Hi! You wrote, “Also, from the looks of some of these links, they look a little one sided “Evaluating Ezzo’s Leadership: Why Bother?”. Now, I have not read it, but it does seem in it’s title to be a bit bashing.”

Those three links I posted above are things I’ve written, but quoting extensively from other sources as well. I hope you do take the time to read them. While yes, they are a bit one-sided, I tried to be very even handed.

Grace and peace,

Hope you and yours are soon on the mend!

The dot-info suffix isn’t very common, so it’s easy to mix up. *grin*

And Christina, here is a series on Ezzo and church discipline that may answer some of your questions.

Evaluating Ezzo’s Leadership: Why Bother?
Evaluating Ezzo’s Leadership: Church Discipline
Evaluating Ezzo’s Leadership, Part 3: Other Concerning Patterns

Hope this helps! *grin*

I would like to clarify this statement. It is possible for *some* mothers to exclusively breastfeed *some* babies on a BW inspired eat-wake-sleep routine. However, a mother can not know beforehand if her hormones/milk storage capacity and her child’s needs will be in sync with the BW eat-wake-sleep routine.

I do encourage all mothers who desire to breastfeed read this article that goes into details about the physiology of breastfeeding.

http://www.fix.net/~rprewett/evidence.html

Could you tell me what you see that you are describing as bashing? Because I do not desire to bash Gary Ezzo. There is TONS of information at http://www.ezzo.info, including a timeline and details of Gary’s excommunications from previous churches. The two churches, John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church, and Living Hope Evangelical Fellowship (a church formed of Ezzo-followers when Gary left GCC) both have issued public statements about Gary. They felt they had to, since he was not submitting to their church authority and since he was continuing his ministry for-profit business, selling his materials through other churches and setting himself up as a church leader. My beef about the for-profit isn’t that Gary owns a Christian business. But he took a ministry out from under the umbrella of a church, and that honestly is when teh problems began with his pride and accountability. Also, he retained (and still does retain) volunteer contact moms, and he calls his business a ministry, when in fact it is a business that is for-profit. He set up a side operation to accept tax-free donations and put the contact moms under that umbrella, even though they are really only supporting his business endeavor. It is rather…ummm…shady.

I really encourage you to read through EzzoInfo. Also, you might be interested in the comments of Frank York, former GFI employee. His site can be found at Adventures in Ezzoland.

Again, it is not my intent to judge Gary Ezzo, nor am I allowed to judge any man as God does. I do not sit in judgement of his soul and of his salvation. But as a Christian I do have to be discerning. I am supposed to look for fruit measure what a man says and does against scripture. And I think it is important to share the facts of my involvement in GFI with others so they can be warned of the unfortunate dangers inherent in GFI materials. If you have specific concerns or can point out what I have said that is “bashing” (which is such a common argument–I cannot tell you how many people I accused of Ezzo-bashing…well, yes I can. Most of the people I thanked at the end of my GFI series!) then please tell me what I have said so I can correct myself and issue an apology if one is due.

Thanks!

Okay, sorry to babble. I guess what I am trying to say is, I appreciate some of the information on this site, but I think we need to be careful not to judge these people so much and bash them. I am not sure that is very Christ-like.

Thanks for commenting! I’m glad to hear that the switching of pediatricians was for a second opinion. I would never want a mom to think that a FTT diagnosis was to be taken lightly! I do know, though, that lots of pediatricians are very unsupportive of breastfeeding, which is just goofy considering the health benefits. (Think maybe those formula companies are getting to them???)

If you read the rest of my GFI blogs, you’ll see that the majority of my parenting years so far have been spent using Ezzo materials. Which I regret now. But I have no “methods” that I would think were equal to biblical truth. I do think my methods are biblical, though…as I did when I was using Ezzo. (Of course, watching him be disciplined out of two churches said a lot about HIS view of the Bible….) I would hope that parents who want to parent biblically might consider teachers who teach biblically and who submit to the authority of scripture and to the authority of those God places above them–especially when so much of what they teach has to do with authority!! LOL!

Thanks again for your comments!!

I am the mom you quoted above. :o) I think you might have left that pediatrician as well. He was against breastfeeding! My daughter was perfectly healthy, gaining weight, and developing well (as attested to by the next pediatrician we went to). If the second medical opinion I had gotten had told me otherwise I would have done things differently. (surely you are not against getting a second medical opinion on matters of health?) If she had been losing weight or just not gaining I would have done something differently. But what we did was stick to a routine which taught her to sleep through the night and take long naps and after a few days she was a happy, content baby and we were happy parents. My other children are not hungry. Please don’t worry that this mom is starving her children. They are precious, happy, loved, and yes, well-fed. :o) I make sure when I advise other Babywise moms to make sure their children are gaining and growing well. You are welcome to call me or email me if you’d like to chat! I will be happy to talk with you.
The reason I posted my story is to let Christian moms know they don’t have to choose one camp of parenting over another. It is possible to exclusively breastfeed on a (flexible) routine..

Note: My husband is six foot five and 160 pounds. That is EXTREMELY tall and SKINNY. He does not fit into the regular charts for men. It makes sense that our children may not fit into the typical charts either. The daugher mentioned above looks just like him. She is about a foot taller now than all the other five year olds around.

I have had four more children in the past four years. My children’s ages are 5,4,3,2,and 4 months. They are happy, exceptionally healthy kids (praise God!). They all sleep great and eat great. I am not strict about the routine except for the first few weeks trying to get everything established. And even those few weeks I feed on a flexible 2 1/2 - 3 hour schedule throughout the days and usually feed every 2 hours in the late evening. I have friends (whose families range from eight, five, and three children) who exclusively breastfeed and follow (though not legalistically) the methods in Babywise.

Personally, I appreciate your concern against legalistic parenting. Take heed not to make YOUR methods equal to biblical truth. I don’t know much about Ezzos other than their method for sleep training. But I know godly families who take bits of advice and use them to the benefit of their families.

Again, you are welcome to call or email me.

Moms4Psalms
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Moms4Psalms