Foreword
After completing medical school and serving my residency in obstetrics
and gynecology, I felt knowledgeable enough to be a parent. Between my
wife’s degree in child development and my medical training, how hard
could this parenting thing be? We would just do what comes naturally
and follow our instincts. Right? Wrong!
Soon after the birth of our first son, we quickly found our enthusiasm
and confidence turned into exhaustion and frustration. Mom was up three
times at night and the baby was cranky during the day. The unsolicited
advice typically offered was to feed the baby more often since he was
obviously hungry. We did feed him, around the clock, every two hours.
As we found out later, that was the cause of the problem, not the cure.
Scientists can put a man on the moon, but they cannot answer the
most basic problems of early parenting: how to have a happy and
contented baby who sleeps continually through the night like the rest of
the family and a mother who is not in a perpetual state of exhaustion.
Through our common interest in children and parenting, my wife and
I became acquainted with the work and accomplishments of Gary and
Anne Marie Ezzo of Growing Families International. The Ezzos’ basic
and loving concepts for nurturing newborns virtually eliminated the
problems listed above and many more. I have personally observed infants
who were guided by the Ezzos’ principles and those who were not. It
became obvious that parents equipped with the right information do make
a difference.
I have since made the transition from obstetrics to pediatrics and with
the switch came the medically sound principles of Babywise. They work
consistently, not only for the thousands of children already touched by
Growing Families International, but also for my four children, my