Heidi Murkoff Click photo for larger image.

So, who's the next Dr. Spock?

Certainly, Penelope Leach, who will be appearing Friday at a University of Pittsburgh conference on children, is frequently cited as one of today's top five or six most popular parenting experts.

But for a younger generation of parents, there may not be one go-to name out there -- or one book sitting, like a bible, on a shelf to be referred to again and again.

"More and more parents are not looking toward one person or one expert," says Patty Onkaro, a senior editor at Babytalk Magazine. "You have Internet blogs, chat sites, bulletin boards and, of course, other parents."

"It's a very different world than when Dr. Spock covered all areas in an authoritative voice and there weren't as many points of view as there are now," added Istar Schwager, an educational psychologist who consults for Highlights for Children and has her own Web site, creativeparents.com.

Martin Seligman Click photo for larger image.

"There are so many different perspectives, and we know that parents are really interested in getting as much information as possible that's out there."

But parenting, like just about everything else these days, can be a highly fraught subject, culturally and politically. The ideological divide in America over child-rearing, at its extremes, falls into what critics call a "permissive," "child-led" camp vs. the authoritarian, "spare the rod and spoil the child" camp.

For the most part, Dr. William Sears, advocate of "attachment parenting," is considered to be at the permissive end of the spectrum, with Drs. T. Berry Brazelton and Leach edging toward a more moderate but still child-centered approach. John Rosemond and James Dobson espouse a more traditional, hierarchical philosophy of child-rearing.

The ideal middle ground, according to Dr. Schwager, is what she and others call "authoritative" parenting, "setting limits but listening to kids, being consistent as possible but not inflexible." She would include Dr. Leach, whom she called "sensible but empathetic."

	Betsy Hart Click photo for larger image.

Some experts at the extremes have moderated their views, she and others noted, including, for example, Dr. Richard Ferber. The Boston doctor's controversial approach to children's sleep problems -- in which the baby is trained to fall asleep on his own and what some critics call the "cry it out" approach -- was considered a crucial step toward independence. But recently Dr. Ferber has said he doesn't believe that children sleeping in their parents' bed is necessarily harmful.

"He came to the middle, and I think others are, too," said Dr. Schwager. "And I think parents are realizing there's more than one way to do it. There's no one formula for everyone, and no such thing as perfect."

Here's a by-no-means exhaustive list of some of the more recently visible names in child-rearing -- beyond Dr. Benjamin Spock, Drs. Leach, Brazelton and Dobson, and Mr. Rosemond:

Dr. Michel Cohen: thenewbasics.com: He's French; he lives in a hip downtown Manhattan neighborhood; Jennifer Connelly and Annie Liebovitz are among his clients; and with his spiky hair and black, techie glasses, even his publicist refers to him as "cutting edge." The Tribeca pediatrician favors a low-interventionist approach to antibiotics and, in a recent book, told parents to just stop worrying so much.

Michel Cohen Click photo for larger image.

Martin Seligman: authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu: He's not "new," exactly, nor does he make a living as a child-rearing adviser -- the University of Pennsylvania professor is best known as the father of the Positive Psychology movement. But his book, "The Optimistic Child," has been a steady seller. In it, he argues that children can benefit from a certain amount of adversity if they learn to take a positive view in the face of setbacks.

Betsy Hart: betsyhart.net of "It Takes a Parent" (a very specific jibe at Hillary Clinton), Ms. Hart takes a dim view of permissive parenting, arguing that parents should "limit the choices open to their kids, make no excuses for their bad behavior and stop turning to the therapeutic establishment for solutions to every problem." Dr. Laura Schlessinger has ordered all her listeners to read it. Ms. Hart also has her own Web site, blog and radio show.

Heidi Murkoff: www.whattoexpect.com Co-author, with Arlene Eisenberg and Sandee Hathaway, of the country's leading pregnancy and parenting book, "What to Expect When You're Expecting," Ms. Murkoff went on to write a whole series of books on parenting. "What to Expect" has been around since the late 1980s but is still hugely popular, with 25 million copies sold.

---

Correction/Clarification: (Published Mar. 29, 2007) This story as originally published on Mar. 28, 2007 about new parenting experts gave the wrong first name for Dr. William Sears, an advocate of "attachment parenting."