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AIBU?

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Original poster

I cannot stand Clare Byam Cook...

24 replies

woahthere · 14/01/2011 07:33

just saying....Wink

OP posts:
kreecherlivesupstairs · 14/01/2011 08:14

Who? [confused and old]

IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern · 14/01/2011 08:15

I read the title and thought me neither.
She is clueless and useless...bf expert my bum.

IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern · 14/01/2011 08:17

Kreecher she is a breastfeeding expert that's advice is awful and not actually very supportive of breastfeeding.
eg. heard her say once that there is no need for women to bf in public they should plan their trips between baby feeds.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 14/01/2011 08:22

Oh right. Sounds like a load of old bollocks if you ask me. Plan your trip between feeds?

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 14/01/2011 08:25

bugger off Grin I failed to BF successfully DS1 then read her book "how to breastfeed and what to do if you can't!" and managed to BF DS2 for a year! I found her advice on positioning ond latching on fantastic and she wasn't touchy feely earthmotheresque which suited me
(oh and I went .....lots!!!)

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 14/01/2011 08:26

Went out obviously

blueshoes · 14/01/2011 09:07

Clare Byam Cook, Gina Ford and Annabel Karmel are the holy Trinity. Wink

aPixieInMyCaramelLatte · 14/01/2011 09:11

I gag just thinking about clare byam cook.

Silly silly woman with her potentially damaging advice.

"bf a toddler is the same as giving them a glass of coke". Utter bollox!

onadietcokebreak · 14/01/2011 09:15

I read her book hoping it would help.

It didn't

After todays bunfight on BBC breakfast I don't like her either

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 14/01/2011 11:07

OK just heard her quoted on the news....I stand by my appreciation of her book helping me to BF......BUT....she has somewhat gone down in my estimation Grin

lalalonglegs · 14/01/2011 11:53

I found her book really helpful. As well as getting me to carry on bf'ing when HVs were saying I should just bottle feed after a few days, it also helped me to diagnose my mastitis that the HVs completely ignored.

Treats · 14/01/2011 12:31

Sorry - with hobnob here - I couldn't get the hang of latching at all until I read her Top Tips for Breastfeeding book. Once I gave 'shape and shove' a go, I was away and successfully bf'd with no issues at all for 5 months. Still a bit Hmm at her description of the technique, but it worked for me.

kenobi · 14/01/2011 12:34

What did she say?

Based only on 'what my friend said' and no other data, she seems to really help some people. A friend in my NCT group was about to give up and got her in for a private appt. She managed to bf for 6 months plus because of her.

eeyore2 · 14/01/2011 12:46

I respect her for being one of the only people willing to come up with her own ideas rather than just towing the same old party line that lots of women don't find useful. She has helped a lot of mothers and, more importantly, babies. Sometimes it feels like breastfeeding occupies a bizarre 1984-style world where people are forbidden from telling the truth about their own experiences (which are dismissed as 'myths') in favour of a single approved 'truth'. Anyone not towing the line is, it seems, subjected to public ad hominem denunciation.

mnistooaddictive · 14/01/2011 12:46

When dd1 was born I had terrible trouble breastfeeding and couldn't find anyone or anything who recognised my issues of oversupply and quick letdown. When dd2 was born I read her book and it had a section on people like me. I sat and sobbed as I felt validated at last. So many people made out I was making a problem out of nothing and I was crazy that to know I wasn't alone was huge. There are bits I don't agree with but she gave me something back that I had lost

AntonDuBurk · 14/01/2011 12:48

Has she ever done an MN webchat?

I think she should.....

lou4791 · 14/01/2011 12:54

I agree. Can't stand the woman. I wonder what qualifications she has in breastfeeding and what organisation she trained with. I find her advice to be potentially very damaging and it saddens me that she seems to get air time on news programmes.My heart sank when I heard her name o the BBC news this moring and I braced myself for the rubbish she was about to say. There are so many real breastfeeding experts who's input would be a real help.

narkypuffin · 14/01/2011 12:56

Are you Dr Seuss?

onadietcokebreak · 14/01/2011 13:11

was requested!

AntonDuBurk · 14/01/2011 13:17

I had a feeling there was a story there dietcoke, thanks. Can't imagine why she would decline Wink

TBH I think that any expert who claims a new baby should be doing something by a certain age is at best demoralising for a lot of parents.

cf CBC on Breakfast News today that by 8-12 weeks a baby should be sleeping through the night. Yes I was extra cross because her "solution" to the "problem" of not sleeping was formula but would be Hmm even if she'd suggested CIO, cranial therapy or even Green Eggs and Ham! Grin

onadietcokebreak · 14/01/2011 13:20

antonduburk- only found it because I was googling her this morning to see if she was the author of the book I had read.

I like that bill Turnbull pointed out that the worst thing that can happen for a new mother is for her confidence to be affected.

BecauseItoldYouSo · 14/01/2011 13:24

eeyore2 - Here, Here! Some common sense.

prettybird · 14/01/2011 13:25

AntonDuBurk - that really annoyed me too this morning ("that by 8-12 weeks a baby should be sleeping through the night. Yes I was extra cross because her "solution" to the "problem" of not sleeping was formula"). And I can say that as the mother of a (exclusively breast fed) ds who slept through from 2 weeks Shock (yes, I did have to wake him to feed for a while, until he starting gaining weight better Wink)

Also that her response to the other lady was "my experience is also evidence based" Hmm No..... that is not "evidence based" as she sees a self-selecting group of people/babies.

kenobi · 14/01/2011 15:17

Aha, I see. Yes, this would have made me feel awful as DD is a bad sleeper.

Of course, sleeping through the night is only 6 hours.

I was boggled by the fact that some people's babies slept through the night within weeks of birth, then someone mentioned this little fact to me.

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