[Porkies = Porky pies = lies!!! . That's your UK gift of slang for today : ) ]

In the UK, the Queen of scheduled feeding is Gina Ford, who is author 
of The Contented Little Baby Book. She advocates timed and scheduled 
feeds, and there is a serious lack of evidence-base to her 
programmes, which change (bewilderingly) every couple of weeks, but 
which extend to the time you (the mother) rise and breakfast, and 
which include advice to express in order to feed by bottle in the 
evening.  She's a bit like Ezzo without the religion and without the 
corporal punishment. She is very well known, and her books sell well.

Yesterday I was doing some work for the day job with  a very nice 
lady who had brought her very cute and smiley little 10-week old baby 
to work with her. Knowing I was a breastfeeding counsellor, she 
informed me she was 'a huge Gina Ford fan' and how GF worked 
'brilliantly' and her baby was 'so happy' and how 'determined' she 
was that the baby would get into a routine etc etc etc.

But I was with her from about 10.15 to 4.45 and she certainly did not 
'do' Gina Ford!

Her baby fed  on five separate occasions ( I counted....she didn't). 
She didn't look at the clock, but fed her
when she 'asked' and also  when it fitted in with what we were doing, 
and she did not time her on each side, but guaged by the baby's 
responses whether to offer the second side, to pop her on a bit
longer.

She guaged when she could 'get away with'  taking her off to give her 
to someone else to cuddle/wind when she was not able to continue 
holding her. When she felt her baby really needed to have a
good nap, she fed her a bit longer until she (the baby)  zonked out. 
Most of the time, asleep or awake,  the baby was in someone's arms, 
or her mother's arms. I did not hear or see the baby cry at all, yet 
we were in a hot and fairly chaotic workplace.

She told me she didn't express as it was too much hassle, and she 
might as well just feed her.

Her baby was very contented!

It struck me, in a way that it has never done before, that in some 
quarters of our society, it's fashionable to say you are 'doing Gina 
Ford'. But in fact, you aren't doing anything of the kind.

When your pregnant friends ask you how your baby is so contented, you 
tell them you are doing Gina, and how well it works.  And so the Gina 
Ford reputation grows on little more than air.....

I wanted to say something to her, but I couldn't think of the right words!

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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