Gina Ford... Does anyone use her routines / sleep approach anymore?

[SpringTime2023]

Interested to get people's views as I know from colleagues (+10 years older) that they LOVED it.

Just interested to see if any further research has come out as to whether it's damaging (the controlled crying aspect?) and if there are more modern approaches out there now.

Kids are now 16 and 18 and well adjusted. I used Gina (in a slightly relaxed way) and no ill effects.

no we went more down the biological nurture route.

I used it in a loose sense in terms of rough timings and in particular the bedtime routine. I had a bedtime routine from very early on (10 days old!) and for us it was amazing.
DD didn't sleep through by 6 weeks or anything like that, but it did mean we had a couple of hours between around 7-9:30 to have food and watch tv or get an early night if needed.

I read her book to help me establish a routine when my baby was newborn but more to get an idea rather than following it strictly, my baby does love his lunch time nap though!

Feeding every 4 hours didn't work for him though so I adjusted it to 3 hours which is perfect for him and still is during the day at 8 months.

It has worked very well for us. He was sleeping 7-7 by the time he was 8 weeks.

As others have said, I used it as a loose guideline for all 3 of my dc and they all slept really well at night. (All were sleeping through by 10 weeks).

Are we allowed to mention her on here again now ? 🤨

Isn’t there a klaxon for GF? 😆 I used the book and trying to make a non sleeping baby do it was pure torture for us both. I wouldn’t recommend it at all. I burned it in the end 🙂

GF saved my sanity! I had a good sleeping and feeding routine in place by 6 weeks. My DC now teens and appear well adjusted...so assume not harmed by it!
Have suggested to younger friends struggling with sleeping to try it. Two close friends were very anti GF ( and I know its out of fashion) and both have 5/6 year old DCs still with no real sleep pattern and both are shattered/ at end of tether.
I can can only say it worked for me..

I tried it for a couple of days, decided it was fruitless as dc couldn’t read it and had no idea what was going on. I threw it away, utter nonsense.

For those who’ve been here less than 15 years GF threatened to sue MN for liable due to negative posts on here. Her name took on a Voldemort type status for many years.

she who must not be named was bonkers

Is she dead now?

No! I started reading it 20+ years ago. Gave up when I got to the bit saying I should be up and dressed at 7am or maybe it was 8am? Whenever, it was too unrealistic.

Sounds like it works for the babies it works for but not for the rest.

Using her and another routine based book helped me regain my sanity at four months in with DT's.

Yes they both found their own routine but not the same ones and I was losing it completely.

Some families like routines and others don't. There isn't one right way to raise babies.

I had one GF baby and one very resolutely non GF baby. Luckily the easy one came second, so I understood it was very little to do with my parenting and mostly just down to her temperament.

I don't agree with a lot of what she wrote and her routines are far too strict, however, I've looked after a lot of babies and young children over the years as a nanny and in my experience, the babies and toddlers who were the most settled, content and cried the least were the ones where parents had encouraged regular bedtimes and regular daytime naps in their cots, so they were getting plenty of good quality sleep. That's only based on my anecdotal observations, but I do believe that babies and young children thrive on routine and predictability in their lives.

Is she the one we're not allowed to talk about.

I did start a thread about her last year under a different username as I honestly didn't know the history, didn't know her methods.
I was told I was being particularly goady, as I MUST know! No, it was a genuine question, thread remained.

I've a 27 and a 15 year old. She's never come up on my radar. I guess I just managed without her. Whatever it was that she did.

I do miss Rosemary Conley fitness classes though. Box steps, ski arms, a little clap with your jump this time. Now for something trickier... The grapevine... 🤣

Son up and fed at 6. Little nap at 8.30 and video on! Sometimes I'd have to rewind it from the previous day taking up precious nap time. Heady days.

20 years ago there wasn't much out there for first time mothers who didn't have a clue! I used she who must not be named and another book called The Baby Whisperer. I found GF helpful for understanding roughly how often to feed a newborn / alternating boobs and how much sleep the average baby should have & it did help because I had no help from family and not much in the way of advice from friends, so I was literally clueless. It was the baby equivalent of The Rough Guide for me. Having said that my PFB was generally bathed, fed and asleep by 7:30pm! Not the case for subsequent DC because, you know, real life.

I think these days there's just so much more info and up to date (not to mention more scientific) research out there, I'm not sure I'd recommend it! It definitely did not help me feel relaxed!! Remember, we didn't have the internet as it is today, never mind a smart phone back then!

Worked brilliantly for my now 19/17 yr olds.

Several of my peers tried it. My experience is that if you were a parent who liked routine and planning pre children, then Gina Ford worked well for your family. If you're more last minute, loose timings kind of person, then Gina really isn't for you.

As Gina was already getting a bad rep when the 17yr old was a baby, I started them off in life with demand feeding and sleeping whenever. After 6 weeks of having her overfeed herself and vomit at least every day, finding a routine of sleeping most of the day and being awake most of the night, and a lot of crying, I got Gina back out. A few days later they were a much more content baby who slept most of the night and rarely vomitted.

Of those I'm still in touch with from that time, all the teens now sleep through the night (unless they're gaming/partying) and have good food habits (as good as teens can have) whether they were Gina babies or not.

The baby whisperer was the other book I used as well.

I think I must have missed her by 3 years or so (see above, kids ages) and then when I had now teen, she was probably debunked.

I couldn't believe when teen was born that all these babies were sitting around eating Wotsits 🤣 (of course they weren't, but they didn't have them 1st time around!)

20 years ago there wasn't much out there for first time mothers who didn't have a clue!

Have to disagree @travelogue There was loads of stuff. I had about 5 books, none as controversial as GF. Miriam Stoppard's huge handbook was one of them. I borrowed several books from the library. I used to get 2 Pregnancy and Baby magazines every month that were full of info. I can't remember the rest as I got stuck into GF.

What there wasn't back then, thankfully, was a big pile of "celebrity" books about how to be a good first time mum by people who only knew their own experience. All the popular books were by doctors or people with several years of hands on lived experience.

I also took some things from the baby whisperer. I found EASY really helpful.

No but I used Tracy the baby whisperer and know others who did. I think she’s Gina-lite?? (Never read Gina)