I've been doing SO much research on parenting and child training lately, I need to organize my thoughts. Michael basically puts me in charge of deciding & researching things like this, and I just end up really confused. I borrowed the book "Preparation for Parenting" by Gary Ezzo; author of the more popular title "Babywise", from a woman at our church. I guess I had already formed an opinion by hearing too many negatives (and going to this website). But, the program seems to be really popular among Christian parents. And, all the people I've known who used it have really well behaved/mannered children (teenagers too!). But... some things that bothered me are the fact that Mr. Ezzo has no medical/pediatric background (his wife was a nurse though) and he was excommunicated from the church he started the program at. He has 2 daughters. And, if I'm remembering correctly, conducted all of his studies himself (I don't remember reading any independent research studies in the book). Throughout the chapters on feeding, he mentions multiple times that its not breastfeeding vs. formula feeding that matters, its the manner in which the feeding takes place. Which doesn't sit well with me or the American Academy of Pediatrics. I've read of numerous incidence of low milk supply, failure to thrive, etc... due to the scheduling (though, he does say if baby is showing signs of hunger then feed him). Plus, he is all about sleeping through the night by like 12 weeks, I doubt that would be profitable for milk supply. He also says breastfeeding past 1 year has no basis in health but is a personal preference. And, since we have to train baby to 'self-soothe' to get him sleeping through the night, I wonder if baby would even try to communicate hunger (or anything else) to mom if he is used to not getting his needs met (its like negative reinforcement of the cues baby is sending mom, thus he would stop sending them?). I think there is a reason why God gave us emotional reactions and instincts to baby's crying. But, I do like the idea of having uninterrupted sleep & being able to schedule the day by knowing what baby would be doing at that time. And, I do think, to some extent, the schedule would be comforting to baby (by having a routine).
And, a little side note, because I think its really interesting... women will keep producing milk until the baby stops nursing (like years & years). If God didn't intend women to keep nursing until the baby didn't need it anymore, wouldn't he make it so we stopped lactating 12 months after birth?
On the other side of the coin, is Dr. Sears (the "father of attachment parenting").. a Harvard graduate Pediatrician (for 30 years I think?), father of 8... he is also a Christian. I read a quote from him in the LLL book that said the healthiest kids in his practice were breastfed in terms of years. I can only think of one family that has older kids that did a lot of the AP things (like baby wearing, child-led weaning, co-sleeping). But most things that I read (haha, ok everything!) are pro-AP, so there is probably a lot of bias. But, AP just seems like common sense to me... you know, follow your instincts. There is a book called "How Would Jesus Raise Your Child".... I haven't read it, but I just think its interesting to think about (especially with the whole spanking issue, which I'm still unsure of...). But, when I think about it... do I really want to deal with the possible results of a lot of the AP things (like interrupted sleep, having a child unable to sleep in his own room or nursing a 4 year old [lol, I think I read average age for child-led was like 2 or 2.5]). I guess there just needs to be a balance and we will just have to wait and see what our baby is like.
I don't even want to post this, because I feel like I'm totally bashing non-AP... but I'm not. And I've wasted like an hour if I don't post this (I think I'm wasting an hour even if I do...). And, I'm sick of sitting here and need to get off the computer!
Ohhh... but, Michael and I watched this video from the website Christian Monotheism. Its about the Trinity. I don't know if its really interesting or really questionable. So now we are studying up on the trinity and biblical unitarianism....
