Talk:Benjamin Spock

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[edit] 80,000 votes

"He failed to get the required 80,000 votes"? I would have clarified this, but I'm completely baffled. What's so significant about 80,000 votes? I took it out--if somebody wants to re-add it, please explain what it means.

Chowbok 02:35, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] People's Party?

Dr. Spock the candidate for the Peace & Freedom Party! The People's Party is a right wing group I believe.

No, he was the People's Party candidate. Perhaps you're thinking of the Populist Party? The original Peoples' Party, from the turn-of-the-century, was better known as the Populist Party, and there was also a right-wing Populist Party in the 1980's. These third parties get confusing, I know... and it's possible Spock was also on the Peace & Freedom ticket in some states, but for certain he was the People's Party candidate. --Chowbok 03:44, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Peter Spock

I believe Peter Spock committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a car in front of the Boston Children's Museum. But I'm unable to find the corroborating newspaper account at the moment. Peter lived next door to me at Hampshire College. I can vouch for his history of mental illness, as he slashed his wrists there one morning in our bathroom. One of the most troubled people I ever knew. I wish I could have helped him more.

Qphilo

[edit] Old "conventional" wisdom

"Previously, experts had told parents that babies needed to learn to sleep on a regular schedule, and that picking them up and holding them whenever they cried would only teach them to cry more and not to sleep through the night. They were told to feed their children on a regular schedule, and that they should not pick them up, kiss them, or hug them, because that would not prepare them to be strong and independent individuals in a harsh world."

This doesn't appear to have any source. What experts? Beyond that there's the distinction between what some experts were saying and what American parents were actually doing. It would be valuable to explore this in greater depth, or at least to link to a page doing so.

Overall the article seems a little too pro-Spock rather than neutral.

Mistaben 19:08, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spock's Children

I heard or read that his boys hated him for some reason. Is there any information on this, and is it relevant to this article? S.Rodgers--65.24.77.104 04:24, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hearsay reference

I've cite-tagged the Permissiveness section. It's full of weasel words and unsourced POV. The one citation, for a Norman Vincent Peale quote, is to someone else quoting him. That's not a valid citation, so it was removed. — J M Rice 17:09, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

I've cited the Permissiveness section with some paragraphs from Dr. Spock's book Rebuilding American Family Values: A Better World for Our Children. I'll let someone else decide whether to remove the cite-tagging and perhaps reorganize that section a touch. Jeff kuta (talk) 17:13, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Diet

No mention of his own change to veganism and somewhat scandalous recommendation of the same to parents for their children? Has this issue been discussed before? MKV 21:18, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sleeping position and SIDS

There's been a lot of talk about evidence-based medicine lately, and one fascinating and startling comment made by some proponents is that Spock's advice regarding sleeping position has resulted in increased risk of SIDS up until the early 90s when heath-care providers stopped repeating Spock's advice. This transcript with Sir Iain Chalmers on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Health Report" show inspired me to add something to this article (note that you have to click on the "Show Transcript" link to actually see the transcript of the show). The actual words used in the interview were much more direct:

I bought a copy of Dr Benjamin Spock's book Baby and Child Care and I actually marked the passage saying that babies should be put to sleep on their fronts. Now I promulgated that advice - we now know that had people looked at the evidence by 1970 it would have been clear that this was actually lethally bad advice and it's been estimated that in the UK, had we taken notice of the evidence, it might have prevented about 10,000 deaths from cot death. And the estimates for US, Australia and Europe is over 50,000 unnecessary deaths and that's a tragic consequence of not paying attention to the need for evidence.

I've tried to be as even-handed as possible, but would appreciate any comments regarding whether I've used a sufficiently NPOV. Ben White 04:18, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spock's children

In the misconceptions section, the article currently says "Spock had two children: Michael, formerly the director of the Boston Children's Museum and since retired from the museum profession." Who was the other child? Also, the two lines about Spock's grand-daughter do not seem to be relevant to the article. Unless there are any complaints, I'll delete them. Catpigg 08:53, 15 October 2007 (UTC)