On Dr. Spock's Birthday, a Call for Peace, for
Health, and for Kids
By Neal D. Barnard, M.D., and Kristine Kieswer
This piece was published in the St. Paul
Pioneer Press on May 1, 2003, under the headline “Recalling
the Sage Advice of Dr. Spock.”
World-renowned physician Benjamin Spock rocked the pediatric community
in 1946 when his book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care advised new parents to adopt a totally new attitude toward their
children.
Trust your instincts, he said. Be flexible, and rest assured
your own good judgment will lead you in the right direction. He
stood for strong discipline, but insisted that discipline never
mean corporal punishment—ringing the death knell of the spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child
philosophy of the time. And Ben was just warming up. May 2 would have marked his 100th birthday. Had he lived to see
it, he would have found a world in need of his strength, morality,
and compassion more than ever before. He cared passionately about
peace, never wanting the children he helped us raise to have to
risk their lives in war. In the turbulent 1960s, he protested the
Vietnam War, joined Martin Luther King in the fight against racial
discrimination, and was arrested dozens of times championing these
causes. When it came to kids, he never was afraid to take a stand, no
matter how controversial. In 1992, after the New England Journal
of Medicine reported new evidence suggesting that the childhood-onset
form of diabetes was related to exposure to certain dairy proteins,
Dr. Spock took on the dairy industry, encouraging parents to take
dairy’s risks to heart. He made dramatic changes in his own diet, too, adopting a plant-based
diet late in life to regain his health for several more years. He
finally died in 1998 at age 94. In the seventh and last edition
of Baby and Child Care, Dr. Spock encouraged all parents to make
a major departure from the unhealthy diets that too many families
eat and to feed their children a plant-based diet. "We used
to think of vegetables, grains, and beans as side dishes. We kept
meat and dairy products as our favored foods, and we were not particularly
concerned about fat and cholesterol in children’s diets. We
now know better. Research shows us very clearly that vegetables,
grains, beans, and fruits should take center stage. They provide
the nutrition children need to grow, and avoid the cholesterol and
animal fat that can cause so many problems," he noted.
We need this sage advice now more than ever. According to the National
Institutes of Health, the number of U.S. children who are overweight
has doubled in the past couple of decades. With the rise in childhood
obesity, the health care system is bracing for an even greater increase
in type 2 diabetes, a potentially devastating disease if not closely
managed. And before they finish high school, many children already
have the beginnings of heart disease, which eventually kills about
half the U.S. adult population. What Dr. Spock advocated long ago is still true: Parents should
remain the top advisors in a child’s life. Whether it comes
to conflict resolution, maintaining a kindly attitude toward our
fellows, or taking care of our children’s health, it’s
never too late for families to get on the right track. His vision
for a healthy, peaceful planet would do us all a world of good.
* * *
Neal D. Barnard, M.D., is a nutrition researcher,
author, and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine (PCRM). Kristine Kieswer is the editor of Good Medicine,
PCRM’s quarterly membership magazine. Dr. Spock was a member
of PCRM’s advisory board.
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