On Becoming Babywise (Updated and Expanded)

Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep

By: Robert Bucknam MD, Gary Ezzo

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Distinguished pediatrician Dr. Robert Bucknam and coauthor Gary Ezzo are two of the world's leading experts on baby sleep and feeding patterns. Millions of new mothers across the globe are coming toward this new brand at an increasing pace as they find and share the life-changing success they are achieving with their newborns. This updated anniversary edition celebrates 25 years with Bucknam and Ezzo's groundbreaking approach, which has found favor with over six million parents in all 50 states and has been translated into 20 languages around the world.

For 25 years, On Becoming Babywise has been the de facto newborn parenting manual for naturally synchronizing your baby's feeding time, waketime, and nighttime sleep cycles so the whole family can sleep through the night. In his 28th year as a licensed pediatrician, Dr. Robert Bucknam, along with coauthor Gary Ezzo, demonstrates how order and stability are mutual allies of every newborn's metabolism and how parents can take advantage of these biological propensities. In particular, they note how an infant's body responds to the influences of parental routine or the lack thereof.

Early chapters start with explorations of everyday aspects of infant management such as the three basic elements of daytime activities for newborns: feeding time, waketime, and naptime. Practical discussions then focus on broad and niche topics including feeding philosophies, baby sleep problems, baby scheduling challenges, nap routines, sleep training multiples, baby sleeping props, colic and reflux, and many other dimensions that impact breast feeding schedules, bottle feeding tips, and baby sleeping training. Five resource appendices provide additional reference material:

1. Taking care of baby and mom
2. A timeline of what to expect and when
3. Baby sleep training problems and solutions
4. Monitoring your baby's growth
5. Healthy baby growth charts

On Becoming Babywise is more than an infant-management concept. It is a mind-set for successful parenthood. It can help any parent develop a plan that meets the needs of both a new baby and the entire family. These principles have worked for millions of parents and, when applied with common sense to your unique situation, can work wonderfully for you, too! Recommended by doctors across the country.

©2017 Hawksflight & Associates, Inc. (P)2017 Pear Press

Critic reviews

"I am a practicing pediatrician and assistant professor of pediatrics. Residents and new mothers I work with have found On Becoming Babywise overwhelmingly successful. My residents report a positive difference in the confidence of new mothers who work with this plan compared to those who do not. The freedom Babywise provides a new mother is so refreshing. Life is predictable, allowing her to be proactive in parenting, not reactive, which usually produces less-than-desirable results. My parents become baby-wise with Babywise." (Dr. Linda Meloy, Richmond, Virginia)

"From a pediatrician's perspective, this is a sigh of welcome relief for sleepless, weary parents." (David Blank MD, Longmont, CO)

" Babywise provides sound parenting advice and commonsense pediatric care to many parents who are confused, frustrated, and downright sleep deprived. As a pediatrician and father of four, my wife and I routinely receive positive feedback regarding our children's behavior and sleep habits." (Dr. David M. Miller, Superior, CO)

Great info but biased to traditional families

The book stresses the importance of a mother and a father in the traditional family unit and makes no apologies about it. If you can look past that, the info given on baby's routine is excellent. As a nanny, this is the type of routine I strive for with my charges, and I've seen good success. Some info about car seats is out-dated. always consult a Child Passenger Safety Technician with car seat questions.

Common sense baby guide.

The book proposes what I would consider the common sense approach to feeding and sleep training your baby. That is to say, not expecting a baby with no concept of time to conform easily to a rigid adult schedule, while also not allowing them to completely run the show. There is also lots of other general information that can be found in countless other parenting books and much of which should be explained by your pediatrician. So if you haven't read any other parenting books, or are struggling with the concept of balance it might be worth a read. Otherwise, I personally would consider this one skiable. Additionally, it should be noted that the book assumes that the household is that of a traditional married couple and offers no special or additional advice for those in other situations; such as single moms & dads.

Great concept, difficult for those not on prolonged maternity leave

The feed-diaper-play-sleep concept worked for our baby very well. But the PDF parenting style requires a very committed couple with a prolonged maternity leave to make it happen. The philosophy is also heavily biased on maternal commitment. The book assumes a married mom-dad household. As others pointed out, this no longer is the reality for many couples today.

Very helpful book

Very helpful book and great for listening for busy mom. I couldn't find time for reading during the day and in the evening I was so tired to read. Listening to book is great!

So helpful!

This book was my bible in those early months - so grateful to have it as a resource.

Great book to read for those early days

good book to have to give you some guidance during early days - but missing charts on audible version

Preachy and religious

Didn’t do my homework and was put off by how preachy, conservative, and limited this book was. I wouldn’t recommend it to parents focused on evidence-based, progressive, open parenting.

Read before baby arrives!

This book was so very helpful to read before baby arrives! I am currently seven months pregnant and decided to read this book before baby gets here, and it was the best decision! There are so many helpful tables, charts and useful information to know before your little one arrives. I will probably re-read it once more the last couple weeks before the baby gets here as a nice refresher. So much helpful information and such a wonderful book!

Sleepy baby

Hopefully some of the advice will help improve our baby's sleep. He is 5 weeks old and not exactly adhering to a schedule yet...

The book is great, but the audio is really bad

The lady that is speaking has a really strong accent, Her accent makes really hard for a English As Second Language