I love that Brazelton said this:

[AttachedMamma]

Interviewer: What is your opinion on the Baby Wise parenting books by Gary Ezzo?

Brazelton: “I'm horrified. I'm absolutely horrified. It isn't respectful of children. I can't conceive of a child feeling very good about themselves by conforming. I hate this idea that parents think the child is against me so I have to win. I wonder why we need this in this country at this point. It seems more of a symptom of something that has gone wrong that we haven't paid attention to. Discipline is the second most important thing you give a child. The first is love. Discipline is not a protagonist thing. It's learning.”
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I found that while scanning the web for something. I had a Brazelton book early in DD's infancy, but traded it for the Sears' books. I didn't realize Brazelton was so against Ezzo (this info from above was taken from an article in 1999. Ok, I'm a little slow on the uptake.

He is such a well-known and respect ped...I can't for the life of me understand why mainstream parents aren't listening to his advice. It's not as if it's only counter-culture (alternative-minded) peds are aware of how bad Ezzo's tactics are.

I think we need to get him onto Oprah or something already. Why are so many people *still* following Ezzo today? :cry

cindi

[Marsha]

Quite frankly, I don't think that many people follow BW. Maybe Ferber. But outside the Christian community, I think a lot of people are a bit horrified by Ezzo methods.

Brazelton, though he is mainstream, gets a bit shuffled to the side now because he's been around for a long time. He is a moderate AP, IMO. I like his advice, and he is all about attachment in the early years especially. I love his books Touchpoints.

But IRL I can't think of many people who are uber strict about feeding, sleep, and spanking or whatever else Ezzo recommends. In fact, spanking is a big no no in our church circles. Someone might do it, but they feel bad about it, and it is mentioned as this horrible lapse: "I can't believe I yelled" or "I can't believe I smacked him/her".

Our church is WAY mainstream, too, but all the discipline and parenting books and seminars are on positive discipline. I've even only seen one donated Dobson book in the library with a whole host of more positive ones, so maybe I'm biased.

[Sarai]

I :heart Brazelton! :yes I have 2 of his books (birth-3, and 4-6 yrs) and have learned a lot from them. Those, combined w/the Sears Baby Book, were my intro to AP and gentle discipline. I saw him on the Today show (I think it was ,anyway :think) several years ago, and was just struck by how very gentle he was and how much he loved and respected children.

There's a great story he tells in his 4-6 book about a little boy with asthma......I can't do it justice here, but basically he talks about removing the fear and giving the child control by explaining *what* was wrong and *how* he, the child, could take care of it and what he *could* do, rather than what he *couldn't* do. Basically, he helped the little boy regain what little control he had of his own life.

[3PeasInAPod]

Quite frankly, I don't think that many people follow BW. Maybe Ferber. But outside the Christian community, I think a lot of people are a bit horrified by Ezzo methods.




I was thinking the same thing...I never heard of ezzo until after I had ds & found this board - that's where I heard about Ezzo. If I had picked up his book in a store & read over it, I would have been :hunh by it - even before I knew what AP was.. :)

[Yuliana]

I like him too.

[Iveyrock]

Quite frankly, I don't think that many people follow BW. Maybe Ferber. But outside the Christian community, I think a lot of people are a bit horrified by Ezzo methods.




I was thinking the same thing...I never heard of ezzo until after I had ds & found this board - that's where I heard about Ezzo. If I had picked up his book in a store & read over it, I would have been :hunh by it - even before I knew what AP was.. :)

I don't know, the first time I heard about Ezzo was literally from somone on the street. She saw I was pregnant and raved about the book. I actually read it in Barnes and Nobles because of that. I also personally know a family that used it and their baby was FTT. They weren't in the church at all at that point. I think it just depends on where you are :shrug

[ellies mom]

I'm one another parenting board (secular) and when these types of topics come up some one almost always recommends Babywise, so it isn't just in the Christian circles. Of course a lot of people respond that Babywise isn't the best idea so that is nice.

But at any rate, the reason I think Brazelton gets shoved off to the side is two-fold. First, he isn't offering solutions. Ezzo says do this and it will be good. Brazelton makes suggestions but most parents want fixes and he doesn't give that. And secondly, even though his books do talk about sleeping, there really isn't a lot about discipline in his book (at least not that I can remember from his touch point book) so he isn't really placing himself out there as anything other than a doctor. Dr. Sears places himself out there in the discipline/sleeping realm so people think of him in that sense. But with Brazeton, you need to go looking for it in the rest of his information.

I really like Brazelton though. And thanks for reminding me because I have to see if I still have that Touchpoints book. I hope so.

[shercurrie]

Great quote! :yes Thanks for posting.

A casual friend/colleague of mine gave me a couple of Babywise books when I was pregnant, but I was already reading a bunch of other stuff (birth books, breastfeeding, Sears' AP Book, etc.) so it went to the end of the "To Read" pile. By the time I came to it, I had already heard a bunch of stuff about how bad it was, and knew I was pretty sold on AP by that point, too. So, I still have them.... I'm thinking about pitching them. (Like, in the garbage. :giggle)

[Maggie]

That's a great quote!!!! :rockon

[ladybug]

FWIW, I've never heard of Ezzo, and am still a lil confused as to who, what, why where? about this.
The first time I'd heard of it was HERE on THIS site!!
I personally don't read parenting books, I don't have TIME. Ok, I don't MAKE time. I could be reading one NOW, but instead I'm HERE!! LOL!!!