Let me ask you a question, how judgemental are you? A lot, a little, not at all, are you sure? So if I told you my daughter wasn't breastfed, that she's nearly two and almost always has a dummy, that she's slept in the same bed as my husband and I continually since being seven months old, that she's had painkiller given to her every night since she was six months old, that she still drinks from a teated bottle when we're out, what do you think now? Have you made any judgements about me? More importantly, do you feel so strongly that you need to voice your views to me?

You probably want to know why I'm asking these questions. Well, I've found that my journey as a parent has been really challenging but nothing has challenged me more than other people's comments and judgements on how I'm raising my child. I'd taken it for granted that friends and family would feel they have the right to interfere. But I hadn't been prepared for strangers to stop me in the street and comment on my child and how I'm raising her.

It's natural for us to make judgements on what we see. We do it every day unconsciously and sometimes consciously. We look, decide how we view something and act accordingly. This is why I want people to question what they see more thoroughly before they act upon their judgements. Since my daughter was born people who have no knowledge of my life, my child or me have made the most unbelievable judgements and comments to me.

Let me explain. My daughter was born in late November in 2005. From the beginning things did not go to plan. I nearly died during the birth and my body was incapable of making milk as a result. So my daughter was formula fed and I spent days worrying about what damage this doing. This was not helped by the scornful looks of other mothers at groups and meetings when I produced formula to feed my child. One friend was honest enough to say that she'd thought the only reason someone didn't breastfeed was because they wanted to drink alcohol. The posters plastered around doctor's surgeries and clinics with the slogan Mother's Pride' only added to my guilt and sense of failure.

By eight months we had discovered she was blind in her right eye. Her right eye looked very slightly lazy and other problems had appeared during weaning. She had problems sleeping, stomach pain and skin rashes. She was now on a diet, on the advice of the GP, where we removed an item such as dairy products for a week to see if there was any improvement.

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