BBC pulls the plug on baby 'Big Brother' programme

LONDON – The BBC has dropped 'BabySchool', a 'Big Brother'-style reality TV series, after parting company with controversial childcare author Gina Ford.

Ford, the author of bestseller 'The Contented Little Baby Book', was to front the costly reality TV series. However, she has come under fire recently from children's organisations, which say her controversial childcare methods have not been properly researched.

Belinda Phipps, the chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said: "If we thought the behaviourist approach of Gina led to a stable, well-adjusted adult, then fine, but at the moment we just don't know."

Ford, a former nanny who has no children of her own, advocates feeding babies at set times as part of a rigid schedule to ensure they sleep throughout the night, making life easier for parents.

The BBC had already forked out on a Big Brother-style house, complete with 24-hour camera surveillance, and had begun a search for willing mother and baby participants with an advertisement asking for "stressed-out parents at the end of their tether".

A BBC spokeswoman refused to give details about why Ford's show was pulled, saying only: "It has not proved possible for the BBC and Gina Ford to bring her 'BabySchool' to air as hoped."

The BBC has had to devise a last-minute replacement for Ford's show. It has called in child psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, who worked on the BBC Three childcare series 'Little Angels', to present the programme.

Using the new 'Big Brother'-style studio, Byron will attempt to create a toddler sanctuary where exhausted parents can take their children. 

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