Product Description

This book could be your salvation! A quote from the "Daily Telegraph", but this cry could equally have come from the thousands of mothers who have put Gina Ford's kind but firm routines into practice and put some calm back into their lives. Sleep-starved nights, inconsolable crying, feeding on demand - stories that make the prospect of bringing a tiny baby home for the first time daunting for any proud new parent. Fully updated and with helpful input from clients, readers and mothers who simply love her routines, "The New Contented Little Baby Book" gives reassuring and practical advice to new parents that works from one of the UK's most respected and most talked about maternity nurses. Her secret is simple and amazing - a strategy developed through years of research and experience. When put into practice, 'Gina babies': sleep through the night from an early age; feed regularly and well from either breast or bottle; and are less likely to suffer from colic. And parents are calm and contented too!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #388 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you are still struggling to get your newborn to sleep through the night, still getting up throughout the night to feed the little one, or perhaps you are feeling as if no end is in sight, you need to read Gina Ford's The Contented Little Baby Book. It may be the only thing you need to bring peace back into your frazzled existence with your tiny baby, or babies.

After all, this book promises to teach parents tried and tested methods to get their baby to sleep through the night by the time they are 10 weeks old.

For parents who are craving their first night of unbroken sleep, Ford's book may be the answer.

Ford's methods conjure up the image of a strict and loving old nanny from yesteryear. Her techniques go against the grain of many currently popular parenting philosophies. For example, Ford, an experienced maternity nurse, is against demand feeding, believes in the necessity of waking a sleeping baby in order to establish a daily routine. Her philosophy may not be the norm today, but Ford is confident of her methods based on years of experience handling hundreds of babies.

Providing an hour-by-hour, week-by-week guide on how to get a new baby into a routine, the book includes feeding and sleeping schedules based on a baby's age. The Contented Little Baby Book provides so much information that it may be necessary to keep this paperback book handy for reference should you employ Ford's techniques.

Experienced parents may not benefit from Ford's methods, but first-time parents may learn a lot from her ideas, and for the discerning reader of parenting books, this one is a must have. For the reader who would like to weigh other parenting methods before adopting Ford's techniques, the following books may be of interest: The Baby Book, by William Sears, M.D. and Martha Sears, R.N.; What to Expect in the first year, by Eisenberg, Murkoff and Hathaway; and Your Baby and Child, by Penelope Leach. --Abbe Jacobson

Review
'Gina Ford is the Delia Smith of parenting...while Delia tells you how to make the perfect omelette, Gina Ford in her baby-care manual The Contented Little Baby Book, draws on 30 years' experience to tell you how to nurture the perfectly happy baby.', YOU Magazine .'for me she was an absolute godsend', Kate Winslet, Baby & You ."It is hard to overestimate the good she has done...How to reward this great benefactor of mankind?...My wife takes the view that only sainthood will do.", Peter Osborne, Political Editor, The Spectator .'"I devoured it (Contented Little Baby Book) in one sitting. It was hilarious. The claim that a baby of five months could be trained to sleep from 7am to 7pm made me laugh out loud. Little did I realise that this was the start of my conversion to the gospel according to St Gina. That Gina Ford would soon acquire an almost divine status in my life....I look back on my BGE (Before Gina Era) and think of how many of my babies has cried and cried as I ever more desperately struggled to get them to sleep....My only regret, of course, is that Gina did not write her book years ago, when my older children were born. I look in the mirror and wonder what a difference that would have made to the bags under my eyes. If motherhood had always been as easy as it seems this time, I might not have had five children - but 10. Maybe Ruth Kelly's secrets is that she has a copy of St Gina."', Martine Oborne, Evening Standard

You Magazine (Mail on Sunday)
`Gina Ford is the Delia Smith of parenting...'

Customer Reviews

Very useful but not a bible
Bottom line: Are you a control freak? (be honest)If so, then this is the book for you. If not, then give it a miss.

I did not read this book with my first, who was a nightmare baby sleepwise, but was eager to avoid that fate with my second so I did buy and read it then. I found her general baby care advice very sound and helpful and wished I had read at least that first section with my first. As for the much discussed routines, I think that she has based them on what has worked with lots of babies and therefore they will work fine for lots of babies.

You have to take the book with a grain of salt and choose to use as much of the routine as works for you and your baby. I liked to dip into it every week or two and get an idea of how Gina thought things would be changing for my baby and then make up my own plan based on my baby's needs as well as the rest of the family's.

I have to say that I would often put him to bed thinking he wasn't tired, but give it a try because Gina said to and then find him out cold in seconds, so I do think she knows a thing or two about typical baby rhythms. However all babies are not typical, her routines are virtually impossible if you have an older toddler to manage as well, and if you are a go with the flow kind of mum you may find you don'e enjoy being a slave to a routine.

