Late Dr. Gopal Sharan,
who taught me the basics of paediatrics,
and to those
precious people at home
whose support made this
book possible.
No book can be a substitute for the advice of a good
doctor.
Your family physician or paediatrician knows you and
your child.
So you must consult them for your child’s problem.
GEHNA, ONE OF MY IDEAL ‘‘PATIENTS’’
Gehna (the name means ‘ornament’) was born on May
16, 1998. She lives in Mumbai with her parents and
grandparents. Gehna is not a patient; she is my friend. She helped me build
my faith in practising the art of ‘masterly
inactivity’.
Years ago, Ralph Waldo Trine* said:
“The true physician and parent of the future will not medicate the body with drugs so much
as the mind with principles. The caring mother will teach her child to
assuage the fever of anger, hatred, malice, with the great
panacea of the world— love. The coming physician will teach the
people to cultivate cheerfulness, goodwill and noble deeds for
a health tonic as well as a heart tonic, and that a merry
heart doeth good like a medicine.”
Gehna’s family worked with me and my wife as a team.
Her mother followed my book on child care to the dot. She breastfed her child exclusively for 6 months. We did not
have to medicate Gehna with too many drugs. Together, we practised what Ralph Waldo Trine said,
and, in return,
God helped us have a beautiful, confident, cheerful Gehna.
God bless you Gehna!
* Trine RW. In Tune With the Infinite. London, G. Bell
And Sons, 1928, p 80.
