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The New Contented Little Baby Book: The Secret to Calm and Confident Parenting | 
| Author: Gina Ford
Publisher: Vermilion
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.18
You Save: £5.81 (58%)
New (28) Used (12) from £4.14
Avg. Customer Rating:  637 reviews
Sales Rank: 476
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0091912695
EAN: 9780091912697
ASIN: 0091912695
Publication Date: April 6, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW. UK BASED SELLERS, SENT OUT IN 2 WORKING DAYS.
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| Editorial Reviews:
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 632 more reviews...
 Nothing but praise November 25, 2008
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.
This book is definitely worth reading for every new mum! November 17, 2008
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.
Saved my sanity November 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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
 Not for every baby - and much too regimented! November 15, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
As someone who likes to know what to expect and predictability (sometimes to a fault), I read this book in preparation for our first child, and was quickly disillusioned - the book's schedule is too regimented for a new born even though the author recommends using the schedule with a day old baby. Our son was born a hearty 8 lbs 11 oz, was a vigorous eater (breastfed), and a pretty sound sleeper. He never made it through a three-hourly schedule, and wanted to be fed every 2 hrs to 2 hr 30 minutes. I tried everything - making sure the baby had a long enough feed (he was such a vigorous sucker he would empty one breast in about 10 mins), getting him to stay awake after feeds (sometimes he would stay awake for the entire time between feeds, sometimes he would sleep the entire time between feeds), but it just wasn't possible all the time. The author makes it sound like if you followed her schedule that it would definitely work and that every baby wanted and _would_ follow such a schedule if given the opportunity. This was not the case with our baby, whose cues are pretty easy to read (only fussed/cried when hungry, wet, or too tired; otherwise not a very fussy baby!). I would take this book with quite a few grains of salt because I don't think it takes into account individual differences between infants and assumes that all infants will "settle" into the schedule described in the book if parents just made the effort. It made me feel like it was _my fault_ that my son was not following the schedule, which is a very disheartening and dangerous message to give to new parents. I know someone for whom this worked very well, so I would not dismiss the book entirely - but I found it a discouragement rather than a help for our family.
 Approach with caution November 1, 2008
I read this book when my son was born, but maybe I was lucky that I had a contented baby who found his own routine. She does make sense with some things however if you read it carefully you will notice that there is no time for any actual playing, bonding or enjoying your child which I find awful. Fair enough - I cant argue with the people it helped but maybe fit some time in for bonding aswell.
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