To say I don't quite get the hatred for Gina Ford?

[wineandwhining]

So, I have been given a copy of the Contented Baby and the weaning book, and came onto MN to do some reading and realised that you cannot even mention her? I ebf my DD so definitely don't stretch her feeds, but the naps we adhere to quite well.

I see on here lots of divisive feelings for the woman but after reading her books and getting my girl into a good routine, I don't get the controversy.

Can someone explain it to me?

I'm slightly concerned that I'm having a baby and dh has mentioned that his three other kids with his ex were Gina Ford babies

I found it very helpful. I loved those clockwork two hour lunchtime naps!

Found her sleeping routines great actually.,

@AnneLovesGilbert

The woman who bans making eye contact with your baby? Yeah, bloody stupid. But horses for courses. I prefer to look at my baby. Works for us.

Whaaat??? What is the rationale behind that?

Wait, you said the G word! Thought we still had to say SWMNBN lol

Love her nap routines though. The feeding stuff not so much but the making sure DD gets the right amount of sleep... definitely works for us

It wasn't for us, but to be fair on the point that she isn't a parent she does have a lot of experience with babies. I think she can reasonably give advice from a professional standpoint without being a parent, albeit I don't agree with it personally

Contrastingly on a pps point, an optician is an expert on eyes and not child development so while it is completely daft of them to think a two year old could read letters, it doesn't really take away from their expertise on eyesight (although I'd question their common sense!)

I don't really take too seriously any expert that proclaims their way to be infallible although lots make some useful points.

Wait did I go through a time portal to MN in 2006?

Any parenting expert specifically, my last sentence should read

Wow people hated GF when my now adult dd was a baby.Cabt believe people still read her shit tbh

Someone in our NCT group followed the advice purely for her and her husbands lifestyle needs (ie didn’t want a child to interrupt their life).

I could no longer face the sound and sight of an obviously distressed baby and cut contact to a minimum. Now 8 years later she has two children who have no flexibility and can’t cope without a strict routine -I silently laugh when they have to leave early because their kids need to keep to their routine otherwise it’s a breakdown.

@wineandwhining

Love her nap routines though. The feeding stuff not so much but the making sure DD gets the right amount of sleep... definitely works for us

How do you make sure she follows Gina Ford’s methods for sleeping instead of her own?

She generates an awful lot of hot air on MN. Either her routines work for you and your baby or they don’t. There are plenty of others out there. I never quite understood why she attracted so much negative attention (and I am talking about well before the aforementioned big fall out) - it’s not as if she was forcing anyone to adopt her methods

Gina Ford’s book is the only book I have ever thrown away, I buried in the wheels bin when DD was about 3 weeks old. That was when I realised that the only way the regime would ever work is if the baby had read the book too.

The Gina Ford book was fab for me, I was struggling immensely with reading cues and demand feeding and just didn't seem to 'get it' like some mums to, and my husband suggested I try a routine, so I did and it just seemed to work so well for us, her advice about things like how much babies need to sleep (a lot more than I thought), proper breastfeeding where you really empty the breast, and long naps were great. My first was definitely a contented baby and then my second fitted in the same routine, so I had two to two and a half hour naps every lunchtime for a couple of years. I didn't stick rigidly to everything, nor did I get upset if the routine was all out, just started again the next day.

The thing about eye contact is not to be stimulating and play in the middle of the night. If you want to crack on waking your baby up at 2am, go right ahead! Structuring day and night differently was great for me and mine slept through at about 8 months and 6 months.

Anyway- I don't feel strongly anyone else should use her methods, it's whatever gets you through but having babies who have eaten enough, slept enough and had enough stimulation worked well for us.

@CeibaTree Avoiding eye contact when settling to differentiate between play time. Supernanny suggested the same thing.

The difference being one was a Victorian believing in evolution whilst the other was from the 20th century believing in regression to the Victorian era!

Sorry that was a reply to @Plesky but for some reason didn’t tag

Ssshhhh.... she'll hear us...

@Enrico I've just unaged 15yrs. It's brilliant

@Pumperthepumper oddly she is almost to the minute. She does wake early etc but then she's just an hour ahead; but will always be happy to nod off on her own etc. hopefully she stays this way! Being realistic though. 😂

Is there some way of using the time portal to give a warning about the coronavirus? Start stockpiling loo roll 2006 MNers and don't eat any bats or pangolians.

@picklemewalnuts

It very much depends how you read her book. She never suggest slavishly following it or not responding to the needs of your baby.

It's about encouraging your baby into a pattern, and sticking to the pattern. It works pretty well for a lot of babies, but it's important you follow the routine as well.

When we follow routines, babies tend to fall into them. That worked well years ago when people generally stayed home except for a walk to the shop.
Now we tend to have a lot happening all the time, going here and there, at whatever time on different times. Our babies don't get into a routine.

Yeah and some babies are having none of it

I remember buying that book as a first time mother alone in another country with nothing to go on. It introduced me to the idea that a routine would be a good thing which was helpful. Beyond that I found it unhelpful, it was 20 years ago now but I remember thinking, “hang on, how can I follow that when I’ve got to cook supper or queue at the post office?! Then I realised it was written by someone whose day job was other people’s babies with all the emotional detachment that implies and that the people who could work the routines she recommended weren’t the sort of people who had to do a whole load of drudgery aside from managing a new baby, and were people who also employed people like GF to get up in the night. I just couldn’t manage it as a person with no real support, it caused me more stress than it alleviated until I relaxed and took the bits from it that I could use.

I’m glad I found this thread, GF seems to have alluded me and I had no idea about the controversy!
Funnily enough a friend of DH swears by the book and recommended it. Think I’ll steer well clear of that amazon recommendation!

I bought her book in the Aldi special buys aisle 2 years ago when my son was about 8 weeks old...... It really really helped! Yes she hasn’t had kids but that doesn’t make someone less qualified if that’s what she’s trained in.

I was a first time mum and it helped me understand what kind of naps to expect each day and my son took to the routine straight away. I was very flexible with it though and just used it as a guide but it actually made it easier for me to leave the house. I have a child now who still sleeps 12 hours every night and naps for 2-3 hours at midday so I actually think she’s onto something.

I now have a newborn son and will do the same - it’ll stay on the shelf until he’s also around 8 weeks and I want to bring in a bit more structure.