The more I read about the Babywise baby raising regimen, the sicker I get. The basic premise about this “Christian Based” (the loosest fucking sense of the term) child rearing program (which, incidentally, has been linked to failure to thrive in infants) is to basically bend the child to your will at the very beginning of life. To set a feeding schedule from the day of birth and not stray from it, to set a sleeping schedule and adhere to it, no matter how much the baby cries because this teaches them to ‘give up hope of getting their way’. Hey! Sounds like the happiest household on earth!
Let’s not forget their views on corporal punishment:
*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 flex to it,” so that the sting will re-direct the child’s behavior.) *
That’s from ezzo.info a spectacular debunking site on this putrid pile of shit ‘guide’ to raising good Christian kids. Ezzo, the author, also advocates pinching a five month old for spitting out food, and suggests that raising children any other way is unbiblical.
I could weep for what is happening to these babies, the broken spirits, the sadness, the neglect, the physical and emotional abuse, and I weep for the parents that are bullied and pressured into following this complete bullshit.
Only bone to pick-A little corporal punishment(though not on a fucking 5 month old, and not pinching, or switching!!!), can be good for the soul. Straightened my ass out many a time. I know there are as many opinions on this as there are people on this board though.
Oh and jarbaby, I seem to remember a thread on kids that devolved into a pit-style Babywise discussion about 3 weeks ago. THat’s the only reason I know anything about this strange rearing method.
It sounds (from what you have described - I haven’t read the links), that it is almost like a throwback to earlier “Christian” ways of rearing children. A class I took did a short blurb on eighteenth or nineteenth century child-rearing. She quoted from the journal of a… pastor? preacher? some man involved in the church, that described the punishments he inflicted on his child. He advocated breaking the child’s spirit, in much the same way it seems these people do. Something about trying to get them to internalize. Drat, I don’t have my notes anymore and I can’t quite remember. Anyway, that might be where these people are getting their ideas from. Though it hardly excuses the sick fucks.
Is this real?
Its not made up?
Oh my.
I never read anything when I gave birth except that Things To Expect series.
Physcial puishment on an infant?
Just wouldn’t work.
Yes, if a toddler tries to touch something they are not supposed to, you can pull them from it and say Bad! or something, but still; spanking or such isn’t understood that young.
I am no expert, but I fed my son when hungry, laid him dow to sleep and he slept.
I’ve never oticed this poster you mention, maybe thats good.
It reminds me of Jane Eyre, when she goes to the boarding school, and the porridge is burned, so they can’t eat it for breakfast. So some teachers give them lunch with bread and cheese. (They normally don’t have lunch). Then the head master comes, and says “Oh, when you give these children bread and cheese rather than burnt porridge, you may satisfy their stomachs, but you damn their souls!”
Then the children get sick, because of malnutrition and unsanitary conditions, and there’s an epidemic of sorts. And he gets sacked because a few children die.
Ah, so now we may know why someone was asking how to get their baby to eat less in an IMHO opinion thread a few weeks ago… They mentioned a “book” but no title.
Damn. . .just damn. I’m gobsmacked that people use the Bible as a guide to getting through life. And I’m pissed as hell that a bunch of people are coming out with Biblical diets.
But this is beyond the pale. Thirty years and this is as far as anyone has gotten.
Except that he hasn’t been sacked, he’s still out there selling his books. There are churches that have split over this stuff, friendships destroyed, families who won’t allow their children to play with any non-Ezzo children…hell, the local Barnes & Noble still sells his books.
And when someone tries to blame him for telling them to raise their child that certain way, and the child ends up injured emotionally or damaged physically or psychologically because of it, he always says it’s because they didn’t understand him, and didn’t follow the book correctly. As far as I know, he has never been sued for his horrendous advice. Maybe somebody ought to. You know, one of the families whose child wound up with a feeding tube because his ‘feeding advice’ made the child orally aversive and they stopped eating entirely.
I understand the families a little. Just a little. I mean, when I was a Christian I wanted to make God happy, and I wanted to “do it right”. I did a lot of (what strikes me now) really stupid things in the name of “doing it right” back then, including blocking the doors of abortion clinics and going to jail for it. I sincerely believed it would make God happy, or at least, turn away His wrath. I understand how people can get sucked into this kind of thing, expecially if they are easily swayed as I was by large groups, and persuasive speakers.
Also, if it’s your first kid, you don’t necessarily know any better. Might not know that the kid that’s reaching for food on his high chair, and squishing it between his fingers, is doing what is NORMAL - and that the child needs to do those things, and needs to be permitted to do those things, in order to develop a healthy relationship with food. Smacking the kid’s hand for doing normal things will only teach him to be abnormal, maybe to his own physical detriment. By the time somebody dares to step in and say “Hey, this is NOT NORMAL, you are HARMING your child” (because you know, we get so much unsolicited advice we tend to tune it out, yet the idea of actually saying “You’re doing it wrong” is kind of against the rules)…the harm is done.
Christ, these people are fucking sick. How else can a baby communicate, but by crying? He can’t say, “Hey bitch, get over here and change my diaper-now!”
I’m speechless… Y’know I can agree with the idea presented in the article (good healthy food, cut down on the junk give them healthy options) but just the WAY she is presenting it. Like this
That’s both sides? Y’know being ‘hippy’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing no matter what you eat yet how she writes implies that it’s not good at all nu uh.
I don’t really want to read what else she’s written she’s weirding me out.
