Why Can’t We Remember Being Babies?

I’ve been enjoying a TV series called “Unforgettable”. It’s about a detective who has perfect recall of every event she has experienced in her life. This rare trait helps her solve murder cases, of course. In truth, there are fewer than 100 documented people in the...

Christmas in a Children’s Hospital

In December, the questions parents ask in the hospital are different. Instead of “Will my child be OK?”, we pediatric hospitalists hear: “We have plane tickets to go skiing for Christmas. Will he be well by then?” “She’ll be home for Christmas, right? We’ve never been...

Premature Babies Were Once a Coney Island Side Show

The late 19th and early 20th Century was a time of optimism about many things, but not about premature babies. In an era that celebrated healthy babies, with Better Baby contests, awarding prizes to the biggest, fittest, best-looking babies, there was little to offer...

The Candy Land Game and Its Link to Polio

We all remember playing Candy Land, following the brightly colored path through the peppermint stick forest and gumdrop mountains, past the lollipop woods to get to Home Sweet Home. However, few people realize that this game would never have been invented if not for...

Beatrix Potter and How Disease Shaped Her Life

I’ve always been curious about why famous writers became writers, and why they wrote what they wrote. Clearly, our life experiences shape what we write, and we as writers are always admonished to “write what you know”. As a doctor, I am fascinated by illness and...