Why the CLB routines are different

During the years that I worked as a maternity nurse I read hundreds of books on child care, but I have also had the most unique privilege of working personally with more than 300 families around the world. It is because of these parents and their beautiful babies that I feel I am able to share with you so much of what I have learned, which I hope will help you overcome many of the everyday practicalities of parenting.

As a maternity nurse I would arrive at a home a few days after the birth, and live with the family 24/7 for periods of between 3–5 days, or sometimes several weeks to six months. While the media make much of the fact that many of my clients were rich and famous, I can assure you that the majority of families I helped were not. They often had to get outside help for health issues, family bereavement or other personal circumstances. Whether they lived in a mansion with 20 bedrooms or a flat with only one bedroom, were a rock or movie star, a struggling actor, high-profile banker or teacher, these parents all had one thing in common – they each wanted to ensure that their baby was happy and contented, and that they could somehow manage to meet all of their baby’s needs as well as cope with the demanding lives that they led. The leading child care books at that time all endorsed baby-led parenting and claimed that it was impossible to put a small baby into a routine. The implication was that if parents were even to attempt to put their baby in a routine they could seriously damage the child’s health.

In my first book I said that, having successfully spent many years teaching parents how to put their newborns into a routine that results in a happy, thriving, contented baby, I can only assume that the authors of these books have not personally worked with enough babies to know this is possible. The fact that The Contented Little Baby Book became a runaway bestseller through personal recommendation is proof enough that the statement I made in my first edition in 1999 has been proved true. Parents who have properly read the book, the routines and the advice I give, can testify that the CLB routines do really work. Unlike old-fashioned four-hourly feeding they do not involve leaving a baby to yell until a feed is due, or leaving him to cry himself to sleep for lengthy periods. While establishing a routine is often very hard work and requires a lot of sacrifices on the part of the parents, millions of parents around the world will testify that it is worth it because they quickly learn how to meet the needs of their babies so that any distress is kept to a minimum.