Not sure where to ask about this awful terrible baby advice you have published?

[ridiculouspirate]

www.mumsnet.com/babies/features/developing-a-routine

What on earth?

Mumsnet advice pages used to be reasonably balanced and evidence based. Saw this shared on Facebook and wondered wtf someone was thinking?

Make it stop before someone tries this bollocks on their new baby!

What utter shite that article is

I always winded and changed mine to make sure they'd actually had enough, and I swaddled and put them down to sleep and they did self settle. All 3 of them, and I too had never heard of 4 month sleep regression before MN. I see my young niece hold her baby all the time and not only is it impossible for her to get anything done, the baby is permanently overtired and miserable. I honestly can't see how if that is 'current advice' it's good for either mother or child.

www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9839227/Help-my-baby-wont-sleep-through-the-night.html

Holy crap

Move your 6 week old to their own room and swaddle them on their side too.

Not all babies are like your babies, CharlieSierra. What worked for you might not work for someone else.

Thanks very much for all the feedback about this page, we appreciate it.

We've let our Content team know, and someone will be along as soon as possible to take it from here.

Thanks again!

what absolute shocking 'advice'.

1.) The way it's presented is in such a way that it implies if you don't follow this advice you're wrong, basically. Creating a rod for your own back (re rocking baby to sleep etc). Doesn't this all go against what MN stands for? I thought every baby was different and you do what works for your baby...

2.) The advice is so poor eg. number 1. My baby is breastfed, there's no way she'd manage 3-4 hours without a feed. If I read this as a new mum, I'd worry she wasn't getting enough milk from me as she would cluster feed frequently. She's only just starting to manage big gaps between feeds during the day night time is another story now at 11 months old, now she's eating more solids. And as for changing a nappy after a feed - unless they've done a poo, why would you do that?! Would you like to be woken up from your sleep to someone exposing your bum to the cold air?! I'm baffled at that one.

Charlie no one is saying hold your baby all the time is the alternative to the article in question.

If that's what she advocates, then in my eyes it's wrong. But trying to feed in a routine itself is not cruel.

I don't believe this should have been touted as expert advise, just some advise on how it can be done. And frankly I wouldn't care about being a failure in an authors eyes.

For me information like this is useful, if used with your own instincts and common sense.

I just thing it's going to far the other way to suggest that establishing a routine for feeding and sleeping is cruel. It can and does work for some families. I would never have done anything cruel to my dd, she was prem and this was the medical advise was to do routine 3 hourly feeds, waking to feed.

Thanks Emmanuelle. :)

Quite apart from some of the dubious "advice" that is an embarrassingly dumbed down article with ridiculous twee photos. It reads like it was written for a child to follow. Deary me.

Having tried to be 'baby led' and found myself exhausted, I moved to this sort of structured feeding and swaddling and within a couple of days my eldest was in a totally manageable routine and we were all much happier. I woke her to feed her at times that suited me and then got a decent sleep. Worked perfectly for number 2 too but number 3 was not happy with the structure so I went with what she needed.
I am not sure why everyone gets so het up about stuff like this. I got to a stage where I would have tried anything and this structure worked like magic. We should be willing to try stuff and not just decide it is a nonsense. Rachel Waddilove gets paid by rich and wealthy women to supernanny their babies into a routine and she has been extremely successful with it.

Initially, I thought it was a spoof.

Sounds just like the kind of "advice" (i.e. "must do") that was dished out when I had my first - 40 years ago.

She also advises letting newborns have a good shout to sleep. As in cry.

This article is very unbalanced and is not presented as opinion or just something to try out.

The note about NHS advice is very small print.

The midwives told me to swaddle DD on her side when we were still in the hospital. They swaddled with baby duvets as well!

Very poor advice.

Anyone worth their salt knows you do your best with the baby you are given.

I did EXACTLY the same things with DS and DD

DD still won't sleep through the night, survives on much less sleep than usual, would only sleep on me.

DS sleeps like a brick 7pm - 8am in his own cot and did so from six weeks old.

Yes and the fed every 3-4 hours thing is also terrible and actually could lead to a new bf mum feeling like she's failing because her baby screams when she tries to make him go that long.

Two words. Cluster. Feeding.

But the article is titled 'how to develop a routine for your baby' etc, it's not titled 'how to bring up your baby'. Surely you would only be taking the advice on board if you wanted to impose a routine and obviously for some mothers on this thread, that wasn't a priority (which is fair enough!)

As a midwife can I also point out that apart from the terrible content I also object to;

Photo of a newborn(ish) baby having water in a bottle. Why would this be promoted as normal/routine?

Photos of babies wearing hats indoors. No need for it and raises the risk of cot death.

Photo of a baby lying down having a bottle rather than been held while having a bottle. Pet hate of mine seeing babies propped up on cushions, on the floor, etc having a bottle. There's loads of research showing that persistently doing this could affect a baby's brain development. Being held while being fed encourages bonding, emotional development, etc.

Cloudhopping On the mumsnet Facebook page it's headed:

Face it - this might be the only way you ever get a good night's sleep again.

Face it - this might be the only way you ever get a good night's sleep again

Eugh. How very Buzzfeed.....(and not in an amusing Which-Cheese-Product-Do-You-Love-The-Most type way)

Face it - this might be the only way you ever get a good night's sleep again.

Total fuck up by MNHQ. Their content team needs a refresher

When ds was born 9 years ago, I didn't have mumsnet. All I had was a book, 'baby's first year' by Rachel Waddilove. I was the first of my friends to have a baby and so I didn't know there were other ways of doing things...the result was me sobbing next to ds's crib because she had said he would sleep for 2hours (and I already felt guilty for nursing him to sleep!) and he'd woken up after 20minutes and I didn't know what the heck to do now...I felt like the worst mother in the world.

So whilst some might say 'what's the big deal, if you don't like the advice don't follow it' it's nit always obvious...especially to a sleep deprived vulnerable first time mum.

Crap Facebook line and crap simplistic content. :(

I am looking forward to hearing from the content team...

Fortunately my dad pointed out that ds hadn't read the book.....sensible chap.

overwhelmed