had to finish dinner or do something for my daughter that I couldn't do holding him and he cried. We did use limited crying to help him sleep on his own at night. These were the exception for a brief time and not the norm.

The book also cautioned that you always had to put the baby down awake so they could fall asleep themselves. I would have missed out on countless precious times of rocking my baby to sleep. When we were out, he also loved sleeping close to me in the sling. I love my sling. My son's time in the sling are among my most treasured memories of his babyhood.

I held/slung my son a ton his first year and I don't regret a minute of it. Friends and people at church never saw him out of it.

It's been a while since I've used the sling for my son. (He's almost 2). Yesterday I pulled it out to use in church. My son sat facing me in it on my hip. I didn't realize he still has fond memories of the sling. He was so excited and happy to be in it and kept stroking the padded edge and smiling at me while saying "daaaa" (that). I asked him if he liked being in the sling and he emphatically nodded "yes." It was a sweet time.