When I was hired at the Wellness Center as a personal trainer I was hired to replace a lady that was pregnant and about to take her maternity leave. As she was training me for the position she asked me if I had ever heard of Babywise. At that time I had not yet heard of it. Throughout her sons young life she was telling me what she was doing to follow the program and explaining everything to me. A few months later I was pregnant myself, so reading the book to me was just review.

I had discussed it with my husband and he was a little skeptical of the whole idea but always up to trying anything that would help our baby sleep through the night. We were at a cookout at a neighbor’s house when he was sold to the idea. A friend of our neighbors was staying with them from out of town when he asked us the same question, “Have you ever heard of Babywise?” Our antennas perked up and we listened to what he had to say. He explained how he and his wife did it with their two daughters. Now they were older children but they still loved to go to bed at night and get a good nights sleep. He explained that he attributed it to their good behavior, good grades, and pleasant demeanor. Our neighbors agreed that his girls were to be admired by all parents.

I have to agree, I am not sure what I would do without it. It worked wonderfully with my daughter and I am now doing it with my 5-week-old son. I have many friends that have done it with their children and I know that it works. We moved into our new home seven days before our son was born. The day I got home from the hospital a new neighbor came by to meet me. She asked me if I knew about Babywise. When I told her yes she said, “Good, I was about to go home and get you my book. I have 5 children under the age of 10 and that is how I have been able to manage raising 5 children at once. I have friends that did not believe that Babywise was what helped to make them so manageable, but with each child I had she grew more convinced.”

So what is Babywise? It is offering a PARENT LED parenting system rather than the CHILD LED parenting system that is so popular today. It is a scheduling system for babies. Please read the book for yourself because the authors do a wonderful job explaining why everything works the way it does and why this program benefits both parent and child. It teaches parents to start their babies on a schedule of feeding, wake time, and nap time on a two and a half to three hour cycle- in that order throughout the day. At night they just feed the baby and let the baby wake up for the next feeding and have no wake time. At eight-weeks of age a baby’s stomach can hold enough food to last them eight-hours through the night so you drop night feedings until eight weeks old until they are able to sleep soundly through an eight-hour period. This is my nutshell version, there is a lot more to it.

The benefits come into effect with the parent and the baby getting a good night sleep. Both parent and baby are allowing their bodies to go through the different stages if sleep that the brain needs. When they both wake up in the morning they are refreshed and well rested. It is so crucial for a baby to experience this at a young age. This is why the Babywise babies are generally happier and actually healthier than babies that are up all throughout the night for the first couple of years of their life. I have a friend that is still up with her one-year-old at least once per night. She is exhausted and frustrated and regrets not doing Babywise.

There are many critics of the program. One major point of criticism is that we are starving our children that need to eat more by forcing them to wait every couple of hours for a feeding and that we should just feed them when they are hungry. My argument to this is that a baby does not know when he/she is hungry. Like a horse, a baby will most likely eat when food is in front of them. I was feeding my infant son about every hour because he would scream and it sounded like he was starving. Sure enough as soon as I would offer my breast, he would eat like he had not eaten in days, although it had only been just an hour, or less! I thought he was just an avid eater. After many times vomiting up all he had eaten I soon discovered that he was not hungry, he was just screaming because he was sleepy. My children fight sleep as babies for some reason! As soon as I put him on a two-hour eating schedule he stopped vomiting and soon grew accustomed to eating every two hours. Now he is on a schedule and he knows when it is time to eat, wake and sleep.

Another point of criticism is that letting your baby cry somehow makes them feel neglected. Well, if we answer a baby’s every cry, we are teaching them that crying lets them get their way. Understand, this does not mean not to answer a hungry cry or a hurting cry. This does mean not to answer the unnecessary cry. Soon you learn what the difference in crying means. I know now the hungry cry in my 5 week old son, and I know his sleepy cry. The sleepy cry is the one I ignore. I lay him down in bed, he cries himself to sleep. He never remembers it later, he does not hold it against me and he is not scarred for life. Rather, he learns to lie down and go to sleep, he eventually does not cry after a couple weeks of being consistent and he soothes himself off to sleep. When I know he as been fed, changed, and he is not sick or hurting, he cries when I lay him down but within about five minutes he is fast asleep.

Another point of criticism is that sick babies can get sicker or even experience trauma when left to cry on their own. The authors are VERY clear about ignoring the schedule when your child is sick or has had surgery. You cannot be too strict and ignore signs of sickness or illness. They also tell you that you can modify it for your needs. For example, I rocked my daughter to sleep when she was a baby. That was something I did not want to miss out on. The program still worked fine, I followed all the rules except for that one. The book also states that if you are on a crowded airplane or are a guest in someone else’s home not to let your baby just scream to disturb everyone.

The book is fascinating and I am convinced because I have seen it work and I did it for myself. I encourage you to give the gift of Babywise at a baby shower to someone you care dearly for.

Ezzo, Gary M. A. and Bucknam, Robert M.D. “On Becoming Babywise” 1995, 1998, 2001