Critics have raised concerns about the Ezzos' lack of professional qualifications and patterns of behavior former associates say should disqualify the Ezzos from public ministry. 

Moreover, although the Ezzos have a family ministry--they do not have a functional family which raises the issue of their suitability to guide other families.  Anne Marie and Gary Ezzo have been estranged from their children for the past decade.

Summary of Concerns

• The Ezzos claim to be professionals, but have little or no professional accreditation or accountability.  Yet Babywise loftily claims that its plan for infant care sets "a new course for behavioral pediatrics," and brings "a major paradigm shift" to the health care specialty of breastfeeding management. Professional criticism is dismissed as merely the product of professional jealousy or bias.
  
  
• Lack of academic ethics. Ezzo pursues a scholarly approach to his subject, but frequently misdefines terms and misrepresents the views of others.  Footnotes and quotations in the texts often fail to support Ezzo's points when their context is examined. The Ezzos refer to private, unpublished research and contrast the experience of imaginary children to prove the safety and efficacy of their method.  Their books are self-published so there is no editorial oversight to correct these problems.
  
  
• Divisive behavior. Ezzo is currently excommunicated from an evangelical Christian church in California and has been subject to church discipline processes in two other churches in which he held leadership positions. The leaders of all three cited patterns of behavior including divisiveness, untruthfulness, and the spread of malicious gossip in retaliation for attempts to hold him accountable. Two of his former pastors have stated their belief that Ezzo is unfit for public ministry.
  
  
• Denigrating those who disagree. Ezzo has attacked, denigrated and spread malicious and false gossip about parents, reporters, medical professionals and others who dare to disagree with and/or criticize his material.
  
  
• Untruthfulness. He has been caught in lies about a wide variety of things, including claiming, in writing, a degree he never earned, emailing slanderous statements about his former church while portraying his departure from it as quiet and gracious, and plagiarism.
  
  

• His family does not reflect the promises in his books.   The Ezzos contend that when parents implement their methods with young children, their reward will be friendship with their adult children.  But Anne Marie and Gary Ezzo have been estranged from their children for the past decade.  

Essential Reading:

Living Hope Evangelical Fellowship Statement of Excommunication

Dr. John MacArthur's Statement on Ezzo and Grace Community Church

"More Than A Parenting Ministry" | PDF Version
by Kathleen Terner and Elliott Miller, Christian Research Journal, Christian Research Institute

"A Matter of Bias?" | PDF Version
by Kathleen Terner and Elliott Miller, Christian Research Journal, Christian Research Institute

"Unprepared to Teach Parenting"
by Kathleen Terner, Christianity Today

"Adventures in Ezzoland"
by Frank York, Midwest Christian Outreach

"Q & A With Gary Ezzo"
by Kelly Griffith, Bradenton Herald

Timeline of the Ezzo Controversy
Documentation linked in timeline format