Gwyneth's nanny to tell secrets

She is the celebrity nanny every new parent dreams of - if only they could afford her. Offering round-the-clock care, Rachel Waddilove has helped scores of stars including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin.

Now, after a month with the couple and their second child, she is to reveal all in a book on how to successfully bring up a baby.

In it, the 58-year-old maternity nurse guides parents through the first year and offers practical advice on how best to cope during the fraught few weeks immediately after the birth.

Due to be published this week, The Baby Book will mark Miss Waddilove's arrival in a fiercely-contested marketplace swamped by child-rearing gurus professing to know all.

Among her main rivals are Queen of Routine Gina Ford, who wrote the Contented Little Baby Book, and liberal love advocate Penelope Leach, who penned the Your Baby and Child manual.

They bitterly disagree on the central issue of whether babies should be fed on demand. However, Miss Waddilove, whose client list includes MPs as well as film stars, falls between the two camps and insists on telling parents to do what works for them.

She claims her routine is not defined by rigid timetables for eating and sleeping but adds: 'I do know after 30 years of experience that babies make better eaters, sleepers and much easier toddlers if they have some kind of structure.'

Miss Paltrow and Martin hired the nanny after the birth of their first child, Apple, and again after their second, Moses, who was born in March.

Miss Waddilove - whose fees range from £100 to £170 a day - stayed with them for the first month after each birth and then flew to America to help the actress look after Apple during filming.

The couple embraced the structured schedule the nanny put in place and were so impressed with her techniques that they did not hesitate when asked to add their names to the publicity campaign behind the book.

In a glowing endorsement, Miss Paltrow writes: 'Using Rachel's technique, Apple was sleeping through the night in a six to seven-hour stretch by six weeks.

'She was a very happy and settled baby from the beginning. I believe this is because Rachel put us in a routine so that Apple always felt that there was a loving structure around her. She knew what was coming and could look forward to it with certainty.'

Miss Waddilove, who has also worked for Lord and Lady Mountbatten, is a strong
believer in breast-feeding but also advocates the use of a bottle to take the pressure off the mother.

In addition, she believes that babies should be left to cry for ten to 20 minutes in order to learn how to get themselves off to sleep.

'Many parents think that you need to rock them off to sleep in your arms, and then lie them down, but actually I lay the baby down in the cot, having swaddled them first, so they feel very safe and secure.

'If he can't settle, go in but don't turn on the light, stroke his tummy and talk to him gently, but then leave. If he still carries on for another 15 minutes, repeat the process.'

But not everyone is impressed with Miss Waddilove's approach and many mothers in the U.S. have condemned her use of 'healthy discipline'.

One said: 'Her advice is terrible. I'm sad for all the little ones who will cry and cry from hunger or the need for comforting as their parents lie awake in the next room thinking, "But Nanny Rachel says feeding on demand makes mums a slave to their babies".'

Another says: 'I can't believe that hippydippy, yoga/vegan Gwyneth would let someone with such a backward approach to baby-rearing into her house.'