Rinaldo de Lamare

Who was Rinaldo de Lamare?

Rinaldo de Lamare 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" 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 "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" 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.