Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has described the childcare author Gina Ford's methods as "absolute nonsense".
In a comment to the Sunday Times newspaper the father-of-three said her approach was like "following a sort of Ikea assembly manual".
A spokesperson for Mr Clegg said that he had been speaking as a father and was not challenging Ms Ford's expertise. Her 'Contented Little Baby Book' happens to be a best-seller but it splits opinion among parents - in 2006 she launched a libel case against an online parenting website over comments published by the its users.
Sometimes known as the "queen of routine", she advocates a strict structure to the lives of new parents and their babies.
Mr Clegg said he and his wife Miriam had tried to follow Gina Ford's advice with their first child, but said her instructions were "absolute nonsense". "I will never forget - in the middle of the night, Antonio work up. Miriam said to me: What does the book say? I remember saying to her: 'Okay, we have got to stop this. I have subcontracted my parental instincts to this book'."
He described trying to follow her guidelines as like trying to follow a furniture assembly manual: "It made us feel strangely passive as parents." Mr Clegg claims his remarks had been those of a "passionate father who like many parents feels acutely the effect of his children's sleeping pattern on his own life" and were not intended "in any way personally against Ms Ford".
He makes no pretence to be an expert on babies' sleeping patterns and his comments were simply a personal opinion made during a wider interview. Ms Ford said he had "insulted the parenting choice of more than two million British voters" and said that "the Liberal Democrat party should perhaps look at getting a more mature leader who takes seriously the beliefs of all potential voters.".
COMMENT... in our blog.
11 Jan 2010 | 
Lily Allen Loses Her Baby At 6 Months
