The Complete Sleep Guide For Contented Babies and Toddlers

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It must be noted that Gina Ford has no children but worked as maternity 'nurse', i.e. looked after other people's babies and therefore had no desire, need, or innate instinct to form a long term attachment with the baby. Instead she would have been keen on babies making her as little work as possible. The same is true of most other 'baby gurus'. Research by Bell and Ainsworth (Maternal Responding and Infant Crying, 1972) showed that babies who are left to cry actually end up, by the end of their first year, crying more than infants who are attended to. Research also shows that by tuning in to an infant's needs, not only is the bond between parent and child strengthened, but the baby also learns alternative ways of communicating besides crying, and this stimulates the infant's physical development. Contented Little Baby is now a lifestyle choice for millions of people around the world. But part of this success is down to the fact that Gina still makes a point of talking directly to many mothers every week. Ford was the only child of a single mother, born 42 years ago on a farm in south-east Scotland. Her father left the family soon after her birth, so she and her mother were desperately short of money. "We were so poor we didn't realise we were poor," she says. "To me, working-class people were posh. We were like peasants compared with them." The concept of crying down is pretty simple. "Provided a baby has been well fed and is ready to sleep...he should be allowed to settle himself." ( The Complete Sleep Guide, p. 40). What this means is that when baby is ready to sleep (see sleep cues) you do your

With her I did PDF from birth, sleep on her own bed, eat-activity-put down to sleep schedule.I watch out carefully for sleep readiness for put her down (swaddled) 35-40 mins after being up anyhow. She just stays wide awake for the next 320-30 mins or so, then cried on and off for hours until the next feed. to 6 months: by 3 months of age, you could be enjoying longer sleeps at night anyway – many babies can manage 6 to 8 hours of unbroken night time sleep at this age, although not all do. But it is still too early to even think of sleep training during these early months. Gina Ford (born c. 1960) is a British author of childcare books in the United Kingdom and a former maternity nurse who has cared for over 300 babies during her career. [1] Ford's 1999 book The Contented Little Baby Book advocates a daily routine for both the baby and the parents, with the day divided up into very precise slots. I found that the early feeding schedules in this book were not able to satisfy our baby, and so I breastfed more on-demand (my doc's rec) for the first 6 months, instead of implementing Gina Ford's schedules. That said, after 3 months, I began to "concentrate" a little more on the schedules with the feedings, but still didn't keep exclusively to them: if my baby was hungry in between, I just breast-fed her a bit. Basically the problem with routines is that they ignore the fact that different babies have different needs on different days. By ignoring this fact the parents are never given the chance to learn to 'read' their baby, understand what each different noise and wiggle means, and react to it (this includes getting it wrong and looking at your crying baby thinking, "What?!?!" - which can be very uncomfortable of course).Gina Ford is the author of several parenting books, including 'The Contented Little Baby'. Her methods involve getting a baby, from birth, used to the routine which she prescribes. Some commentators have likened her approach to animal training. Deviation from her timetable is not allowed as this will give the baby the idea that it is in control of the parents, when in fact the parents should set the rules for the baby. Whilst some persevere to follow her method 100%, most Gina Ford advocates seem to use her ideas as loose guidelines for working out their own method of introducing routine. Many of these also admit that they would not introduce routine to a baby under 5 months of age, especially if breastfed. By following nine different routines that match your baby’s natural rhythms, this method claims to avoid the issues that bring on endless tears such as hunger and tiredness. That she may be more preoccupied by the plight of the parents than the baby is suggested by her retort to accusations that her books encourage mothers to leave their infants to cry themselves to sleep. "I don't think that three nights of 20-minute bursts of crying is psychologically damaging. What I think is more damaging is that four out of 10 marriages are ending in divorce: people can't cope any more - and why can't they cope? Parents don't have any time to themselves in the evening and they're exhausted." As Gina’s reputation grew, she was approached by a number of publishers, and in 1999 she wrote her first book, The Contented Little Baby Book. It was a runaway success, largely due to enthusiastic personal recommendation, its matter-of-fact style and practical approach appealing to fathers and mothers alike. With a new edition of the book published in 2006, it continues to be the bestselling parenting book in the UK, with sales of over half a million copies to date. It has also been published in the US and in several foreign language editions including Spanish, Hebrew, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, Russian and Chinese. Since the success of her first book, Gina has gone on to write a further nine books and co-written two others, covering subjects such as Weaning, Feeding, Sleeping, Potty Training and Twins, as well as the popular Ella and Tom series of children’s books. Five Life commissioned a programme called Gina Ford: Who Are You To Tell Us?, which aired on 4 March 2007. [7] Mumsnet libel [ edit ]

