A legal battle between Gina Ford and mumsnet.com, a leading parenting website where mothers mocked her nononsense approach to baby care, has spread.

The Timeshas learnt that the television network channel Five was forced to close down its online discussion forum about Ms Ford, a leading childcare guru who champions strict routines for babies, after it was inundated with “inappropriate” remarks.

Five created the discussion forum to publicise a forthcoming documentary about the former maternity nurse, but closed it within hours. The move came after Ms Ford served notice this week that she will begin High Court proceedings against Mumsnet over “relentless personal attacks” made about her.

Five said it had not received any complaint from Ms Ford or her lawyers, but took the action of its own accord. A spokeswoman said that the network removed the discussion because the comments broke its own internal rules.

“Five has decided not to run the Gina Ford forum on the Five website, due to some inappropriate comments,” she said. However, an internal memo seen by The Times showed the channel reluctantly “censored” the online discussion after legal advice, and regrets that healthy debate was stifled.

“Unfortunately Five have been discussing the landing page comments with their legal team as some of the comments left on the forum are a bit heated!” the memo said.

“While debate is healthy and is exactly the aim of this creative message, Five are still going to have to censor the viewer forum landing page.”

Ms Ford’s books, including The Contented Little Baby Book, have sold a million copies. First published in 1999, they challenged the orthodoxy that babies should feed and sleep whenever they want, even if it meant mothers getting up four or five times a night.

The books set out hour-by-hour routines for new mothers to follow, with the promise that babies could sleep through the night when they are less than two months old.

But she has numerous critics who say her methods are too strict, unnatural and put mothers’ needs before those of the baby. Lawyers for Ms Ford and Mumsnet have agreed to meet for mediation on March 13, the final chance to avoid a High Court action for defamation which would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and lead to the closure of Mumsnet.

Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet, said she could lose her house if a resolution cannot be reached.

The company has just started to make a profit after six years and although thousands of users say they would raise funds to avoid it being closed, it is a route the founders do not want to go down.

Ms Roberts said Mumsnet removed comments within hours of formal complaints from Ms Ford and has now banned all discussion about her. She likens the censorship to “banning any mention of Manchester United on a football phone-in”. Mumsnet has also offered a full apology.

Supporters of the site say they suspect that Ms Ford is seeking a financial settlement. When approached by The Times, a spokeswoman said that Ms Ford was observing a period of silence before the mediation hearings. In the documentary, Gina Ford: Who Are You to Tell Us? to be aired on Five Life at 9pm on Monday, leading childcare experts accuse Ms Ford of trying to suppress debate. “These are important issues and people ought to be able to debate them openly,” said Sheila Kitzinger, an author of childcare books. “I don’t think she should throw a tantrum any time she is criticised.”

Ms Ford refused to be interviewed for the documentary. But her advisers said it was the personal nature of the attacks on Mumsnet that promoted the legal action, not a desire to stifle debate. One posting which she found offensive sarcastically accused her of “strapping babies to rockets and fires them into South Lebanon”.

Strict regime

Gina Ford’s advice on settling babies:

“With the ones that fight sleep, because I know they are well fed, burped and ready to sleep, I am very strict. I would let them fuss and yell for 10-20 minutes until they have settled themselves”

Source: The New Contented Little Baby Book

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