The Skeptical OB

Many women proudly identify themselves as “crunchy” mothers. It is meant to invoke granola — natural and healthy. But there’s no evidence that crunchy mothering is more natural or healthier, just like there’s no evidence that granola existed in nature. Yet the appellation is more accurate than crunchy mothers realize. Granola is hard, unyielding, but […]

It’s hard to believe that a three word phrase could provoke such angst, but that’s what has happened with Fed Is Best. Milky Mommas is the latest organization to spill ink and anger over Fed Is Best: [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Fully fed with formula is just fine.[/pullquote] It’s because saying “fed is […]

Why is it that in the world of “alternative” medicine (aka quackery), shilling for Big Pharma is viewed as the ultimate disqualification by aficionados, but those same people simultaneously turn a blind eye to shilling for Big Farma (herbs and supplements)? Indeed, as Aviva Romm, MD demonstrates, one of the most effective tactics in shilling […]

Yesterday I came across one of the most appalling examples of medical child abuse that I have ever read. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Dosing an autistic child with bleach is the modern day equivalent of beating the demons out of her.[/pullquote] Hi everyone I NEED HELP! My daughter is 7 years old been […]

I have been arguing for years that breastfeeding promotion in general, and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in particular, are both paternalistic and deeply anti-feminist. A paper published last year in the journal Midwifery provides a similar feminist critique. The paper is Infant feeding and maternal guilt: The application of a feminist phenomenological framework […]

Would you let your baby smoke pot? This mother does: That’s what she is doing when she smokes pot while breastfeeding. Indeed, the baby gets a GREATER concentration of active ingredients than the mother does. The mother wrote: Need a safe place to share this beautiful picture … Perhaps the fact that she was high […]

Adam Conover of “Adam Ruins Everything” recently released a video debunking claims about the supposed superiority of breastmilk compared to formula. It hilarious! My favorite line is “Formula has autism in it.” In the video, Courtney Jung, author of the book Lactivism, pops out of a can of formula to point out that there is […]

We are arguably living in a golden age of medical science. The great infectious scourges of history — smallpox, diphtheria, polio — have been nearly vanquished by vaccines. Previously deadly infections like appendicitis can be cured with surgery. Cancer and heart disease are yielding their secrets and conditions once thought to be due to sorcery […]

Kate Tietje, Modern Alternative Mama, continues to publicly plumb the depths of parenting insensitivity. She recently posted this about her oldest child and only daughter: Everyone has made SOME choice in parenting that they wouldn’t do again. My oldest is 9 (girl) and knows that she was born in a hospital and we ate junk […]

In May Pro Publica, in conjunction with NPR, released a report on US maternal mortality that garnered a lot of attention. I criticized the piece for misrepresenting the problem. Pro Publica framed its story with the tragedy of a well off, healthy white woman who died of malpractice when the reality is that maternal mortality […]