So, clearly most of what the Baby Whisperer says about bf is balls, but is anything she says right?

[wastingmyeducation]

I'm reading it more for sleep and routine ideas, but I couldn't believe (literally) some of the bullshit bf advice.

xx

bet they were shite

Well maybe I was exageratting a little with that discription PortandLemon !!

But i'm pretty sure her description of a "Grumpy" baby made me feel a bit sad that you could think of a wee tiny baby in that way.... but then i guess i didnt have a Grumpy baby so dont know?

I have to admit, I quite liked some of her ideas- especially the one about crying baby doesn't equal bad mummy! It gave me the confidence to listen to dd1, rather than panicking and feeding her all the time just to make her be quiet. I don't think I ever didn't feed her when she was hungry, and I actually thought the book was a bit more forgiving than others, basically telling parents it was a learning curve and not to beat yourself up if you didn't get it right every time. But maybe I have a weird take in it!

IN
THE
BIN
imo

minky: "she trains her toddlers not to touch her precious ornaments!"

What a nut case. Does she sit there with a cane to rap their fingers?

It is important for a very young child's development that they be allowed to explore in a safe and childproof environment - to experience different textures, weights, learn about gravity, even break things ... because they are finding out about the world around them and natural laws. To artificially train a toddler not to touch is potentially stunting their natural developmental curve.

Another ignorant 'expert' which with little understanding or disregard of child development.

I liked her timings for bf. 7,10,1,4,7 but I kept this up until 6.5 months. I didn't change it at 4.

I found the bf advice really unhelpful - all the worrying about snacking. Put up put down works for some people but didn't work for us. Also all the worrying about feeding to sleep and getting into bad habits was very unhelpful.

So my conclusion, then, is that the BW is unhelpful.

I remember that she was against the baby sleeping in a bouncer, pram, sling etc. Don't get how you would manage to leave the house , eat, shower or do anything if you took that seriously.

is it ok to slag her off given that she's dead and can't sue mn then?

I spent the first couple of weeks of DSs life religously recording his every movement in a notebook on her recommendation. Completely obsessive and a waste of time. What I felt I needed at the time was someone to tell me exactly what to do, and whilst there are some "slight" drawbacks with the She Who Must Not be mentioned book ( or are we allowed these days) she does set out routines very clearly, whereas I found the Baby Whisperer to be this ridiculous half way house where I was encouraged to understand my babies cries ( nope, never had a clue) to feed on demand ( but not too much on demand ducky because then he will become a guzzler) and trying to keep him awake after feeds ( anyone else tried this with a newborn, its somewhat pointless and dispiriting).

Never read her book and it does not sound like I am ever going to(most copies seem to have been binned anyway...) from postes it sounds like a very "cold " way of nurturing a baby.

I don't think "cold" is in any way a fair summary, onthewarpath -- she's very pro getting to know your baby, treating them as distinct people with their own likes and dislikes, and respecting him/her as an individual (for example, she says you should always explain what you are doing and talk to them a lot), not leaving them to cry (her sleep training method of choice is pick up-put down, where you pick them up whenever they cry), etc. It's just that her ideas of how you achieve this wouldn't work for everyone (particularly the feeding advice) and she is quite sniffy about people who follow other paths (be they the very strict GF-type routines or the very relaxed Attachment Parenting approach).