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Like many doctors with the M.D. degree, I was told in medical school and internship training that the unborn baby, like a
parasite, would "steal" whatever it needed from the body of the host mother. "A tooth for a baby."
Now after thirty years of drug-oriented practice of pediatrics I have discovered--much of it from the research of Tom Brewer--that
the pregnancy is really a launching pad for the infant. If the nine months has been inadequate in nutrition or has been too
stressful, the infant suffers and will reveal this hurt with a seige of colic, a lifetime of allergies, frequent infections
or inappropriate behavior. We drug all these children--sedatives, antihistaminics, antibiotics, psychotropics--because that
is our training; we treat with medicines. But at the same time we should have been signaling the obstetricians to let them
know that something was amiss. But we didn't have the insight nor the tools of research to indicate who or what was to blame.
"Some kids are sick a lot," we told the parents somewhat sheepishly. Now we ask, without trying to stir up any guilt, "Were
you comfortable in the pregnancy?" or "How much did you gain?" or "Did you have nausea, vomiting, fevers, drugs, cramps, or
stress?" "How many months separate the pregnancies?" and most important, "What did you eat?"
Recently a mother told me when I was trying to find some valid reason for her child's severe, multiple allergies: "I'm not
sure about stress when I was pregnant with him; I was 14 years old then." That's stress! Her own body wasn't even
finished.
Stress and a poorly nourished pregnancy frequently lead to a sickly, allergic baby. Apparently the adrenal glands of the
infant are depleted simultaneously with the depletion of the mother's adrenals. Her perception of stress is the important
criterion.
One obvious stress is the metabolic toxemia that can be so easily avoided. This condition is a stress and will lead to further
depletion of the woman's body. Stress leads to a disease and the disease leads to stress; a "Catch 22."
From my standpoint, if the mother survives the ravages of toxemia and the baby is still intact after this tumult, she is usually
unable to nurse the poor thing because of her exhaustion. These are the very children sho should be nursed for one to two
years because they especially need this protection from allergies and infections.
We now have enough information to be able to throw some weight of responsibility back to the obstetricians, busy though they
are with treating toxemia (usually preventable), abruptio placentae (probably nutrition based), premature labor (most of it
could be avoided), and doing Cesarians (not all of them are necessary). We must get their attention. They have got to pay
more than lip service to nutrition.
But for years Tom Brewer has been trying to get the attention of his OB peer group. They think him a maverick. "We have
drugs; we don't need Tom."
My plan: find organizations and people who will underwrite a free gift of this book to every girl who is 13 years old or has
had her first menstrual period. If these girls could just learn the value of a good diet--for their own bodies but also to
assure that they will more likely have a healthy, happy child.
Our country will then be full of people free of sickness, aches, allergies and meanness. The obstetricians will get the credit,
but Keats Publishing and Tom and I will know. And I promise I will send a nice letter to these generous donors saying: "You
are OK. Have a good day. I love you."
Lendon Smith
Chicago, June 1982
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