Tracy Hogg Dies at 44 (2024)

Ms. Hogg cared for more than 5,000 babies, including those of celebrities Jodie Foster, Cindy Crawford, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael J. Fox. When "Ally McBeal" star Calista Flockhart adopted a baby boy in 2001, she booked Ms. Hogg for seven weeks.

Critics said that despite the mystical connotations of the "baby whisperer" title, her book simply offered common sense. Ms. Hogg agreed that although there was nothing magical in her approach, it had "a light-bulb effect" on neophyte moms and dads.

She was not an extremist on such touchy issues as breast-vs.-formula feeding but did not favor sleeping with one's baby. She used acronyms to present her basic formulas for contented parenting, such as EASY (Eating, Activity and Sleeping for the baby; the Y stood for "time for You") and SLOW (Stop and remember that crying is a baby's language. Listen to a baby's cry to decipher its meaning. Observe a baby's actions and gestures. The W was to remind parents to evaluate "What's up?").

Ms. Hogg also encouraged parents to talk to their babies. For instance, the first thing she said all parents should do when bringing a newborn home is give the baby a tour of the house. She always introduced herself to a baby, regardless of whether the infant was 3 minutes or 3 months old, and insisted on explaining everything.

"Babies are sensate creatures," she told an Australian newspaper in 2001. "When you are tired, they pick that up, so it's OK to say to a baby, 'I don't know why you are crying but I'm going to figure it out.' . . . It's about communicating and having a continual dialogue with the infant."

Ms. Hogg was a Yorkshire native from a family of nine children. She and three of her siblings were sent to live with their grandparents, who became key influences in her life.

Her grandfather was the head nurse in a mental hospital. He took Ms. Hogg to visit the children's ward when she was 7. She related to the children with such patience and warmth that, after several visits, her grandfather encouraged her to consider becoming a nurse like him.

When she was 18, she entered nursing school and became a registered nurse and midwife who specialized in children with disabilities.

When Ms. Hogg moved to the United States in 1992 with a new husband, she sent her two young daughters, then 8 and 11, to live with their grandmother while she established herself as a baby nurse here. Her decision opened her up to criticism when she became famous, with articles suggesting that she had abandoned her own children in order to care for those of the rich and famous in the United States. But she defended her decision, saying she saw her daughters often and wanted them to have the parenting she enjoyed with her mother and grandmother. Her daughters later came to live with her in Los Angeles.

Thanks in part to celebrity endorsem*nts, Ms. Hogg won a $750,000 book advance for "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer," which ran on bestseller lists for 11 weeks. She then wrote "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers" (2002) and "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems," an advanced guidebook on sleeping, feeding and behavior challenges, which will be published in January by Simon & Schuster. All three books were written with journalist Melinda Blau.

Ms. Hogg also had a television program on the Discovery Health channel called "The Baby Whisperer."

"Babies are sensate creatures," Tracy Hogg said. "When you are tired, they pick that up."