Rinaldo de Lamare

Rinaldo de Lamare (1910, Santos, São Paulo - 2002, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian physician specialized in pediatrics and a bestseller writer of books on child health and care for the general public. Although born in the city port of Santos, in the state of São Paulo, to a family of danish and norman origins, son of Victor de Lamare, an engineer, he went to live in Rio de Janeiro when he was only 16 years old, in order to prepare himself to study medicine at the medical school of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Rio de Janeiro.

His best known book, "A Vida do Bebê" (The Baby's Life) has sold more than 6,5 million volumes in 41 editions, all personally revised and updated by him, and which is considered the best reference for Brazilian parents. The book, first published in 1941, is for Brazil what Dr. Benjamin Spock's (1903-1998) "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" (published 1943) was for America.

He was also a strong proponent of what he considered the three greatest breakthroughs in child health: antibiotics, vaccines and breast feeding. He was also the first to introduce the use of a simple recipe for a home care isotonic and nutritive solution for the treatment of infant diarrhea, which was a big killer in the first half of the 20th century in Brazil.

Dr. de Lamare was a member and president of the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member and president of the Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria (1948-1949) and full professor at Pontifical Catholic University. From 1964 to 1965 he was also a director of the National Child Department of the Ministry of Health.

Dr de Lamare had a busy private practice in Rio, with more than 60 thousand patients on record. He stopped practising after 1985, when he suffered a heart bypass operation.

Books

 * A Vida do Bebê
 * Diario do Bebê Rosa
 * Diário do Bebê: Eu e os Meus Primeiros Anos
 * A Grávida e o Bebê: da Concepção ao Parto
 * A Vida de Nossos Filhos (2 a 16 Anos)