Babies Today Book Review:

Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care

By Benjamin Spock

Considered "a classic" work by many parents, Dr Spock's Baby and Child Care, originally published in 1946, sold over 50 million copies and was the guidebook to rearing the generation of baby boomers. Indeed, his support of parents and promotion of children as thinking, feeling beings changed many of the perceptions prevalent in the immediate post-war era, particularly admonitions against cuddling and kissing babies for fear the infants would become "spoiled."

While Baby and Child Care has been revised six times to date, and with updates also from pediatrician and child psychiatrist Michael B. Rothenberg, it still is not wholly in line with the most popular parenting ideas and ideals of today. Still, the book carries with it many universal messages – human nature hasn't really changed that much in 50 years, or even in 500!

Spock often suggests kid-friendly means of getting what both you and your child want, methods that often ring that "Why didn't I think of that?" bell. For example, if your daughter is playing but it's time for you to leave for work, instead of picking her up and dashing out the door, try to interest her in what you want to do by telling her that it's time to pick out her shoes, or to go for a ride in the car, or that she's going to go play with her friends now.

By reading this, or any of Spock's books, you will realize that understanding and respect – both for the parent and for the child – is one of the author's essential themes.

As with every single pregnancy or parenting-related tome out there, there is no "one size fits all." The key is to take what makes sense to you, consider – and possibly leave – the rest. Baby and Child Care nevertheless offers sound, caring advice and is well worth reading.

Infant Feeding, Breast-feeding, Bottle-feeding, Changes in Diet and Schedule, Daily Care, Immunizations, Problems of Infancy, Comforters and Thumb-sucking, The Development of Babies, Preventing Injuries, Feeding Young Children, One-Year-Olds, Managing Young Children, Toileting, Two-Year-Olds, Three to Six, From Six to Eleven, Schools, Adolescence, Illness, First Aid, Special Situations, Divorce, Single Parenting, and Remarriage, Afterword: A Better World for Our Children, Emergency Chart.

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