The New Contented Little Baby Book

[Expectantmum]

Am just about to read Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby Book and just wondered how many others have read it, tried it and found it worked?

[NannyJo]

Hence the name i used to be a nanny. now a mummy myself. at work i was strisct with the children and i found it worked because they knew where they stood and were happy with that. when i had my ds i was adament i would do the same with him and not go soft. I borrowed the book from a friend and tried Gina's routine and to cut a long story short got my knickers in a real twist with it and gave myself a huge guilt trip repeatedly telling myself i'm a good nanny and a crap mummy. It took me months to stopbeing a nanny to my own son and be his mum.
What i'm trying to say i think is that too rigid routine doesn't always work. I decided that the most important thing ever be it your kids or someone elses is to be RELAXED and ENJOY and the children will follow.

[CarrieG]

I found it invaluable - I read it solemnly from cover to cover when pregnant, thought 'No bloody WAY am I doing that!', & it helped me formulate my own ideas through disagreeing strongly with GF's...

Personally I'd get 'The Baby Whisperer' instead - lots of useful information & without the sense of your least favourite auntie stood over you, wagging forefinger & with cat's-bum mouth!

[shak2k2]

As a first time mum, I tried my hardest to stick to the routine in the book. When one day I sundenly realised that I knew what was best for my little girl and between us we have worked out a routine. I did take some of the advice provided, as there were some good tips! Luckly at three months my daughter now sleeps from 7pm - 5am, which is good enough for me.

[BadgerBadger]

Baby-led is the way our family works best. We've let our DD's settle into their own routines, adjusted ours a little, and it works just fine!

I can't comprehend how a complete stranger could possibly dictate how a baby they don't know needs to be treated, or what their needs may be. I'm all for treating LO's as the individuals they are.

OTOH, I have not read GF (I wouldn't give it space on my bookcases, due to what I have heard and read from others) but it does sound as though there is information and guidance within it which could be useful to a first time parent?

Then again, I'm not sure if I would actively encourage anyone to read something which apparently damns any sliver of motherly instinct and could effectively damage or remove someones confidence in knowing that ultimately they know what is best for their LO.

[sallycinnamon]

I was given the book but never even tried to stick with it! however her idea is that if you give a baby all of its feeds during the day they won't need to wake at night. Which kind of makes sense!! Didn't pay much other attention to it though

[Jimjams]

I still think sleep etc is down a lot to the individual baby. I've had 3 kiddies now, none GF, and all given broadly the same routine (ie none during the day, but bath, breast/bottle, bed in the evening). Ds1 settled quite well on it, soon went from 9pm to 5am regulalryl, ds2 was a nightmare until he was well past 2, and ds3 is my little angel who at 11 weeks old goes to sleep and 8am and sleeps at least until 6. Different children, different ways.

[ladymuck]

I found the book to be one that was handy to have, but don't view it as the bible. What I generally used it for was as a guide to roughly how much sleep the baby should have, and an idea as to what the day could look like. The idea of helping the baby to settle itself to sleep was a good one. But to me it was more helpful to give me an idea of when an cat napping baby might just have a couple of naps a day, and when they might even drop down to say just one nap. My 2 were each "behind" Gina's timetable, so you need to take the precision she uses with a large pinch of salt - not all babies are the same.

BTW as a rule I like some degree of predictability and order to life (so have no idea why I ever thought that parenthood would be easy!).

[RudyDudy]

have a look at Gina Ford website

[KathH]

can i ask a really stupid question but who is Gina Ford - i'd never heard of her with dd1, dd2 and ds1 but whenever i go to the baby clinic with ds2 (6 mths) everyone is always quoting her!

[Amanda3266]

It didn't work for me. My DS had reflux so needed feeding little and often - no way could he keep up with Gina's routine. I read it when I was pregnant - thought it looked good but couldn't cope with it once DS was born. And the tone is seriously annoying - do I really need some childless maternity nurse telling mw what time to eat breakfast etc?
On the other hand there is some good stuff in there - my advice though would be to pick and choose from it. Gina can put any baby into this routine as she's being paid to do it - it's more than her job is worth to pick up the crying baby. You and I on the other hand are mere mortals with a huge emotional tie to the shrieking bundle in the cot and often the urge to pick them up is overwhelming and entirely natural and right.
I broke just about every rule she gave and yet at the age of 2.3 my DS sleeps soundly from 7pm through to 7am every night. Do what feels right and natural and you won't go far wrong.

