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. Unfortunately, this was too far to the other extreme for me, but I do think it still has a lot to offer. I found it was best to be at home for her midday sleep, but loved knowing that I would have 2 ½ hours every lunchtime to get on with chores or catch up on sleep. Now it turns out that my uncle and aunt actually used routines from the Contented Little Baby Book way back when my cousins were babies. They will usually say something along the lines of “My friend used the routines from that book and their baby sleeps like an absolute angel, its incredible”.

The Contented Little Baby Book, based on Gina Ford's personal experience of caring for over 300 babies, was first published in 1999. The aim of the routines is not to push your baby through the night without a feed, but to ensure that by structuring the feeding and sleeping during the day, your baby’s night-time waking will be kept to a minimum. Think of this as a mini book review, although unlike a school book review, I am not doing this under duress! For those readers who say that the author’s routines and suggestions are “cold,” this isn’t a how-to book on providing your child with what it wants on-demand, and if that seems harsh then it’s just not your style.The fact that you are able to understand his needs and meet them quickly and confidently will leave both you and your baby calm and reassured, and avoid any unnecessary crying.

GF insists on many occassions throughout the book that "her babies" all slept through the night/didn't get colic/blah and therefore her methods are proved correct.It's possible that I may have a second baby in a few years who isn't as contented as my first born and find this book the answer to my problems. The bit that is stuck in my memory the most is the story of parents that took a sleeping pill with a glass of wine and went to sleep while their baby was crying for hours next door while being trained by Gina.

Having noted that I was reading the book, my respected friends-with-kids were unanimous in their hatred of the "Queen of routine". With this, she advised us to ensure that EVERY 3 hrs Poppy was woken up and fed, and to not let her sleep over 3 hrs.

I think Gina’s message can essentially be distilled down to this: “By being consistent and patient with your routine, your child will adapt and know what to expect at what times of the day and night. Like any non-fiction book, its contents should be taken with a grain of salt and supplemented with another book. According to Wikipedia, Gina is British, around 62 years of age and has been a maternity nurse to over 300 babies during her working life. There are more up-to-date and sensitive ways to bring up a child, please choose wisely and stay away from Gina Ford! 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.

I know so many mothers who feel trying to follow these routines caused them so much stress that it interfered with bonding with their baby.

I also found that I spent more time stressing over what came next than enjoying time with my baby and I felt that she wasn't particularly supportive of breast feeding. The routines are incompatible with breastfeeding for most people but mothers are not warned about this.