On the other hand, Dr William Sears (a paediatrician who therefore holds actual qualifications in infant development) and his wife, Martha Sears (a paediatric nurse, and also therefore qualified in child development - Gina Ford holds no qualifications at all) have eight children. They are the writers of the highly recommended ' The Baby Book' amongst many other publications. Unlike Ms Ford's book, The Baby Book is not a prescriptive system. The advice is given and it is up to the reader how they apply it. It also has huge amounts of information on all aspects of a child's development from birth to two years old. pre-sleep routine and then you put baby down to sleep awake to allow him to fall asleep without a sleep prop. Next you let him be, even if that means you let him cry. At this age, I would try a certain period of time (personally, I wouldn't do more than 15-30 minutes, maybe even less for some babies) to help her go to sleep and then after that time, help her go to sleep in any way possible. When babies this age get overtired it is often impossible for them to go to sleep. Just try again at the next sleep period. When she is past the newborn stage you can do a slightly more aggressive approach. In two recent surveys the Daily Mail listed Gina as one of the most influential women in the field of health in Britain today and The Times listed her as one of the top fifty people who influence the way we eat, exercise and think about ourselves. The Independent newspaper, in the feature ‘Power of one’, describes her determination to change attitudes of parenting this century. She is still as hands-on as ever, which allows her to have a unique and sympathetic understanding of the problems parents face and, more importantly, how they might solve them.

Why is Gina Ford controversial?

In answer to criticism about her methods she writes, "I would never advise that young babies should be left to cry for lengthy periods of time to get themselves to sleep. I do stress that some overtired babies will fight sleep and they should be allowed 5-10 minutes' 'crying down' period." Ford writes further on this subject in her book.

I had to be stroking his hair, with a lamp on and the door left open, and the baby needed perpetual motion to nod off. So impromptu lunches were out, as are late nights with a baby sleeping in a car seat under a restaurant table. I was determined to do it right, and I remember feeling so frustrated when Barnaby didn’t quite fit into her daily plan. Pitfalls: Having to respond to your baby the second they cry can be exhausting. Gradual retreat sleep trainingKey principles: By creating routines that match a baby’s natural sleep and feeding needs, Gina Ford, author of The New Contented Little Baby Book, claims to prevent the hunger and overtiredness that can upset young babies. Setting up good feeding and sleeping patterns will enable you to meet your baby’s needs, and parenthood will be satisfying for all. Keep in mind that the routines are strict. You’ll also need your partner on board with the idea – it’s a lot for one person to manage and you will need a break from time to time. Why is Gina Ford controversial?

Remember, sleep is actually a skill that needs to be learned. If you do the hard yards early on, you will reap the rewards into toddlerhood and beyond. Six boys in the space of nine years, with different personalities, needs, bodies, temperaments, all squeezed into one basement room.

One of the most helpful things to know from this book: "No baby under 4 months should be allowed to stay awake for longer than two hours at a stretch. Care should also be taken not to overstimulate the baby 30 minutes prior to being put to bed." (p 41) Her intense identification with the agonies that her "over-permissive" mother suffered may be what fuels her almost strident tone in trying to persuade modern mothers to take the advice that she believes will protect them from breakdown. "A lot of the jokes are that the book [The Contented Little Baby Book] is for control freaks and I think that there's an element of truth in that. I'm not ashamed of that. Why should we not be in control of our lives? We live in a world that is going out of control; a little bit of self-control is good." Usually the crying before sleep lasts around 10-30 minutes and diminishes over time if you are consistent with this approach. It usually lasts 5-10 minutes in a baby under 6 weeks old. This method is called crying down because when a baby cries to settle to sleep his cries usually go down in intensity over time.