[desperatehousewife]

I'm with Bakedpotato and Rudydudy - her style taken with a pinch of salt it was the thing that saved me from utter total insanity. If it hadn't been for Gina I might never have suspected and then had diagnosed reflux in my baby...as the doctor didn't have a clue about it.

[MissChief]

Go for it - I was amazed that I would want to work to such routines, but as you say, you can't really predict how life is going to be with baby until it happens, honestly, was a godsend!

[Expectantmum]

Well, I had a general flick through last night and thought the tips on feeding and naps/sleep were very good, although don't think its something I would stick to. As a first time mum I have absolutely no idea what either I nor baby will be like when the time comes so am just gonna play it by ear. Thanks for the advice ladies!

[Surfermum]

I found it in a charity shop and thought "what a funny old fashioned book"! I think I'm the complete antithesis of everything GF is about though. Some people swear by it though, I think it's whatever rocks your boat.

[milge]

Curiosity got the better of me( and the cat) had to see a MN GF live link

Read it, tried it, it worked for me

[Prufrock]

Used it with 2 kids, loved it, but do take it with a pinch of salt. Do an archive search for Gina Ford and you'll know more than you ever wanted to.

Does anyone else miss those pre-yurt days of proper GF arguments?

[bakedpotato]

agree absolutely with rudydudy. the style is appalling, and you need to take the restrictiveness and bossiness with bucketloads of salt, but if you are a certain sort of person she is a godsend.

there's stuff in there that is invaluable and no one else ever tells you -- like the fact that babies get knackered around 2 hrs after they get up, and need to nap at/just before that point.

she's also brill on explaining how to structure feeds, awake time and sleeps so the baby doesn't end up feeding to sleep, but learns in a very jolly, painless fashion to go to sleep on its own.

f only midwives and HVs told new mums these things, there would be no threads on the 'sleep' topic.

we're doing it, the Lite version, with No2 (No1 loved it), and so far it's working every bit as well as the rather slavish approach

[hermykne]

i used it and its great for the feeding and bedtime.
u dont have tofollow to the last detail
but now with my 2nd, it does make sense, logically.
1st time its not that restrictive with sleep/daytime naps becuase you can travel or go out for walks (burn the weight gain)!

[dot1]

Hi - I'll add our experiences for what they're worth..!

We used GF for ds1, almost to the letter, as we lived a long way from family, friends, help etc. at the time and found it invaluable for just being a real source of help and support. If you can take it with a bit of flexibility (eg we never had tea and toast at 8am!!) it's fantastic.

Haven't used it so much with ds2 as we're now living near wonderful parents and it's harder to be honest to fit the routine to a second child. Ds2 has pretty much fitted in to a very similar routine anyway...

So, go for it if you need a routine and haven't got much support around you! But don't worry if you find it too restrictive - babies tend to slot themselves into a routine anyway..!

[Expectantmum]

Oh dear, sorry, didn't realise I would pick on such a controversial subject ! As I said, I haven't even started to read it yet, someone gave it to me so thought I would give it a go. Briefly flicked through it and some feeding and sleeping tips sound OK but not sure I could stick to the whole thing.

Feel very bad now for asking!!! Hope I don't start any arguments!

[lunavix]

Well what I think is:

I thought it was far too restrictive for us , I really couldn't get ds to nap 10.00 - 10.45, play for 30 minutes under his gym, feed for 30 minutes....

He would NOT (and still doesn't!) structure his naps, they come at a different time each day. Also I found it restricting in that there's only certain times each day you can go out - baby groups and activities cut across this. Plus as a quick feeder he'd down a bottle in 5 minutes and I wouldn't know what to do with the other 25!

On the other hand...

It was FABULOUS for structuring his feeds. I followed the routine for the one before his age group (think she suggest this if you are starting later) and even now his feeds have stayed the same. It's great knowing when his bottles would be, and as a first time mum I wouldn't have known how to do this myself.

HTH!

[RudyDudy]

I always thought of the routines as something to aim for rather than something which had to be achieved for the book to 'work'. For me this was better than having no clue at all what was going on.

[JoolsToo]

get your jack boots out then!

[mancmum]

I feel very strongly against it unless you are made of very strong stuff.... if you child fails to stick to her rules, you can feel like a failure and most kids don't stick to the rules... use it a rough guideline ... but don't get obsessed with it...

[CountessDracula]

Sorry, I just meant that there was bound to be a row about it!

I read it, used some of the routines for about a week and found it so restrictive that I gave up.