Hi I was wondering if anyone had had a one to one consultation with Gina Ford and what it was like. My dd is 19 months and barely eating anything, she's v skinny and tall. She has lots of energy and is developmentally fine but she has been quite irritable recently and isn't sleeping well. I try and relax about it but I do give her alternatives. However my husband is a lot more stressed and it's creating a lot of tension between us - there's a lot of pressure from the in laws who seem to have all had perfect toddlers without strong characters, and who eat and sleep well. I worry about the long term impact of the pressure and lack of nutrition/low weight gain. I'm also 7 months pregnant and would like to try to improve things for her before no 2 arrives. I've looked at a few specialists and Gina Ford has offered to help over the phone (obv at a cost). I need to know what dd needs to eat to be healthy, how to try to introduce new things, what to do when she eats nothing for days/how to get her to sleep thro then, and for my husband to hear this (he's not good at reading any of the books or advice online!)
For related content, visit our food content hub.
Food/recipes
Has anyone had a Gina Ford consultation?
Bridgetjonesasamum · 01/05/2012 08:42
Yes I did, about 10 years ago now 
It was awful, really terrible advice and I wish I'd saved myself the money and my baby the heartache. This was for a very young baby, maybe it would be different for an older child. When you say 'specialist', bear in mind that what GF has is experience, which I'm not knocking, but afaik she has no training whatsoever. WRT the sleeping, she will tell you to leave her to cry at some stage. If you're happy to do that then fair enough, but be aware that it is likely to form a fair bit of her 'advice'.
TBH I think you'd be far better posting on MN and asking for advice. I know all the different opinions can be confusing, but at least it's free and you can pick and choose what works for you. Have a read of something by Tanya Byron too, I really like the advice she gives.
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
Poor you, sounds like you've really got it tough. I haven't had a GF consultation for 2 reasons (and this is just my personal preference), GF hasn't had children and not all of her information is evidence based. There is lots of help on eating and sleep on MN, but if I was going to pay I a Consultant I would prefer to choose one who was a parent and gave out evidence based information.
As for your DDs eating, get this book and get your DH to read it too. If he's so stressed out about it and wants change then he should be doing something about it too and this book is a good start.
You could also try giving her 6 small meals a day instead of 3 big ones. It sounds like a bit of a faff but a few friends have tried it and found their DC eat more during the day and sleep better at night.
When you say she doesn't sleep well, how often does she wake? Is it really a problem or is DH's reaction causing the stress? You may want to get this book too. We used it with DS and it helped loads.
Dr Sears has got some great evidence based information on sleep too. Have a look at foods that help you sleep, how much sleep does my child need?, best bedtime snacks, this one is fab and will probably be helpful for your new LO too 31 ways to get your baby to sleep and stay asleep and finally have a read of this, and get DH to read it too before you part with any hard earned cash 
.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.