Bringing up baby

Dr Spock rejected the idea that too much affection made children weak

The book's title wasn't the most exciting. But in the austere post-war years its message was revolutionary.

"As soon as it hit the market, it was acclaimed," says Professor Lynn Bloom, Dr Benjamin Spock's biographer and friend.

"It was so radical and so different from the child-rearing manuals that preceded it.

"People wanted the opportunity and the sanction to have children and to love them. And that book did this."

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteIt isn't enough to bring up children happy and secure, you need to provide a decent world for them”

End QuoteDr Benjamin Spock Baby and Child Care challenged the child-rearing orthodoxy of the early 20th Century - that babies should be fed according to a tight schedule, and that showing them too much affection made them weak and unprepared for the world.

Instead, Dr Spock encouraged a more gentle approach to bringing up children, and told parents to trust their own instincts and common sense.

"I urged parents not to be intimidated by the rule that had existed in paediatrics up until that time - you must never feed a baby off schedule, not a minute early, not a minute late," he said.

"I was one of the first paediatricians to say that's nonsense. That rule made babies cry.

"It was even harder on mothers, they bit their nails in anguish waiting for the clock to say this is the minute you can feed."

The opening sentences of the book are: "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."

In 1946, that was a big departure from the prevailing wisdom, that doctors and paediatricians knew best.