Does *anyone* think Claire Verity's methods are kind of OK and we are hugely overreacting?

[Pruners]

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it has probably been said, but CV ws typical of someone who obviously lives alone with a bunch of cats she worships and doesn't actually LIKE children- i bet if her neighbours left their dog tied up out side barking its head off for four hours at a time, she would call the rspca- but it's fine to leave a baby to do the same thing. (not bark, obviously!)

Cheekylittlemadam - are you being serious?

Just realised I left DDs doll in the toy buggy out in the garden since 9.30a.m. while DD slept and I was on mumsnet....now totally confused which camp I fall into...

Is Cheekylittlemadam for real? God help us.

nah, it's a joke, i'm sure.
by the way, dd loved going to sleep outside when she was wee. not a newborn, though, because it was december, but by spring I used to go to the park and let her sleep while i read the papers. i don't think that being wrapped up on cold days outside is bad, but ignoring a newborn's cries is. there's no two ways about that imo.

I don't think she can be ruty...

Cheekylittlemadam - a greedy newborn - really?

Beyond the clearly hideous Clare Verity (mind you, Deena's comment on breastfeeding riled me too) what did everyone think of the programme? I thought it was pretty poor.

Particularly banging on and on with the '50's, '60's, '70's conceit, as if the vast majority of children brought up in those decades were Truby King, Spock, Attachment. It really irritated me. How many British children of the '70's were put in a sling and breastfed? The minority I'd have thought. I was breastfed but topped up with Carnation milk!

I can't have much sympathy for the parents who willingly inflicted CV's methods on their newborns. Imagine if they look back on that programme when they're adults.

I don't know anyone personally who was raised at the same time as me (born 1973.) ewho was BF- indeed the 'Oh you were too hungry, I ahd to BF you, thr HV said' is fairly ubiquitous amongst the parents of people I know well enough.
Maybe it takes a bit longer for things to get to Somerseta s well, but my dad was seen as a radical just pushing me in my pram as a man- goodness knowws what would have happened had he been seen with a sling!

1940's childrearing in our famil apparenlty ampunted to Nan or one of dad's older siblings (one of 16 kids) being lined up in their prams and propped up with a bottle containing a small amount of alcohol to make them go back to sleep- nobody sugesting that one, then? Wonder why!

"beastly", MP. lol. Someone needs to be told that it is 2007, not 1907.

It was incredible. The three child care experts were like the fairies who turn up at the begining of Sleeping Beauty. Two of them bless her, then the evil one comes crashingf in dressed in green and black all warty and cackling to put on the fatal spell.

I can't imagine anyone really going along with what that dreadful, cold automaton practices. She ought to be investigated for human rights abuses. Those poor, poor babies in her care and those stupid, weak parents.

Not that I feel particularly strongly either way you understand.

I got through the first five minutes of this programme before tearing myself away. Any longer and my mutterings would have turned into screaming & throwing things at the TV.
I went and ranted to DP instead about child cruelty, he just nodded and smiled.

I think CV is a cruel sh*thead. I NEVER swear on MN but I am so angry.

Apologies to anyone I offend except CV herself of course...

reply to beanstalk on the other thread:
I think they are advocating her method, the show is suggesting there are 3 main methods to raise a baby and give this as much importance as the other 2. I don't have a problem with the experiment side of things as long as the parents are happy to go along with it (which they're not, they were in tears) and the babies' needs are being met (which they're not - they need feeding more often than every 4 hours, and need love and attention).

I've never heard of her either. Ive taped the prog though. Will watch later.

This is what Channel four replied to my complaint:

Thank you for contacting Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries regarding BRINGING UP
BABY.

BRINGING UP BABY is a thoughtful and responsible observation of different
methods of childcare. There have been conflicting and different views in
this area for many years and it is, without doubt, a valid area for
exploration in a television programme. The series is not setting out to
promote any particular method of childcare, but rather to explore and
contrast them.

All the parents involved were asked what style of child rearing interested
them, the methods were then described in general terms, highlighting the
guiding principals, each family then chose the method which most closely
related to their instinctual choice. Each family reported that they were
happy with the childcare method they chose and are still continuing with it.

We can assure you, that we take the welfare of the children in this series,
as with all programmes, very seriously. Various medical experts including a
GP and consultant paediatrician were consulted and the babies received the
usual regular health visitor checks.

Please be assured your complaint has been noted and logged. The log is
distributed throughout Channel 4.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us. We appreciate all
feedback from our viewers; complimentary or otherwise.

Regards,

If they really wanted a 70s baby, it would have been BF from birth and the Mum given tablets to "dry her milk up" weaned at 6 weeks, rusks in bottles of cows milk at 8 weeks, milky tea in a bottle at 3 months. Both parents and anyone else smoking in front of it, no car seat and out in the garden for hours.

That was me as a baby thankfully things have moved on from then.

My Nan has 5 children, my mum first in the 50's (1957) and her last my uncle in the 70's (when she was 44)So has had children in the 50's,60'and 70's, she bf them all, cuddled them all, and manged to bring them up to be pretty nice people even if I do say so. They all either slept in the same room or co-slept, interestingly my uncle who was a 70's baby was b/f the longest and stayed co- sleeping until he was 5yr !!(I' never get any sleep with my two yr old monkeys so wouldn't do that myself) so I think the 70's had more of an effect on her child caring.
Think my nan just by-passed the 50's idea of "how to bring up baby" thankfully. Also she has 11 grandchildren and has at one time or another looked after us all and she believes in cuddles and lots of them

Hi Peachy,

I was born in '73, and I was bf. My grandmother was a midwife, and she didn't believe in letting babies cry, and mum has said to me that she (gm) loved breastfeeding her babies (mum and my aunt). I am getting the feeling she must have been quite enlightened for her time (she was also heavily involved with the family planning association). I'd love to talk to her now about some of these things, have really missed her recently!

I hated the program, and it just seemed so so wrong. I screamed at the TV that she should really just go to hell. Surely we all have "instincts" for a reason? I really hope the poor girl's father comes to his senses in the next show.

So sad, and shocking.

Interestingly though, my MIL had some of her children in New Zealand (which was cited in their archives at the end), and she told me a while ago she would often leave them outside for the fresh air when they were babies (this was in the late 60s, early 70s). I wouldn't leave my babies outside though, unless I was with them (not likely as I would get too cold myself!)

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Leaving babies outside for a short time is not the end of the world as long as you are glancing at them frequently and listening for sounds of distress.
One bit of advice I was given with DS (now 3) is that babies need some time alone to process everything they've absorbed so far, and if you're ot doing the sling thing, I don;t see anything wrong with leaving a sleeping baby alone as long as you're in earshot.

The worst thing about CV is the apparent relish she displays for treating newborns harshly - which ,hopefully, is the main thing that will put the majority of stupid people off her methods...

Quite agree madamex that there's no ahrm in fresha ir for babies- I do think its a good thing, like you say though you have to be listening for them and keeping an eye. Which is where my issues lie.

agree with you madamez - they/ she seemed to take glee in treating the babies so harshly

One of my cousins did this method or very similar. She thought it was fantastic. Put her dd in her room at 7:00pm and didn't open the door again until 7:00am no matter what. After a few weeks of screaming baby gave up and of course stupid cousin said it had worked and baby slept through the night.

Unfortunatly there will always be some lazy people who would rather be sat on a sofa drinking wine then attending to their baby's needs. They shouldn't be allowed a dog never mind a baby.