What do you think of Tizzie Hall's book, 'Save Our Sleep'?

If you’re after a sure fire way to turn a group of mother’s against each other all you need to do is ask what they think of Tizzie Hall.

Hall is the author of Save Our Sleep, the international best selling guide to help parents of babies, well as the name suggests, get some kip.

In the book, she lays out a series of daily routines, based on baby’s age, for feeding and sleeping.

In a facebook mum's group I'm in, one brave soul recently posted, "Hi mummies, just wondering if anyone has read 'Save our sleep' by Tizzie Hall and followed any of the routines. Just wanting people's thoughts. TIA."

Responses ranged from, "I swear by that book it works and still works for me," and "followed for both of mine from 3/4 months and swear by it. My lifesaver & both kids always happy as I was one step ahead of them for sleeping & eating times," to "that book was disastrous for us with our 3 kids," and "it certainly didn't work for my baby and made me feel terrible about myself."

There are organised efforts to hide Hall's book in book shops.

There are facebook groups set up to warn people against Hall.

Her book consistently comes up whenever people talk about the dangers of sleep training or so-called 'cry-it-out' methods, despite that, as far as I can tell, Save Our Sleep doesn't appear to advocate sleep training or cry it out.

On the other hand, when I asked my all-natural, water-birthing, exclusive breastfeeding and organic baby food oriented girlfriend what she thought of Hall I was very surprised by her incredibly positive response.

So, it was with a mix of curiousity and just outright fascination that I approached my interview with Hall. I start by asking her how she deals with the criticism, some of it deeply personal and offensive, of her on the internet.

"It doesn’t upset me. It’s the fact that it upsets my fans, that upsets me. It makes mums feel guilty. That’s what upsets me," she says.

There's an entire facebook group called, 'Tizzie Hall Didn't, "Save our Sleep'", but Hall says she hasn't come across a baby she couldn't help. "I’ve had parents I couldn’t help."

"The parents didn’t want to remove the dummy. If I couldn’t remove the dummy I couldn’t teach the baby how to sleep. If parents don’t want to take the advice there’s nothing I can do."

She does say, though, "There have been cases when it has taken a long time to help people," but that she is not the type of person to give up.

The strongest criticism of Hall is that her routines are rigid and that her approach asks parents to follow them to the letter. But Hall says this is incorrect.

"I think one of the reasons for that is that when the book was first published, the publisher wrote 'you must adhere to this routine in order for this to work.' That got taken out very quickly, after the second or third print."

"My approach is much more flexible, rather than one size fits all."

Save our Sleep has now been fully revised and updated. The new edition updates advice around sleeping arrangements for newborns. Hall advises that parents consider, "the use of a mini crib instead of a bassinet to increase airflow around the baby, following updated SIDS research." She has changed her advice for follow-on formula, recommending babies older than six months remain on step one formulas. The new book also includes a routine for parents to follow while still in hospital with their newborn.

Have you read 'Save Our Sleep'?