The Baby Whisperer is a nickname given to Tracy Hogg, a British nurse. Tracy made a name for herself as a baby “expert” in the state of California, USA, where she gave advice to many Hollywood stars and cared for over 5,000 babies. Some of her famous clients were: Jamie Lee Curtis, Calista Flockhart and Jodie Foster. Her fee for 3 weeks of her as a maternity nurse was over $15,000.
The nickname was given to Tracy by a Hollywood film producer after the movie ‘Horse Whisperer’, which was about a racing trainer who could communicate with animals. Tracy was said to have a gift for communicating with babies and he was noted to be able to calm prickly newborns and their anxious parents. His message was respect for a baby’s individuality and he believed it was important to have an ongoing dialogue with a baby.
Tracy’s claim to fame was that she was able to get babies into a routine and get them to sleep through the night after just 3 weeks. Her approach is simple and many critics have said that it was really just common sense. She uses acronyms to describe her approaches, such as EASY (eat, do activities and sleep for baby; the Y stands for time for you). She was not in favor of sleeping with her baby and was quite political on issues like breast vs. formula. Although Tracy was a lactation consultant, I found some of the information and advice she gave about breastfeeding to be inaccurate.
Coming from a family of 9 children, Tracy had two daughters of her own. Tracy died on November 25, 2004 in England of Melanoma. She was 44 years old.
The books that Tracy has co-written with the journalist Melinda Blau are:
- Baby Whisperer Secrets: How To Soothe, Connect And Communicate With Your Baby
- Baby Whisperer Secrets for Toddlers
- The baby whisperer solves all their problems – sleeping, feeding and behaving – beyond the basics from infancy to toddlerhood