The Ezzospeak Dictionary

Upon reading the book "On Becoming Babywise" you see that author Gary Ezzo portrays his program as a reasonable voice in the often contradictory recommendations of parenting.
Upon closer examination, however, we see that he often applies different meanings to words and phrases than that which is generally accepted. This is very misleading for those discussing what the book actually teaches. For example, though Ezzo claims his Parent-Directed Feeding program is flexible, his definition of flexibilty is too rigid to comply with the recommendations of both Pediatricians and Lactation Constultants.

Therefore, I have arranged The Ezzospeak Dictionary to help you understand Ezzo's book.

These terms and examples come from the 1998 version.

Term	Usual meaning	Babywise Usage
Block	To hinder or obstruct	To soothe  as in “Is it a good idea to block crying?” p.139
Guidance	Direction, leadership	Ignore     (45 minutes of crying is called “parental guidance” on pg 123)
Training	Educate, teach	Ignore  ("training" a child to sleep by leaving him to cry himself to sleep)
Help	Assist, aid	Ignore  (Same as above)
Prop	Something to support an object in position	Nursing or rocking a baby to sleep, sleeping with baby. (P.56)
Flexible	Bendable, adaptable, willing to yield	Inconsistency (pg 109) A temporary alteration. (P.110) A “broken” routine (pg 181)
Heightened gratification	A feeling of satisfaction or pleasure. ward for parenting	A "pitfall" of child-centered parenting (p.26)
Attachment  Parenting	Sensitive and emotionally available parenting which helps build strong emotional bonds and fosters a healthy socio-emotional development in the childd	Emotional bondage (p 97) A" new name for the outdated birth trauma theory developed by a neoprimitivistic school of thought in the 1940’s." (Note: birth WAS traumatic for babies in the 1940's due to the standardized use of drugs and forceps for every birth!)
Lactation counselors	Certified healthcare providers recognized as experts in human lactation and breastfeeding support.	An “industry” that is “heavily biased against any type of routine,” and lacking “a working understanding of routine breast-feeding dynamics.”  (p.100)
Attached child	Baby/child who has a close emotional bond with caregiver.	“Relational security”  based on "proximity, not independence" (p.140)
Parental guidance	Teaching, mentoring, overseeing	Routine feedings (p. 21)
Baby wise	A deep understanding of babies and their needs.	An Infant Management System (p.17)
Demand feeding	Nursing when baby indicates hunger	Erratic and emotive response to crying
Natural	That which occurs in Nature or without interference	That which occurs as a result of disciplined effort  – as in “trained to sleep the natural way” (book's subtitle)
Term	Usual meaning	Babywise Usage
Schedule	a series of things to be done or events to occur at or during a particular time or period; a timetable	Routine
Routine	typical or everyday activity; regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, customary procedure	Following 6 guidelines (page 111), calculated time between feedings; Timetable (as on page118)
Connectedness	United, joined, or linked; linked coherently	When Mother cooperates with baby’s needs and baby learns to cooperate with mother’s guidance. (p.38)
Advantage	a benefit or gain; eg. breastfed children have better overall health than formula fed children…	Disadvantage  as in “formula fed babies have “less of an advantage” [Over what? Unfed babies?]
Metabolic Chaos	A result of chronic illness or alcoholism which has ultimately thrown the body chemistry out of balance.	The condition in which all health babies are born that must be remedied by its parents.