Monthly nurse and best-selling baby care author Gina Ford arouses strong emotions in the community, with her bestseller The New Contented Little Baby Book (Vermilion, £9.99).

Tollysmum: I bought a pristine copy of Gina Ford in the Oxfam shop – someone didn't like it! I followed the instructions about putting the baby down to sleep at set times. This really seemed to work, and it reassured me about the amount of sleep a baby needs in the daytime.

I soon went back to my old-fashioned habit of putting the baby to sleep in a pram in the garden – where it is bright and the birds sing. I think she is wrong to say babies need to sleep in quiet dark rooms, but right that they should be put down properly and not just allowed to doze slumped in a car seat or bouncy chair.

Her breastfeeding advice is not so good, but there were one or two good tips – like the number of feeds a baby needs day and night. I dropped waking the baby at bedtime for a feed at six months on her advice, and he slept through after that. The weaning ideas were fine, and I followed a few of those. I also believe in having the baby to sleep in your room for the first year at least – which Gina Ford disapproves of – this is advice from the SIDS charity as well.

My advice is, 'Don't let Gina Ford take over – but there is nothing wrong with a routine for sleeps and, as the baby gets older, for feeds and meals.'

Tracylou2001: I found the book useful as long as you don't take it too seriously. If you followed it rigidly you would have no flexibility in your day to go out or go away with your baby.

However I did find the sections relating to getting in a routine to go to sleep and have regular naps did help us get Elliot to sleep in his cot instead of falling asleep on me all the time. The weaning section was also useful to get an idea before you actually start the weaning process.

On the next page: 'I was aghast at some of the routines that Ford was advocating.'

Harna: I have friends who have had their daughter settled in bed at 7pm since she was four weeks old. When I was pregnant, I was astonished that they had been able to establish a routine so early on and had commented on it, so they gave me a copy of Gina Ford's book.

I read it then, and was aghast at some of the routines that Ford was advocating. I took another look at Gina Ford's book, and it has really upset me. I know that the routines are just suggested, but I cannot get my head around them.

Reading the routine for an 8-12 week old scares me – all that 'swaddle the baby in the dark with the door shut' and 'baby must be feeding no later than 6.15pm and this should be done in the nursery with dim lights and no talking or eye contact' is so contrary to all the advice I have been given by midwives and health visitors. It also goes right against my own instinct – I didn't give birth to Caitlin just so I could keep her in a darkened room and have no eye contact!

I seem to be doing everything that Ford says not to – demand feeding, allowing Caitlin to sleep in our room (and in our bed sometimes), falling asleep in our arms, and I refuse to give her a dummy! I'm also continuing with some of the things that I enjoyed before Caitlin came along – meeting friends for lunch, going for walks and so on – all things that Ford doesn't seem to think that us mothers want to do anymore; her routines don't even seem to have roster time for allowing mothers to have a bath!

My view is that Ford believes babies are wilful little blighters that need to be taught right from wrong at an early age, rather than new little beings that require an equal measure of love and attention. So how is it that I still feel that everyone else seems to be understanding it and getting it right, whereas I might be on the slippery slope to problems?

borrett: I've been having a love-hate relationship with Gina Ford's book. It all sounded so simple and clever while I was pregnant. I was quite excited about introducing the routines, and having an angelic, perfect baby to look after.

I found it all impossible, though, and dreadfully unkind to Katie too, once we tried it out. Katie is ever so needy and clingy, so I have had to revert to being the 'Earth Mother' I always was, feeding her on demand, keeping her in my bed and carrying her in a sling, etc. But I was soon blaming myself for her behaviour and feeling inadequate as a mother for not being able to install Gina's routines.

It really brightened me up to read that there are happy contented babies out there who are not on her routines! Now I know that blasted book isn't the be-all and end-all of parenting. I now can't believe I even considered leaving Katie to cry in a darkened room, deprived of eye contact. I never did, by the way. I think my maternal instincts would never have allowed me.

There is some wisdom in the book, and it has helped in some ways, but some of the suggestions are a bit scary.

Wendyv2000: I was enthusiastic about Gina Ford's theories while I was pregnant, curious to know if it worked. But then faced with my beautiful Milo it suddenly made no sense at all, and once we tried it and found it hideous I just came to loathe the book with a passion.

I had to be very regimented with my triplet daughters when they were babies, but even then the pattern came from them, not me. And I think they got a sense of security from each other when I was struggling to give them each of them one-to-one attention.

Having Milo 15 years on is such a joy, and I love the close one-to-one relationship. I started out with him in his cot in his room, but soon realised we were all loads happier with him in our room. I have the carrycot alongside the bed. I'm sure he'll progress to his room when it feels right, but there's no hurry.

Now I wish I'd never read this book. The routines may lend themselves to bottle-feeding, but they are deeply flawed if you want to establish successful breastfeeding. I tried following the routine to the letter when my baby was eight weeks old and by day two my milk supply was dwindling and I had a miserable, starving baby. He cried more in those 36 hours than in the previous eight weeks put together.

Gina Ford simply doesn't allow for the fact that different babies have different appetites, feed at different rates, and that different mothers have different milk supplies. To establish breastfeeding you really do need to 'watch your baby, not the clock'.

Her suggestion that breastfed babies need three hours to digest a feed is ridiculous. Most babies need to feed more frequently than this in the early days, and believing that Gina must know better only demoralises mothers and prevents them from trusting the very clear signals their baby is giving. I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants to breastfeed.

In retrospect I've never read a more annoying book! I hate that it made me doubt myself (and Milo).

Purchase The New Contented Little Baby Book at Amazon.