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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

#51

Post by autoexec »

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…

Lots of other parents driven to look for answers about what happened to their child, but being far less educated on how to read and understand academic papers, ended up "doing their own research" and became antivaxxers. There's a lot to be said for having an education that enables you to evaluate scientific literature effectively.

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

#52

Post by Waterluvian »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #24

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

Nothing shook my faith in the medical system more than having kids.

Holy cow is modern medicine still as smugly wrong as it’s always been. Every generation laughs at all the stupid stuff the previous generations believed, and then acts so confident that they’ve got it right this time.

And as a result you get unworthy nurses making moms feel intense shame for not “trying hard enough” to somehow magically produce milk.

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

#53

Post by LastTrain »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #44
hezralig wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you haven’t already: find the accusation in your comment.

It’s a very simple question - one that my kid’s pediatrician asks during almost every visit. Weird that you take it as an accusation.

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

#54

Post by faeriechangling »

drt5b7j wrote: post #4
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…

[flagged]

I'm not dismissive of education. I learn on the job. I learn in my free time. I learn to further my career. I learn to help myself out. I learn for fun.

What I resent is the absurd idea that going to a brick and mortar institutions for 4, 6, maybe 10 years, following a track the teacher and administration considered best, with the vast majority of those being educated getting an outdated curriculum, is an effective means of learning. This entire attitude is portrayed as pro-education but it's really just pro-institution. It's only an effective means of learning insofar that the credential you get at the end can open doors to opportunities to learn, a point I will readily concede.

I also have done amateur medical research in my spare time and literally printed out some papers and taken them to my doctor and said "let's do this". This ended up being very successful and very productive. It's not what the OP did is something people who did fancy book lernin' through a SCHOOL can do only after years of toil. You can just pick up the skills you need as you go and get reasonable results.

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

#55

Post by DoreenMichele »

ceejayoz wrote: post #43
jrochkind1 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that the phrase "a valid concern" would lead me to think "something doctors and parents should consult on (also with the child themself!) and determine if there is cause for alarm, and if so decide collaboratively what the proper course of action is." Sure! Of course! That's what you do with valid health concerns, right? What it actually means is "something for which social workers will decide whether…

Abusers sometimes take their victims elsewhere - new doc, new town, new state - when people start getting suspicious. The victim may also be retaliated against; accused of trying to get help. There’s a risk to consulting someone you suspect might be the perpetrator.

If the parent is abusive, trying to get their cooperation in fixing the problem may be an effective means to out them.

They had absolutely no reason to believe I was abusing him. Most likely, they were just trying to cover their own butts and err in that direction rather than in the direction of "what's best for this child?"

That's without getting into larger concerns of "What on earth is wrong with the world that a junk food diet is the medically recommended diet for a serious medical condition?"

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

#56

Post by gjsman-1000 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #52
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #24

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

Nothing shook my faith in the medical system more than having kids. Holy cow is modern medicine still as smugly wrong as it’s always been. Every generation laughs at all the stupid stuff the previous generations believed, and then acts so confident that they’ve got it right this time. And as a result you get unworthy nurses making moms feel intense shame for not “trying hard enough” to somehow magically produce milk.

My sister wouldn't sleep. The doctor constantly gave the "sigh, you're an idiot, you just do X and Y and they sleep" talk to my mother because nothing came up on their screening, even though my mother almost wanted to scream that something was clearly wrong and abnormal. Turns out, different doctor, serious vitamin deficiency.

And medical incompetence by staff, not doctors, is also awful. My brother hated reading. He got glasses, still hated reading, my mother wondered why he could be so disobedient in that regard. They said, well, the prescription is right, he can clearly see fine. Turns out two years later that the lenses were installed on opposite sides. Right lens on left eye, left lens on right eye. A simple mistake, but the consequences...

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

#57

Post by j16sdiz »

sanderjd wrote: post #40
dartos wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't that just what PhD do? I meant going through piles of papers - most of them bring more new questions than answers - and stay sane

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

#58

Post by jacquesm »

colechristensen wrote: post #35
slashdev wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One of my children had a serious problem right after birth with breathing (central apnea). He'd stop breathing suddenly while sleeping. If this had happened at home he likely would not have made it, but the hospital was very alert to it and after two weeks with many such episodes it suddenly clicked and then it never happened again.

If we had taken him home without knowing about the condition I'm pretty sure a 'SIDS' cause of death would have been one of the possible outcomes regardless of the actual cause (which would have been very hard to determine after the fact).

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

#59

Post by clipsy »

LastTrain wrote: post #53
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven’t already: find the accusation in your comment.

It’s a very simple question - one that my kid’s pediatrician asks during almost every visit. Weird that you take it as an accusation.

What's weird is that you apparently don't understand the difference between being asked that question by your child's pediatrician vs a random stranger on the internet.

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

#60

Post by [deleted] »

Waterluvian wrote: post #52
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #24

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

Nothing shook my faith in the medical system more than having kids. Holy cow is modern medicine still as smugly wrong as it’s always been. Every generation laughs at all the stupid stuff the previous generations believed, and then acts so confident that they’ve got it right this time. And as a result you get unworthy nurses making moms feel intense shame for not “trying hard enough” to somehow magically produce milk.

[deleted]
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