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A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

cambridgeblog.org

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Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#31

Post by hezralig »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #25
crazygringo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then he lost five pounds. He still felt better than he ever had and neither of us were concerned. His medical team implied I was in danger of being reported to children's services as an abusive mother. But wasn't that valid cause for concern, especially for someone who should be a growing boy? If being underweight was a serious medical concern for him, losing 5 pounds seems like a big flashing red warning that some…

You are missing the part where I harmed his health to comply with their expectations. He was fine and does better on a high quality diet than on a junk food diet. Weight isn't the only metric that matters.

What do you consider a high quality diet? What would meals for a day look like to you?

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#32

Post by [deleted] »

ncallaway wrote: post #30
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that this rumor is just an alternate framing of the original commenter's assertion that "a minor bump in the head for a baby could be life threatening, but we just mark it as SIDS". I think it's fair to be skeptical of both, but it's worth reflecting on how the same factual assertions can come across as either "science-informed speculation" or "crazy unsubstantiated rumor" depending on how you say them…

> or "crazy unsubstantiated rumor" depending on how you say them. “How it was said” was literally presented as unsubstantiated rumor. It’s not worth reflecting that when someone says “I heard a rumor that X…” it sounds like an unsubstantiated rumor. It’s just the basic structure of English language.

[deleted]

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#34

Post by roughly »

itsmemattchung wrote: post #16

> As a precautionary measure, the hospital followed mandatory reporting statutes and my wife and I temporarily lost custody of David. Thanks to our incredibly effective defense lawyer, we were cleared of all charges within two months, during which we stayed at the hospital 24/7 with David until we sorted out the legal procedures. Holy shit. Parents bring baby to ER ... results reveal that baby was shaken (article lat…

And:

> [O]ur nanny was eventually cleared of all charges, but it took four years for the court to recognize my son’s medical condition (a rare occurrence in France, as I later discovered) during which we were forbidden to speak to her and she was forbidden to approach children, thus losing her means of livelihood.

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#35

Post by colechristensen »

slashdev wrote: post #19
bombcar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve heard credible rumors that SIDS is the “parent accidentally killed their child but we won’t tell them that” polite fiction.

Don’t say horrible things like that unless you can really back them up. Think of how a grief stricken parent might feel after reading that.

SIDS most likely does not exist. "Unknown cause of death" should be preferred.[1] If you review the literature, there has been a definite increase in pushback against "SIDS" instead trying to assign causes of death with known mechanisms. I can't find a great reference but there is one out there that proposes with evidence that the most prevalent actual cause of death labeled "SIDS" is accidental suffocation.

It is so emotionally charged though that there is and has been great hesitation to assign this cause of death because of the emotional effect on the parents.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10571752/

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#36

Post by [deleted] »

kr0bat wrote: post #2

I came to realize that there was a long-standing scientific controversy in the field, and I felt that I had no choice but to get to the bottom of things myself. Although I am not a medical doctor, I hold a PhD in neuroscience and am familiar with critically reading scientific literature. I decided that I would invest as much time as necessary to learn everything I possibly could on the subject. At that point, there w…

[deleted]

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#37

Post by parl_match »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #24

trully unbelievable, i lose faith in thr justice system day by day

The justice system does the best it can with the information it has. It is far from perfect. It makes horrible mistakes all the time. The problem, of course, is improving it without knock-on effects making it worse.

There are huge swaths of people doing the work required to make it better, every day. It's not as easy as turning a dial from "bad" to "good"

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#38

Post by cm2012 »

itsmemattchung wrote: post #16

> As a precautionary measure, the hospital followed mandatory reporting statutes and my wife and I temporarily lost custody of David. Thanks to our incredibly effective defense lawyer, we were cleared of all charges within two months, during which we stayed at the hospital 24/7 with David until we sorted out the legal procedures. Holy shit. Parents bring baby to ER ... results reveal that baby was shaken (article lat…

Not surprised it happened in France, they are much more of a nanny state (in good and bad ways) when it comes to parenting. Like the fact that paternity tests are banned unless you have a court order, etc.

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#39

Post by yieldcrv »

parl_match wrote: post #37
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #24

trully unbelievable, i lose faith in thr justice system day by day

The justice system does the best it can with the information it has. It is far from perfect. It makes horrible mistakes all the time. The problem, of course, is improving it without knock-on effects making it worse. There are huge swaths of people doing the work required to make it better, every day. It's not as easy as turning a dial from "bad" to "good"

and none as effective as this one person

too many cooks in the kitchen

Re: A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

#40

Post by sanderjd »

dartos wrote: post #27
kr0bat wrote: post #2

I came to realize that there was a long-standing scientific controversy in the field, and I felt that I had no choice but to get to the bottom of things myself. Although I am not a medical doctor, I hold a PhD in neuroscience and am familiar with critically reading scientific literature. I decided that I would invest as much time as necessary to learn everything I possibly could on the subject. At that point, there w…

I think that speaks more towards the author than higher education. Definitely a tangent, but attributing that attitude to higher education is like someone attributing a doctor saving their life to an act of god. Like yeah if you squint I guess that’s true. My experience with higher education has been that of administrators taking advantage of my naivety for profit, elitism towards those not in academia, and dismissal…

Yeah I dunno... I mean, a lot of these things are true, and they all are big problems, but also, in my experience, academics (at least in the sciences) do actually know how to read and understand research, which is an extremely difficult and useful skill.
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