On Becoming Babywise Vol. 1 : Learn How over 500,000 Babies Were Trained to Sleep Through the Night the Natural Way Vol. 1 by Robert Bucknam and Gary Ezzo (1998, Paperback, Revised)

I buy this book as a baby shower gift to new moms and dads. It presents a methodical way of getting your new baby on a schedule, both day and night, eating and sleeping. For new parents it is a must. And for parents struggling with their child's sleep patterns, it is never too late to put them on a routine and schedule. It is healthy for both children and parents.

Almost immediately after starting to read this book, my husband and I regained the hope we needed to make it through the first night in two weeks tear-free. With our first child being only 18 days old, we were lost and awake 11pm to 7am with our unhappy newborn. Only after day one with this book and reading the first few chapters, we learned a lot like "feed, awake time, then nap time", "we-ism", "sleep props" and "PDF". We had been trying everything to put the baby asleep after feeding which was insanely harder. We both got over 6 hours of sleep last night and the baby didn't scream and cry for hours. Amazing.

As the previous reviewer pointed out, much of the advice in this book goes against AAP recommendations. Also, nearly every bit of advice regarding breastfeeding is counter productive and will do nothing for most women but make them slowly lose their milk. Let your baby cry it out like that?! Crying is your baby's only way of telling you something is wrong. There are so many better, kinder books out there, (starting with anything by Dr. Sears). For the health and well being of your baby, please look elsewhere for a compassionate guide to caring for your baby.

This book can be very dangerous. The AAP actually came out, describing this parenting style, and warned against it. It has been linked to failure to thrive, low weight gain, hospitization and death. The guy who wrote this has no medical training, no child physchology degree - he's just a guy who thinks his way is the best way. There is actually a section that tells you that while in the midst of letting your baby "learn to self sooth" (aka scream their lil' head off) that if the baby vomits from the stress/crying (which he says is normal) to go in the room, not look or say anything to the baby, wipe up or lay a towel over the vomit ..AND WALK BACK OUT.....This is not ok - please stay away from this book....

This book was easy to follow and understand. Althought I did not follow 100% of the advice in it, there were some very helpful sections. It helped us with our first son get him to sleep through the night. Our other children after that was easier based on what we learned. I would recommend this to other new parents.