Editing Benjamin Spock (section)

==Views==

===Sudden infant death syndrome===
Spock advocated that infants should not sleep on their backs, commenting in his 1958 edition that "if [an infant] vomits, he's more likely to choke on the vomitus." This advice was extremely influential on healthcare providers, with nearly unanimous support through the 1990s.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Ruth Gilbert|author2=Georgia Salanti|author3=Melissa Harden|author4=Sarah See|year=2005|title=Infant sleeping position and the sudden infant death syndrome: systematic review of observational studies and historical review of recommendations from 1940 to 2002|journal=International Journal of Epidemiology|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|volume=34|issue=4|pages=874–87|doi=10.1093/ije/dyi088|pmid=15843394|citeseerx=10.1.1.488.3870}}</ref> Later empirical studies, however, found a significantly increased risk of [[sudden infant death syndrome]] (SIDS) associated with infants sleeping on their abdomens. Advocates of [[evidence-based medicine]] have used this as an example of the importance of basing healthcare recommendations on statistical evidence. One researcher estimated that as many as 50,000 infant deaths in Europe, Australia, and the U.S. could have been prevented had this advice been changed by 1970 when such evidence became available.<ref>[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]. "Health Report", September 11, 2006. Radio program. [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/facing-the-evidence---part-one/3345712 Transcript]</ref>

===Male circumcision===
In the 1940s, Spock favored [[male circumcision|circumcision of males]] performed within a few days of birth. However, in the 1976 revision of ''Baby and Child Care'' he concurred with a 1971 [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] task force that there was no medical reason to recommend routine circumcision, and in a 1989 article for ''[[Redbook]]'' he stated that "circumcision of males is traumatic, painful, and of questionable value."<ref>{{citation|publisher=[[Canadian Children's Rights Council]]|title=Circumcision - It's Not Necessary|work=[[Redbook]]|date=April 1989|author=Spock, Benjamin}}</ref> He received the first Human Rights Award from the International Symposium on Circumcision (ISC) in 1991 and was quoted as saying, "My own preference, if I had the good fortune to have another son, would be to leave his little penis alone."<ref>{{cite journal|author=Milos, Marilyn Fayre|author2=Donna Macris|date=March–April 1992|title=Circumcision: A medical or a human rights issue?|journal=Journal of Nurse-Midwifery|volume=37|issue=2 S1|pages=S87–S96|pmid=1573462|doi=10.1016/0091-2182(92)90012-R|url=http://www.cirp.org/library/ethics/milos-macris/}}</ref>