BRINGING UP BABIES: A Family Doctor's Practical Approach

While this is unlikely to depose Dr. Spock or really challenge his hegemony in the field, Dr. Sackett has attempted to reverse the contemporary acceptance of a child-centered world and its ""demand philosophy"" which has led (or has it?) to the delinquency we face today. Dr. Sackett believes in fitting the child into the family picture, and much of his advice represents common sense and longterm experience. Some of it however is notional and open to argument; he believes that milk is a much ""over-rated"" food and can be eliminated for good at weaning while on the other hand coffee can be safely introduced at 7 months. Problem areas (i.e. bedwetting) tend to be over-simplified and certainly are not given the benefit (one can question whether Dr. Sackett would consider this the right word) of psychiatric orientation. His book covers the fundamentals of child rearing, from ignoring the crying baby- (a really sick baby does not cry still he could be pretty miserable) to adolescence and just after, with a good deal of emphasis on everyday feeding, eating, training, etc. There are chapters too on pregnancy, the delivery, and so forth for the mother-to-be.... Certainly not a book which will be easily endorsed in more ""enlightened"" circles.