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

cambridgeblog.org

91–100 of 639 posts

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

#91
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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a track the teacher and administration considered best, with the vast majority of those being educated getting an outdated curriculum, is an effective m…

I think you underestimate the lack of self directed learning ability people have before going to a higher education institutions. I know I would have failed at solo learning without going to college before hand.

Structured education can definitely help a majority of students who need to get to a point where self directed learning is effective. I have my qualms with higher education but its existence itself is not one of them.

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

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

After 5 kids in 10 years, you come to realize that the standards aren't agreed upon, and best practices/recommendations change YEAR TO YEAR without fail. Breastfeeding is one of the worst things hoisted upon mothers who are told "you must try no matter what" - seemingly ignoring the mental and physical health of the mother and the father all the while.

There are a lot of really good benefits to breastfeeding but it's not going to work for everybody or in every situation. I wouldn't fault a doctor for recommending it, but they shouldn't make someone feel bad if it isn't working out.

I want recommendations and best practices to change as our understanding of things improve though. The alternative would mean that either no more research is being done, or doctors are just ignoring anything they didn't learn while in school.

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

#93

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.

Older nurses are the best. They've seen it all.

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

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be replaced with what? i'm all for making changes that are an improvement, but just burning it to the ground for the sake of it with no end game is not an improvement

At this point, I would not be surprised if having two judges per case, randomly selected from the community, from parents who have successfully had at least three children leave the nest while still remaining on speaking terms, was a more reliable method of justice.

isn't an even number of judges ripe for uselessness?

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

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[dead]

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

#96

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.

> 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.

Voltaire (1694-1778) wrote a satirical account of a medieval university's oral examination on medicine: the examiner asks why morphine puts people to sleep, and the student confidently replies that morphine has a "dormative essence". This is a bit like saying that things with an essence of gravity fall towards the earth, whereas things with an essence of levity float towards the sky. The examiner proudly accepts that answer and bestows upon the student the title of doctor.

This was very funny to anyone educated in the time Voltaire was writing, since they would have known that morphine puts people to sleep because... it has round molecules with no sharp edges...

Edit: correction below, thank you thaumasiotes.

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

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 5 kids in 10 years, you come to realize that the standards aren't agreed upon, and best practices/recommendations change YEAR TO YEAR without fail. Breastfeeding is one of the worst things hoisted upon mothers who are told "you must try no matter what" - seemingly ignoring the mental and physical health of the mother and the father all the while.

There are a lot of really good benefits to breastfeeding but it's not going to work for everybody or in every situation. I wouldn't fault a doctor for recommending it, but they shouldn't make someone feel bad if it isn't working out. I want recommendations and best practices to change as our understanding of things improve though. The alternative would mean that either no more research is being done, or doctors are j…

Our doctor was fine with it. The nurse called formula poison.

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

#98
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A system that does not incarcerate anyone for any reason would be much preferable surely you don't actually believe that? I don't think the result of this is just 0 false positives. The result of that is a lot more crime, and a lot more injustice.

I think you (as is very common) vastly overestimate the effect of the threat of incarceration on crime.

Forget the threat. Serial muggers/armed robbers/thugs need to be off the street. This "nobody should be in prison" rhetoric is painfully naïve. Wait till you've had elderly/defenseless parents or friends violently mugged and beaten, you'll change your tune.

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

#99
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

No. When it comes to evaluating forensic evidence lawyers are, by training, too process oriented to solve the problems. Ask a prosecutor what the error rate is for fingerprints or DNA evidence and you’ll get a blank stare. They don’t even try to measure it.

You're telling me no defense lawyer thinks about arguing the evidence is unreliable or are you just saying the prosecution throws everything they can find at their side of the case? The former seems extremely hard to believe (lest you're about to become the greatest defense lawmaker of all time due to wisdom shared in a short HN comment) and the latter seems to be evidence of the system working both well and as designed, not evidence it's badly faulty.

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

#100
post #76
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possession is nine tenths of the law. It's not someone else's child if it's in your house and you need a genetic test to deny responsibility. This idea that bloodlines are relevant is anachronistic superstition. Several of my friends are not genetically related to their children. It's simply not relevant.

Adopting is no big deal. Being cuckolded is generally considered one of the biggest betrayals in the human experience. It's incredibly relevant to know if your spouse is faithful to you!

It might matter to you, but it has no bearing on the welfare of a child or the greater good of the community.
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