Loose Women bombarded with Ofcom complaints after panel says it’s OK to leave babies to cry
OFCOM has received hundreds of complaints about a controversial Loose Women segment.
The media regulator was inundated with complaints after Rod Stewart’s wife, Penny Lancaster, admitted to letting her baby cry to put her baby’s needs first.
The Loose Women were discussing ‘parenting contracts’ and whether couples should draw up agreements as to who would do what tasks once their baby was born.
Penny, 49, admitted ‘compromising’ with her rock star husband who refused to let their babies sleep in the bed with them.
She also revealed Rod had asked her not to ‘neglect’ once their children were born.
“The paediatrician advised me to make sure I don’t neglect my husband,” Penny told her fellow panellists.
“He also gave me advice with the baby, ‘that you’re just going to have to let him cry, because he cries and he knows you’ll provide lovely, warm sweet milk, so of course he’s going to cry for it’.”
Penny added: “Sure enough, after two nights of hell, he slept through.”
She then continued to reveal she went for dinner with Rod and her brother just hours after giving birth.
“That’s dedication to your man,” the panellists told her.
Penny and Rod’s share sons Alastair, 15, and Aiden, ten, while Rod has other adult children from previous relationships.
Viewers could not believe what they heard and 241 people complained to Ofcom.
What is controlled crying?
Controlled crying is a controversial form of sleep training designed to help a baby self-soothe and settle down to sleep on their own, according to the NCT.
Once the baby is old enough (this is generally considered to be after six months) and, as long as it is safe and secure, some parents decide to explore different sleeping techniques. This is a personal choice and will be down to different reasons and circumstances.
“Also re #LooseWomen cry it out/ controlled crying has been scientifically proven to be damaging to infants… Responding to your baby’s needs day & night is just what parenting is,” wrote one Twitter user.
Another added: “So she inflicted “ controlled crying “ on her baby so man child Rod could get his oats ?!”
A third said: “Telling mums that it’s acceptable to neglect your new born baby crying. Put your husbands needs first, it’s unsafe to co-sleep. Yet it’s acceptable to abandon your newborn baby hours after giving birth to go to dinner? Toxic.”
Penny later defended her comments in a lengthy Instagram post.
“I feel I need to expand on the subject of so-called CIO (Cry-it-out) that I briefly touched on,” she wrote
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“My husband and I agreed that as I was breastfeeding every few hours, our baby Alastair (along with Aiden when he later came along) should be in his cot at the side of our bed but not in our bed (I cheated a few times [wink emoji]).”
She added: “At the age of 4 months we made the transition of having him in his own room to help him sleep more independently.
“However this didn’t stop him waking any less and sleep deprivation was becoming a real struggle for me.”
The model finished the post: “There is no one-size-fits all approach… CIO or as I like to call it, teaching self-soothing (at the right time) is truly a gift of nighttime sleep that will really help long term.”