Claire Verity

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Claire Verity is a controversial British baby care exponent who specialises in the Truby King method. Her clients have included Jerry Hall and Sting. She featured as a mentor in the 2007 Channel 4 documentary series, Bringing Up Baby, which compared the 1950s Truby King method with the 1960s Benjamin Spock and the 1970s Continuum concept but was discredited after she was shown to have made false claims about holding a number of qualifications.

Her methods, such as advocating Truby King's tenets of minimal cuddling and no eye contact with the baby, have attracted negative reaction in the media and Blogosphere.^[1] ^[2] Her contribution to the programme led to a UK government e-petition in which members of the public expressed their concern of potential harm being done to children in the making of such documentaries.^[3]

Advice that has attracted controversy includes:

Four-hourly feeding of newborns. This can cause distress for the infants and can cause significant problems for mothers establishing breastfeeding.^[4]

Early weaning. WHO and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life.^[5] Claire Verity suggests that the researchers may not have accounted for the weight of babies^[6], though the research analysed by the WHO has shown that weight gain is not diminished.

Leaving babies to cry and limiting contact.

Placing babies in their own room from birth.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council have described her title of "Maternity Nurse" as "made-up" and "deceptive".^[7] An article in The Times on 27 October questioned her qualifications^[8] after she claimed to hold a degree from York University as well as a series of maternity qualifications - all of which the institutions in question said were false. These claims are still made on Ms Verity's ^[9]management website.

Channel 4 promised to investigate and removed references to her qualifications from the channel's website. On 19 January 2008 it was reported by The Times that Channel 4 and the production company Silver River concluded their investigations and have subsequently "washed their hands" of Verity and do not plan to work with her again after requests to provide proof of her qualifications have not been met after 3 months. Several of the organisations Verity claimed to have qualifications with also stated they had no record of her.^[10]