Healthy Living Books Books

Rating: - If you want to be a positive parent don't buy this book
I bought this book on the recommendation of my friends. When my son was born I followed it to the letter. But my son did not want to sleep when Gina told him, or eat when she dictated. I ended up feeling as if I was doing everything wrong. This book completely shattered my confidence which is not a good thing for a new mother to feel.

After three weeks of being feeling a failure my husband literally threw this book away. After a few days of me doing what felt right and going along with my son I felt so much happier. But for a long while after her 'routines' were lodged in my brain and I felt terrible if he wasn't a sleep at 3pm, or whenever. Despite her warnings of doom that if I didn't follow her routines to the letter my son would never sleep through or feed properly, we bonded and thrived.

My confidence soared, I starting doing what felt 'right' and became mych closer to my son. And though I don't see it as a sign of good parenting he was sleeping through by 8 weeks.

With my second baby I completely ignored her book and every thing went even better.

I'm not denying that there were some good points to be had from her book but I found these tips in other books too. But her fundamental philosophy is flawed. These little tiny babies are not meant follow routines rather set their own one, you can help guide this but not dictate it.

Remeber that the author has never had a child of her own and thus doesn't really understand what a new mother is going through.

If I had my time again I would never read this book as it basically ruined my enjoyment of the first few weeks of my baby's life and made it a very stressful experience.

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Rating: - allowed me to continue breastfeeding...
On the one hand, I found this book invaluable... the plan for increasing my milk supply was FANTASTIC... After 6 weeks I was struggling with a continually hungry baby screaming for milk all afternoon and not gaining much weight... I decided to give breastfeeding one more week - luckily I found Gina's plan and it saved us! It was hard work, but I found it a lifesaver having someone telling me something definite to do about the problem... I was able to take control without depriving my baby of anything (and, in fact giving the poor girl some time to sleep with a full tummy for once!)
On the other hand, I have found it much easier to allow my baby to set her own routines since we sorted the feeding problem... we have a more flexible routine since I discovered that babies change from one day to the next and cannot be forced to do anything they don't want to (like sleep!!)
So I would definitely recommend this book... but take it with a pinch of salt... pick and choose what suits you and your baby...

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Rating: - Nothing but praise
My wife and I had our first beautiful baby 5 months ago. By week 5 we were basically doing a "cry on demand" routine for raising our child. Feeding him when he needed to be fed and putting him to bed when we thought he needed to go to bed. At week 5 my wife had to start expressing milk and was in a tremendous amount of pain in the breast area. That together with our baby waking up through the night was making child raising a testing experience if I can use that term. I essentially at that moment took on the role of Mr Mum. We purchased this book a few months earlier on the advice of a friend and hadn't really opened it up. That night I spent about 4 hours reading the book. The next day we started putting our baby into routine following Gina's recommendations. Since week 5 and now which is about 4 months, we would have visited his room before 6.30am maybe half a dozen times. Our baby is happy, where happy (because where getting a good nights sleep) and we can plan our days as we have a good idea when he will be awake, feeding or asleep. In every respect I have nothing but praise for this book. Maybe it works with some babies but not all, I can only use our baby as an example and in that respect it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. Most parents try and get their babies in a routine but with Gina one simply applies it a little more strictly. I.E many people say "never wake a sleeping baby" We have no problems waking our baby at 10.30pm for that rollover feed as we know he will only wake up distressed at 3am if we don't. We don't follow it to the letter but more as a "strong guide" if I can use that term. We still give our baby an afternoon nap from 4 - 4.30/4.45 as it's simply too long for him to go from 2 - 7 without a sleep and we find he likes to have his morning nap at about 8.30am not 9am as recommended. We also followed the half feeds initially in the morning and evening before and after his bath. This morning like clockwork at 6.50am he started yapping to himself in a happy fashion waiting for mum or dad to pick him up, change him and feed him. I have nothing but praise for this book and thank Gina from good old "down under" for putting it out. We will definitely be buying her follow up books as our boy gets older. One tip, be careful who you praise it to. Some people can be a little aggressive in their condemnation of it. The two terms I have heard to describe it are "Boot Camp for Babies" and the "Nazi Book." Both offensive and completely wrong. Finally to a previous poster who talks about the fact it doesn't talk about giving your baby love. That is frankly a stupid comment. If your dumb enough to not give your baby love after reading this book and think that Gina is in anyway saying that, then frankly your not competent enough to raise a child. We could not give our baby more love, cuddles and kisses if we tried.

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Rating: - This book is definitely worth reading for every new mum!
I am a mother to a seven year old daughter, who loves to sleep and is well adjusted and happy. I read the original Contented Little Baby book when I had her. Yes, it seems strict, but I really liked it because it worked for me. I am no Earth Mother, my daughter was born by emergancy caesarean and I bottle fed - but at no time did this book make me feel guilty or 'not a good mother' it gives a rounded view and covers all areas not just 'perfect scenarios'. My daughter slept through the night at six weeks, and to this day sleeps twelve hours a night and only wakes up if she is ill.

I am now expecting twins and look forward to reading Gina Ford's twin version as it may prove more helpful than the other twin books I've read which have been thrown in the bin ie. Double Trouble.

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Rating: - Saved my sanity
I can't recommend this book enough. I suffered with my first son everything that she suggested can happen with baby-led feeding. He was a sleepy baby, following a traumatic birth for both of us, and therefore was only waking for a feed once every 6 hours approx, at the time when I should have been building my milk supply up. Exactly as she says, he perked up at 10 days old and was wanting feeding in the evenings. It was so bad, I was feeding 10 min on, 10 min off for hours. It was so exhausting. Obviously this was because I had not built up a good milk supply over the last 10 days, and after a day of doing things my milk supply was lower anyway. I know this 'cluster feeding' (I know it is called) was because my son was not having his hunger satisfied. This had the knock on effect of him not settling all night and us being completely sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation and stress caused me to not build up any milk, completing the vicious circle. When asking the health visitor for help, she told me this was completely normal and to carry on!

I must point out, I am a trained nurse and am involved mostly in health promotion. I do not understand how new mothers can be taught to continue this practice, as I was so close to giving up breastfeeding and moving to the bottle. The CLB completely addressed all these problems and more, and I was able to get breast feeding back on track and make sense of life again. This meant I was able to really enjoy my son properly and fall completely in love with him, rather then be constantly worrying about the things that were going wrong.

The way things were going with my son I was heading to depression. I know as a health professional, how we have to teach what is evidence based and decided to be followed by the DoH, but as a person with common sense, I know that there is always evidence to contradict that evidence, not to mention new evidence that comes out. The number of times I have discovered by experience that evidence doesn't work and have wished I had used common sense to help a patient. I am aware there are a few occasions throughout the book that Gina suggests something where there is no evidence to back it. However, it is obvious she is suggesting these things because that is what her years and years of experience has taught her, something I can relate to.

Having a routine in our lives (obviously always worth taylor making it to your individual lives) was not restricting in the slightest. Because as a family we knew what to expect, we felt so free. Initialy, however, we found not being able to go out as couple in the evenings whenever we wanted restrictive, we soon realised that that is parenthood, and 4 years later, our son is happily going down to sleep at the correct time that a child of his age should and is not suffering from sleep deprivation that so many kids are these days.

Bottom line, if evidence based practice is causing the whole family distress and depression to the mother, surely an alternative must be sought. After all, the most important thing, I believe to a mother and baby, is a bond. I am convinced that the effects of a mother's PND on a baby is much worse than aiding that baby into a routine, that falls into so naturally.

Great book