The Ezzospeak Dictionary

Upon reading the book "On Becoming Babywise" you see that author Gary Ezzo comes across as being a very reasonable voice in the often contradictory recommendations of parenting. Upon closer examination, however, we see that sometimes he applies different meanings to words or phrases than that which is generally accepted, and this can lead to some confusion when discussing the book.
For example, he claims the Parent-Directed-Feeding program is flexible, but his idea of flexibilty is much too rigid to meet the recommendations of 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 p.139 “Is it a good idea to block crying?”
Guidance	Direction, leadership	Ignore  (45 minutes of crying called “parental guidance”  pg 123)
Training	Educate, teach	Ignore (in training a child to sleep alone)
Help	Assist, aid	Ignore (Same as above)
Prop	Something to support an object	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, pleasure or reward for parenting	A child-centered pitfall (p.26)
Attachment  Parenting	A method of responsive parenting to help you understand your child	Emotional bondage (p 97)
Lactation counselors	A certified healthcare provider recognized as an expert in the fields of human lactation and breastfeeding.	An “industry” that is “heavily biased against any type of routine”; lacking in “a working understanding of routine breast-feeding dynamics." (p.100)
Attached child	Baby has a close emotional bond with caregiver	“Relational security” based on proximity, not independence (p.140)
Attachment parenting	Sensitive and emotionally available parenting helps strong emotional bonds which fosters a healthy socio-emotional development in the child	A new name for the outdated birth trauma theory developed by a neoprimitivistic school of thought in the 1940’s. (Note: with the standardized use of forceps for every delivery, birth WAS traumatic in the 1940's!)
Parental guidance	Teaching, mentoring, disciplining	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 need	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” (subtitle)
Term	Usual meaning	Babywise Usage
Schedule	a series of things to be done or of events to occur at or during a particular time or period; timetable	Routine
Routine	typical or everyday activity; regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, customary procedure	Following 6 guidelines on page 111, calculated time between feedings; Timetable provided on page118
Connectedness	United, joined, or linked; linked coherently	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 higher IQ’s and 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.	A condition in which all health babies are born that must be remedied by parents.