A PEDIATRICIAN’S ADVICE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31832, 9 November 1968, Page 4

A PEDIATRICIAN’S ADVICE

(Reviewed by R. McA.) How to Raise Children at Home in Your Spare Time. By Marvin J. Gersh, M.D. Hodder and Stoughton. 223 pp. This book really lives up to its claim to being a baby book with a difference. Refreshingly flippant, it la written from the pediatrician's point of view, and relates with great relish some of the daft questions that new parents submit to their doctors.

As usual, one must ask what justified the appearance of yet another book about bringing up babies. In this case our question is forestalled by the author, who points out that much of the information dispensed to parents in print misses the mark, for two reasons. First, the deluge of advice causes parents to look for trouble that

may never arise, and to worry when their child shows no sign of two-year-old tantrums or bed wetting. Secondly, parents still do not find In their

handbooks the answers to a thousand all Important questions, such as, “how come my baby’s toe-nails are so soft?” Dr Gersh’s solution is to cut down the advice to an absolute minimum and to be much less solemn, for, as he says, “Child-rearing is so serious that no parent can afford to take it seriously.”

In emphasising the difference between his book and others by which he often means Dr Spock's influential book Dr Gersh writes a delightful parody of a typical section of a typical baby book. The problem In this case is a baby who has spit up a Mt. “You will remember,” says Dr Gersh, "that many babies spit up and that many babies do not, and that some babies spit up once in a while, and scene babies spit up every day and still there are some babies who spit up once in a while for a while and then spit up every day for a while.”

Dr Gersh puts his finger on the unavoidable verbosity and apparent contradictions which occur if a book is to cover all possible aspects of a situation. He says that you cannot raise a child by the book any more than you can learn to play golf by the book. Experience is the only teacher. Hta book is therefore an attempt to help parents to treat their first child as if it were their second. He does this, quite logically by helping readers to sort tbe serious rblems from the trivial and instilling an atmosphere fun into the whole business.

How sad that we must question whether such a delightful book is any more effective than its more solemn predecessors. There is no doubt at all that for tiie parents of several children it will provide great amusement, with such salty advice as ’’Bowel movements are not worth

fighting over.” “No goddamned kid of mine is going to use naughty words.” “People who do not wear bras should not insist on breastfeeding.” But alas, the brand-new mother is rarely In a mood to be jollied along about her precious baby. The parents of a first child experience a unique state of pride and trepidation which no amount of cheerful ridicule is going to dispel. Indeed, a new mother even enjoys worrying about her baby’s mysteriously soft toenails, and Dr Gersh would like to deprive her of this right! Most people would heartily agree with his

premise—namely that you should “treat your first child as if it were your second”— but human nature is notori-

oualy hard to change. However, if your first cMld is more than six months old, do by all means read tMs very funny book.

Two of Dr Gersh's personal contributions to the childrearing business are certainly both. conducive to peace of mind. The first is a little healthy pooh-poohing of a theory which attributes a baby’s colic to the mother’s anxiety. The second to ,his advice on preparing bottles. In brief, Dr Gersh suggests that one feed be prepared at a time with a well-washed bottle and teat, warm tap water, sugar and canned evaporated milk. Hey, presto! an instant feed ready for your screaming baby, without any sterilisation of the utensils or ingredients.