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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

#321

Post by firesteelrain »

“ Let there be no misunderstanding on the point that shaking is an absolutely real and dramatic form of child abuse. Inflicted head trauma is a devastating condition and a definite cause of traumatic brain injuries, including intracranial hemorrhage. Many medical determinations of SBS/AHT are made on children who have effectively been victims of violent intentional trauma. Prevention efforts against all forms of child abuse are totally warranted.”

A lot of the comments here are missing this key statement. While there can be medical explanations for things that look like SBS, it’s exceedingly rare

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

#322

Post by hmottestad »

arp242 wrote: post #63

> Very often, abuse is diagnosed “by default”, because no known alternative explanation was found (or even actively sought). This is extremely dangerous, as it seems to indicate that no further medical discovery need ever be made in the future. Well, "dangerous" for who? For a lot of people involved in "child abuse" – from medical professionals to child services to the police – a false positive carries basically no c…

It would be dangerous for the children. In the most extreme imaginable case we could discover a preventative measure for the brain bleed.

Infants are routinely given vitamin K and vitamin D to prevent bleeding and to prevent bone development issues. Imagine if there was something else that could be given to prevent brain bleeds. That would save a lot of children.

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

#323

Post by irjustin »

boredhedgehog wrote: post #247
irjustin wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is what I'm talking about - Clearly, you've never been a mother who can't produce milk for her child. I've been there with my wife and I'm only the husband. Everything you say is true, but by saying this and in this manner, you lack empathy. You sound just like the mommy blogs and their followers that I'm speaking against who spout facts with no room for life's situations. My wife sincerely believed she was…

When you say more empathy is required, do you mean the same thing should be phrased differently, or do you mean it should not be said at all?

Probably something that says while breast milk is ideal, formula is a great alternative if it's not available.

Acknowledging that formula is a safe alternative and that you don't need to stress.

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

#324

Post by hmottestad »

rossant wrote: post #237
rapatel0 wrote: post #181

This doesn’t surprise me. We have massive systemic issues in medical science and care delivery. - Medical science handles variation by simply assuming that large enough samples will average out variation. This loses a ton of information as the “average person” is a construct that almost certainly doesn’t exist. - news media on medical science glosses over all uncertainties in the name of clickbaity sensationalism. -…

I'm starting to see AI studies on the medical detection of child abuse, which unfortunately reproduce the same biases as the low-quality clinical data they are based on. An AI that would detect subdural and retinal hemorrhage without external signs of trauma with 99% accuracy would detect "child abuse with 99% accuracy" and would impress law enforcement and courts. However, it wouldn't be more reliable than an expert…

Reminds me of the bias towards long sleeves and stethoscopes for detecting doctors in photos.

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

#325

Post by hmottestad »

frotaur wrote: post #273
eru wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Medical science handles variation by simply assuming that large enough samples will average out variation. This loses a ton of information as the “average person” is a construct that almost certainly doesn’t exist. Well, this wouldn't even be that bad, if sample size were actually large enough.

No I think the point that was being made is that the "average person" idea is not that great if you have huge variance. If I have a uniform distribution from 0 to 1, average is '0.5', but its just as likely to get 0. or 1.

The average family with 2.3 children :D

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

#327

Post by logicchains »

rightbyte wrote: post #298
stef25 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was asked to live the room while he was questioned Is that even legal ? Anyone trying to get between my kids and I is going to have a very bad day.

It might be a bad idea persoannly to become angry in such a situation if the local social service is authoritarian. But as an altruistic move for the greater good it is good.

>But as an altruistic move for the greater good it is good.

That's only the case if overall children taken away from their parents end up with better outcomes than in societies where children aren't taken away from their parents, have you seen any data showing this is the case? Children in foster care tend to have horrifically bad outcomes, statistically speaking.

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

#328

Post by achenet »

jauzj wrote: post #308
coldtea wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything comes with evidence, nor is everything a court case. If you have experienced racism again and again though, you can often tell when you see it, or you can quite safely deduce it in a case or wrong treatment, even without hard proof.

[flagged]

If you happen to get a bit into the whole Nazi classification of races (don't, you almost certainly have something better to learn), you'll find that they made a distinction between Germanic "Aryan" types and Slavs.

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

#329

Post by laurent_du »

firesteelrain wrote: post #321

“ Let there be no misunderstanding on the point that shaking is an absolutely real and dramatic form of child abuse. Inflicted head trauma is a devastating condition and a definite cause of traumatic brain injuries, including intracranial hemorrhage. Many medical determinations of SBS/AHT are made on children who have effectively been victims of violent intentional trauma. Prevention efforts against all forms of chil…

I missed this part. Where does the author mention that other medical explanations (other than SBS) are exceedingly rare compared to the baby having indeed been shaken?

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

#330

Post by Clubber »

akoboldfrying wrote: post #205
p-e-w wrote: post #140

> It is the perfect combination of crap. I think that's being way too charitable. In a world where people are incarcerated on a scale unprecedented in all of human history, and where prosecutorial success is measured by number of scalps taken, the assumption that this is plain malice designed to let the state rob a few more individuals of their freedom makes much more sense than it all being just a big pile of incomp…

>designed to let the state rob a few more individuals of their freedom "The state" doesn't benefit in any way from locking people up. In fact, it costs them money (both directly and in lost taxes from the lost salaries and wages of those incarcerated). An argument could be made that prosecutors benefit from higher incarceration rates through the incentives you described. And an argument could definitely be made that…

Also, keep in mind, it costs the taxpayers money, not the people running the criminal justice system. They're motivated by climbing the ladder and scorekeeping.
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