On the other hand, I think many new mums (especially type A ones) feel completely lost when they bring a new baby home. They have no experience with babies, and very high expectations of themselves. Finding themselves confronted with a whole new job, one which is far more important than anything they have done before and yet for which they are entirely unprepared, can bring on panic and depression (to say nothing of the effects of sleep deprivation and hormone upheaval.) This book can be a solid anchor for a new mum who feels out of control and overwhelmed. It tells you how to care for the baby, what to do with it all day, how to structure your new life, how to take care of yourself, and how to feel confident you are doing things more or less right. Once you feel like you have a grip on things, you can throw it away, or use whatever parts of it are working for you.

It is important to realize with this book that it is for the MUM, not the baby. Most babies will be fine on this routine, on another routine, or on no routine at all as long as they are kept warm, dry, fed and loved. A happy mum (and dad) are a great plus for your baby, so if you think you are the type of person who will need some structure and guidance to keep you sane, then by all means buy this book and give it a try. If you think you want to use your instincts and be free to go with the flow, then this isn't for you.

Fantastic book..just don't follow it to the letter!
I read this book from cover to cover (several times)when i was expecting and loosely implemented it when my daughter was born and have to say have found it absolutely invaluable in raising my little girl who is now 9 months. I think the trick is to follow it, but not to the letter (also to read the book thoroughly and really 'know' it). Most of what Gina advocates is absolute common sense. Yes..it is very rigid if you stick to it 100% but we didn't do that. We took Gina's basics and based our schedule on her ideas. I didn't even try to get my daughter into any kind of routine for the first 4 weeks or so but then (based on Gina's routines)i helped her gently find a pattern of eating and sleeping that suited both her and me. She was sleeping 11-7 by ten weeks and was sleeping 7-7 by 5 months.(she's bottle fed and weaned at 5 months). She is now 9 months old and she always has been, still is and hopefully will continue to be a very contented happy little baby. I really believe this is mostly down to the routines we've followed and the way in which i've applied Gina's theories. She's thrived on a routine...She is happy, bubbly and only ever really cries when she is tired or hungry. I have never had to leave her to cry it out...if you read the book correctly Gina does not advocate that. I was a first time very anxious mum in need of abit of support and a push in the right direction. Gina gave us that and i am now the proud, confident mum of a wonderful baby...it worked for us!! Buy it..and read it before the baby's born!

Works for the baby, and works for the parents
Such divided opinions on this book! If you wish to demand feed, sleep with your baby etc then you don't want this book. If you like a structured day and to know when your baby will sleep / feel hungry then I would recommend it. We really do get the comments 'the most contented baby I've seen'. Mine is 10 months now and I'm logging in to buy the Toddler book.

However, the book itself is poorly written, which means it is open to misinterpretaion and needs to be repeatedly scanned to find the points you need. However, that cannot detract from the success of the routine for me, and by all accounts from anyone who actually follows it (rather than reading the book and then deciding not to try it).

The point to the routine is this: while babies are indeed individuals, they must broadly need the same amount of food/ sleep etc, and this routine provides that (just like a guide for adults would recommend 8 hrs sleep and three meals: generally it works). So, especially if you are inexperienced with babies or need to fit other things into your life, this routine makes things easier.
For example, having cried all night at the maternity unit, on night 4, back home and on this routine all day, much better through the night. In fact, apart from the expected night feeds for the first few months, my baby has woken me maybe once a week - and once sorted out gone straight back to sleep. The downside is that we are always up at 7am. However, I always have my lunch in peace, we have managed an evening meal after the baby is in bed every night since he came home from the hospital, and I am confident enough to take him to a restaurant in his car seat for a table at 8pm. No fuss at all.

Specifically where this routine helps us is:
- we know when we get up, when the baby will need food and when he will need sleep: so I can walk my dog before my partner goes to work, make phonecalls at lunchtime etc.
- Gina is better than I was at guessing what the baby needed when - certainly in the early months. e.g. about 0845 he gets a bit grizzly and seems to want milk - well, I pop him into bed as she recommends (feeling very dubious) but he's straight to sleep and has a good feed at the next appointed time.
- As my baby has got older, the habits this routine introduces have so far helped us to avoid some pitfalls such as early waking and I hope this will continue as we move on to the Toddler book.

The thing to note is that in following this routine, you do not have to wait until your baby 'demands' to be fed but are able to anticipate that: so with a bit of luck there should be no tears and minimum of stress.
However, I think you need to apply your intelligence to this book and interpret what is needed as it is unhelpfully laid out. If doing it again, I would not express to store milk.

The routine is demanding, but gives you a framework to fit your life around. If this makes the parents happier then that is a great plus, and it seems to work for babies (though I suspect most techniques will work for the baby).