The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care

And that's kind of what people relied on until this book comes out in 1946 that takes a completely different approach.

And the book was The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, uh, by Dr. Benjamin Spock, who was a pediatrician at the time, and he offers sort of this parenting advice that was so radical at the time.

Really centers children's feelings, how to protect their feelings, how to be responsive to those feelings, how to be nurturing as a parent, how to follow your own instincts as a parent.

And, and so that book becomes Bible.

To understand what the world would look like without them, consider this notorious piece of medical advice that went unchallenged in the mid-20th century.

In 1957, the pediatrician Benjamin Spock made a small change to the second edition of his parenting bestseller, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), reissued several more times over the years.

He said that parents should put babies to sleep on their fronts rather than on their backs.

By the 1980s and '90s, studies were clearly showing that this was one of the most lethal pieces of unsubstantiated advice in the history of child health, as it contributed to a steep rise in sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS.

Not Doctor...

Spock.

Spock.

I was gonna say Hook.

[laughs] But I remember hearing my own mom refer to this book-

Yeah, Dr. Spock

... and it was the bible for having a baby.

Oh, yeah.

When I first had kids, I think maybe it just came out.

That wasn't yet the Bible.

Then there was What to Expect When... what you're expecting, which because that did very well, so then they did the what to expect with your kids, a two-year-old, and then another book, right? And I think a few years will come out with what to expect when your kids are senior citizens, because building on the success of the previous ones.

And before then, If you went into your grandparents' or maybe even your parents' bathroom and looked under the sink over there, what would you find over there? It was a book written by a guy whose name was Benjamin Spock.

Anyone heard of him? Jewish doctor, nice guy.

He wrote the Bible on parenting.

It was called, I think, Baby and Healthcare or something.

And the first edition came out in the 1950s.