My best-for-baby formula: be firm but fair and stick to a daily routine

Verity is only updating a method from the 1950s, as espoused by a New Zealand doctor, Frederic Truby King, based on the belief that children subject to a strict routine are more likely to thrive than those who are not — those my mother refers to dismissively as “free-range” kids.

MY mother was in a rage on Monday night, lambasting RTÉ for wasting valuable time on the programme 21st Century Child.

It’s not that she has anything against child psychologist David Coleman. Far from it. The general consensus is that he is an absolute gentleman, kind, full of wisdom and down to earth.