While most books about baby care tell parents what the author thinks they should know, A Practical Guide for New Parents is based upon the real and repeated questions the author has been asked by patients. The information in this guide is based on questions and concerns of new parents and soon-to-be parents. Explanations for various practices are thorough and complete – something busy doctors don’t always have the time for in the rush of their day. The author hopes that this information will ease parents’ anxieties and make them more comfortable in their new role.

About the Author

Benjamin D. Gordon was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a doctor and his mother was a nurse¬¬. Gordon enlisted in the Navy at seventeen and was in medical school at the University of Maryland from 1947-51. After his pediatric residency, he was a NY State Research fellow in rheumatic fever for a year before starting his private practice in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1955. He took over the first year the Salk polio vaccine was available from a young pediatrician who had not taken the vaccine. Lying in an iron lung, his first words were, “If I had taken three little shots, I wouldn’t be here.”

From his background, Gordon did more surgery than most pediatricians. Eighteen years later, he switched to the E.R. Nine years after that, he received an offer in Occupational Medicine and joined the World Headquarters Medical Department of Union Carbide in Danbury, Connecticut. Carbide broke up after the explosion at its plant in Bhopal, India, and Gordon became the medical director for Chesebrough-Pond’s/Unilever in Trumbull, Connecticut, where he was responsible for product safety.

Gordon retired at 63, but continued to work for different entities including some in Connecticut before he moved to Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, in 1996. His was a caretaker to his wife, who was wheelchair-bound for the last ten years of her life due to multiple medical and surgical problems. She passed away in March 2013. He visited his sister in Rockville, Maryland, where he reconnected with his teenage sweetheart, Adele, whom he hadn’t seen in sixty-seven years. He entered the retirement community where his sister lived and has been “adopted” by Adele’s children. He continues to socialize with friends at various events and considers himself very lucky.