It's dummies at dawn in the world of parenting advice this week, as two leading child-rearing experts square off to each other over their very different approaches to bringing up baby. Sheila Kitzinger, 'high priestess' of the natural birth movement declared war on parenting guru Gina Ford whose 'boot camp for babies' advice she says treat babies as if they were the enemy.

In her new book, Understanding Your Crying Baby, Kitzinger launches a no-holds barred attack on Ford's approach to parenting. 'The general trend now - not only in books but in articles in parenting magazines and the press - is sleep training, controlled crying and treating the baby like an enemy,' she says. 'My approach (and Gina Ford's) are rather different," she said. "I explore this subject as a mother of five and social anthropologist. It may be that a woman desperately needs some 'me' time but to look at [being a mother] as a right to having your career, sex life and leisure time completely uninterrupted is going a bit far, and I think that is what Gina promotes.'

Gina Ford's reaction to the criticism was equally barbed. 'I cannot understand why someone would write a book and want to mention someone else so much,' she said, and was quick to defend herself. 'Contrary to what my critics say, my routines put the baby's needs above the parents. The only people I listen to are my readers and the mothers who phone in.'

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