Baby expert demands website closure
Updated on 08 August 2006
She is the woman whose book about babies and getting them into a routine divides parents across the land and arguments rage about whether her advice is ingenious or monstrous.
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Ms Ford has demanded that a website for mothers be closed down, because unfavourable comments about her have been posted on its discussion pages.
Gina Ford made her name with the bestselling manual 'The Contented Little Baby Book', which advocates strict routines for young babies.
Her lawyers say some comments on the website Mumsnet.com were a "gross personal attack" on Gina Ford's character and reputation.
In a letter to the website her lawyers are reported to claim that certain remarks mean: "That our client is cruel, uncaring and justifiably reviled because in her book The Contented Little Baby Book, she advised a mother to leave a five month-old baby to cry for three hours".
"That our client is cruel, uncaring and justifiably reviled because in her book The Contented Little Baby Book, she advised a mother to leave a five month-old baby to cry for three hours".
And: "that our client has unpleasant and unhygienic personal habits".
The lawyers allege that one posting on the site: "says our client straps babies to rockets and fires them into south Lebanon".
Mumsnet.com has removed all the offending comments, but says shutting down the entire website as Gina Ford is demanding, would be disproportionate and a blow to free speech.
