Dr Spock’s dangerous advice on baby sleep
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sometimes it is obvious to everyone when an idea is harmful, or a piece of advice is damaging. But not always. Occasionally bad ideas and terrible advice end up being accepted in society and supported by people in authority.
In such circumstances, one of the most powerful tools for changing people's minds is evidence – scientific studies that show beyond doubt that the bad idea is, indeed, a bad idea.
That's the subject of a new book by Helen Pearson, titled Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works.
An editor at the scientific journal Nature in her day job, the book chronicles those determined individuals who shake up the status quo by gathering just the right kind of evidence.
One story in that book stood out to us on More or Less as it shows just what happens when you don't have the evidence you need to challenge a dangerous way of doing things.
It's the story of a piece of advice from childcare expert Dr Benjamin Spock.
In a 1958 revision of his bestselling parenting guide Baby and Childcare he made a small change to his advice on sleeping position – advising parents to put their babies to sleep on their front.
It eventually became clear that this sleeping position was associated with a significant increase in the risk of sudden infant death, or cot death.
CREDITS:
Presenter: Charlotte McDonald Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Rod Farquhar Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and thanks |
| 0:02.2 | Music, radio, podcasts |
| 0:04.4 | Hello and thanks for downloading the more or less podcast |
| 0:09.3 | with a program that looks at the numbers in the news, in life |
| 0:13.1 | and as advice in 1950s parenting guides. |
| 0:16.6 | I'm Charlotte McDonald. |
| 0:32.5 | Sometimes it's obvious to everyone when an idea is harmful or a piece of advice is damaging. |
| 0:34.5 | But not always. |
| 0:39.8 | Occasionally, bad ideas and terrible advice end up being accepted in society and supported by people in authority. In such circumstances, one of the most powerful tools for |
| 0:47.0 | changing people's minds is evidence. Actual facts that show beyond doubt that the bad idea is indeed a bad idea. |
| 0:57.5 | That's the subject of a new book by Helen Pearson, titled Beyond Belief, |
| 1:02.7 | how evidence shows what really works. |
| 1:06.1 | An editor at the scientific journal Nature and Her Day Job, |
| 1:09.9 | the book chronicles those determined individuals |
| 1:12.3 | who shake up the status quo by gathering just the right kind of evidence. One story in that book |
| 1:18.9 | stood out to us here on more or less, a kind of cautionary tale, sorry Tim, about what happens |
| 1:25.7 | when you don't have the evidence you need to challenge a dangerous way of doing things. |
| 1:31.3 | It's the story of one piece of advice from childcare expert, Dr Spock. |
| 1:40.2 | So the story starts really with probably the best-selling parenting book of all time, |
| 1:45.3 | which is Baby and Child Care by the American pediatrician Benjamin Spock. |
| 1:49.2 | First published in 1946 and Spock's book quickly became this enormous bestseller. |
| 1:55.2 | So the favourite childcare manual for new parents sold probably more than 50 million copies in over 40 languages in the end. |
... |
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