The toddler tamer turns to babies

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 10

The toddler tamer turns to babies

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MAVIS AIREY

“Not another baby book ...” The words are Dr Christopher Green’s, acknowledging that, with “Babies,” he is adding to the already bewildering variety of books, guides, treatises, and learned tomes on baby care. This one, he promises, is different — rather like his phenomenally successful “Toddler Taming” was, well, different.

“It was written to be practical and entertaining but now, four years down the track, I see that its real strength -was something less obvious and far

more powerful,” he says. “It as a book that let parents see they were not alone, and that they were normal. It boosted confidence and encouraged them to do what they themselves felt was right for their children.”

"Toddler Taming” has sold 250,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand, spread to the United States and Britain, caught on in West Germany, and been a hit in Japan. Its popularity has turned Chris Green into a media star, with guest spots on radio and television, his

own column in the “Australian Women’s Weekly,” and the ability to draw 14,000 people to hear him speak in what he describes as “not the trendy districts.”

All this as well as being a consultant paediatrician, head of the child development unit at the Camperdown Children’s Hospital, Sydney — and, perhaps most important, father of the children who inspired him to write in the first place.

He admits he is a “driven” man, and can see the irony of shutting

himself away from his family to write books on parenting; honing his advice on sleep problems at some late hour of the night while his two young sons proved just how little sleep some children need.

“Fifteen years ago I couldn’t have written a word of this,” he says. “I was then a recently qualified, wet-behind-the-ears paediatrician who thought he knew it all.

“I certainly knew every obscure and irrelevant detail of children’s medicine, but I knew nothing about how parents felt, how they worried, and what was meant by giving practical help with day-to-day problems.

“When I saw a child who wouldn’t sleep, it was easy — ‘Just let him cry all night.’ When shown a baby with colic I would tell the parents, ‘Don’t worry, it can’t be important — there’s no medical cause for such a condition.’

“In short, when it came to the things that mattered in childcare, I understood little and helped even less,” he remembers.

All this changed with the arrival of his own first-born, who had terrible colic. “He cried and cried while his parents, both highly qualified doctors, became distraught and bewildered. Within a week we felt imcompetent, impotent, and utter failures. We found ourselves alone and with

little help from childcare books and even less from professional colleagues.”

It was a classic case of ‘Physician, heal thyself.’ “Toddler Taming” aimed to fill the gap, and although “Babies!” might seem a retrograde step chronologically, he sees it as a logical move to bolster parents’ confidence from the start.

The first year of a baby’s life is not difficult, he says. “All you need is a little basic information about what is normal, what to expect, and then, with a charge of confidence, you can get going.”

He admits that he originally saw the book a “poor relation” to “Toddler Taming,” but it ended up half as long again.

“There was so much I was interested in. I have to say I prefer it to ‘Toddler Taming’ — ‘Toddler Taming’ has more Chris Green-isms in it, but this is more complete.

“This book has the practical information you expect, but I think I have filtered out what is important, what is of academic interest, and what is strictly for the birds.

“It also says a lot about feelings: mum’s of losing her identity, dad's that his social life is nipped in the bud, grandmother’s as she sees her children making the same mistakes she made.”

As in the previous book, the whole is laced with a fair' dose of humour, which is well reflected by

Roger Roberts’s “wonderfully warped” illustrations.

“If you are trying to teach people not to take things so seriously, humour is a great way of doing it,” the author says. "People say they keep ‘Toddler Taming’ by the beside to dip into — and go to sleep with a smile on their face.”

“After teaching hundreds and hundreds of mums and dads, my ideas are pretty well stolen from parents. After 10 years of making suggestions and getting reactions you filter out what parents find works,” he says. In conversation, he is militantly middle-of-the-road, scathing in his criticism of the news media for the credence given to what he regards as fringe theories. He evidently enjoys “stirring”: sounding off about diet versus drugs to treat hyperactive children, the relative “hype” value of cola and oranges, the relative dangers of sugar and honey. On some things, he is adamant. Love is the most important thing for babies, and relationships matter most.

He is particularly fond of the last line of the book: “Being kyid to each other is the kindest thing we can do for our children.” » » *

“Babies!" by Dr Christopher Green is published by Hodder and Stoughton at $17.95.