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

cambridgeblog.org

161–170 of 639 posts

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

#161
post #47

> I couldn’t live with this uncertainty any longer. But first, I had to get my son back. 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. I…

Is the criminal justice system in France based on a presumption of innonce?

Is that a serious question? Yes, the French justice system is based on a presumption of innocence, just like any other functioning democratic nation. It is a basic human right under the UN charter after all.

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

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unworthy nurses making moms feel intense shame for not “trying hard enough” to somehow magically produce milk. Stay away from mommy blogs/forums. Those are the most toxic cesspools I've ever witnessed. Things are changing, some of the newer ones are not nearly as bad, but man the judgement is super real. Nurses are one thing, but personally, the worst is family members who think they know better and don't understan…

Maternal milk is better than formula in every possible way and there is a perfect scientific consensus around this. Formula is the least worst substitute to maternal milk but going around and screaming that formula is perfectly fine, as if it was as good (or even better!) than maternal milk is denying some very well-established piece of science for likely ideological reasons.

> Maternal milk is better than formula in every possible way and there is a perfect scientific consensus around this.

I have not seen result like this obtained in a randomized, controlled trial, and it is almost certainly false as stated: you're almost certainly exaggerating for effect, but doing that in scientific context is bad intellectual hygiene.

All results of this sort that I have seen have been purely correlational, and as such suffer from selection bias. This might be true, but the evidence is far from conclusive, and if such consensus exists among medical professionals, it only shows how susceptible they are to groupthink and parroting the stuff they heard from the cathedra.

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

#163
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

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

#164
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience. The medical system is a reflection of pop parenting culture or vice versa. Everyone was so gung ho on breastfeeding, but when the milk didn’t come in and our son wasn’t interested in a dry breast the only advice given was “keep trying”. Then the shock and surprise when baby is losing weight. We had to demand formula, which was given grudgingly, and left the hospital a day later. If we have another we…

> The medical system is a reflection of pop parenting culture Indeed. And not just in relation to parenting. The average doctor is constantly trying to emulate TV doctors, just like the average police detective is influenced by what they see on CSI, and every archaeologist wants to be Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. It would be hilarious, if it didn't have such disastrous consequences for regular people every day.

Huh? Doctors don't base their decisions on House episodes. Not even ER episodes.

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

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly see the other side of this argument though, it feels very unfair to saddle a third party with the responsibility to support a child they had no part in making.

Do you have kids? I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first, I kept half-joking about getting a peace of mind paternity test. After actually meeting the kid and getting to know our love her, I couldn't think of anything more devastating than finding out she's not mine. Honestly wouldn't want to know, because losing my little girl would be worse than misallocating resources or whatever the Darwinian theory w…

As someone else pointed out in the thread.

The question wasn't would you want to know. The question is does a father have a right to know if they want to.

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

#166
post #130

Amazing that bit about child welfare organisations fighting against the science, when clearly taking children away based on false accusations is clearly far worse for the child’s welfare, not to mention the parents’! It’s just incredible the injustice that can be done in the name of protecting children. I really do wonder if it’s cultural or some kind of innate psychological irrarionality that seems stronger in some…

My theory is that emotionally charged issues seem like a haven for people not thinking clearly and cover for hand waving or opposing any thoughtful analysis. I think there are people drawn to the absolutes. I can maybe see how it can be comforting to have a black and white issue to try to solve / help. A good side to be a part of in a world that to some seems very bad or confusing. Some old friends of mine are very m…

Yes, this happens because most of us are unconsciously repeating our own histories.

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

#167

This is timely as the life of Robert Roberson is currently being decided based on this syndrome: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37632122 https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/09/15/texas-shaken-b...

Yes and the current submission is a result of this subthreaed from there:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37635094

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

#169
post #46

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"

If the current functioning is it doing "the best it can", the whole thing should be burnt to the ground.

If you burnt to the ground everything doing the best it can probably 75% of the public and every instution would spontaneously combust.

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

#170
post #96

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.

> 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…

I used to enjoy this blog written by a person who hated US medical school:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101218031844/http://www.medsch...

People will probably find it offensive but it does explain a lot about why the stuff being taught is almost always not questioned.

This post in particular:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101211180021/http://www.medsch...

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