The New Contented Little Baby Book: The Secret to Calm and Confident Parenting

Product Information

Five Life commissioned a programme called Gina Ford: Who Are You To Tell Us?, which aired on 4 March 2007. [7] Mumsnet libel [ edit ]

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)

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.

By creating routines that match a growing baby's innate natural rhythms, Gina prevents the hunger, overtiredness and colic that can lead to excessive crying. Babies who are settled into Gina's gentle routines are happy and contented because their needs for food and sleep are appropriately met and they should sleep for their longest spell at night from an early age. In 2004 Gina recognised that, despite the wealth of parenting information available, many mothers still felt isolated. In an effort to fill the gap, Gina launched ContentedBaby.com and, in the process, created a wonderful, supportive and dynamic on-line community.Gina’s work took her first to London and then overseas but, wherever she was, she still found herself drawn to families and called upon to baby-sit or take on the role of temporary nanny. After several years Gina returned to England and, given her skill and passion for working with children, decided to pursue a new career in childcare. Gina Ford has helped thousands of families resolve challenges over the years and her bestselling New Contented Little Baby Book has sold over 1 million copies around the world.

The introduction of solid foods was too early for us in this book. We waited til 6 months to introduce solid foods with our baby. But then we took Gina Ford's advice on the topic, with much success. One UK magazine states in their review " Ford's books are like operating manuals, pointing out that although Ford worked as a maternity nurse she herself has no children of her own".Learn the secret to getting your baby to sleep through the night--so you can get the rest you need. You’ve heard horror stories about babies who cry constantly, need to eat every two hours, and never learn to sleep through the night. And now, whenever you think about your soon-to-be-born bundle of joy, you can’t help wondering how you’re going to manage those two a.m. feedings and non-stop crying jags--and how you’re going to live your already-hectic life on little (or no) sleep. Relax! If you follow the practical, real-life advice in The Contented Little Baby Book, your baby should be sleeping through the night at around six to ten weeks. You’ll learn why you shouldn’t follow the conventional “feed on demand” advice. You’ll understand why even older babies can benefit from sleeping and eating schedules. And soon you’ll have what every parent wants--a happy, healthy, contented little baby. Drawing on twelve years of experience researching and studying the natural sleep rhythms and feeding patterns of young babies, one of Britain’s top maternity nurses shows you how to… * Recognize the difference between hunger and tiredness

The book has some immensely helpful info about breastfeeding, such as, "Babies between one week and six weeks usually need at least 30 minutes to reach the hind milk." (p. 53) And "If you change breasts too soon he will end up getting too much fore milk, which is one of the main causes of babies never seeming satisfied and suffering from colic." (p 56) "If he is fed enough during the day he will be much more likely to got to sleep for longer periods between feeds in the night." (p 57) The book also discusses the popular societal trend for bottle-feeding and formula feeding that "became well established in the fifties and sixties..." And this was quite helpful info, since our baby's grandmothers were keen to formula-feed, while my choice was to exclusively breastfeed.

In 2004, the BBC commissioned a series from Outline Productions called Gina Ford's Baby School, using Big Brother-style methods to oversee the progress of newborn babies. In January 2005, Ford had a meeting with BBC and Outline Productions, and refused to agree to certain reality-style aspects of the format. With only a few weeks before filming, Ford pulled out and was replaced by Dr Tanya Byron. [6]