I have been arguing for years that the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), designed to promote breastfeeding, ignores scientific evidence and leads to preventable deaths of babies. A new paper in JAMA Pediatrics confirms what I have been saying. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]A practice designed to promote breastfeeding is injuring and killing babies.[/pullquote] […]
Latest News
Scientists discover that attachment parenting causes autism
It is perhaps the ultimate irony. Advocates of attachment parenting many of whom reject vaccination because of fear of autism have failed to recognize that it is attachment parenting itself that causes autism. Consider the ever growing body of evidence: [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]There has never been a randomized controlled trial of attachment […]
She’s proud she freebirthed a 24 week preemie
She writes on her Facebook page: While I am proud of myself for birthing and catching my baby myself, thankful he was strong enough at that age to be saved, I don’t feel like I did anything super or amazing… That’s good, Paala, because you didn’t do anything super or amazing. You did something immature […]
Kate Tietje and the 7 signs of an anti-vax quack
Kate Tietje, who writes under the nom de quack Modern Alternative Mama, professes herself shocked by the outcry to the execrable piece Five Reason Measles Is Better Than Autism, her “most controversial post of all time.” Yesterday I wrote about the factual errors and neuro-bigotry in the piece (WTF, Kate Tietje?). Today I’d like to […]
WTF, Kate Tietje? Five reasons measles is better than autism?
I learned a new word today: neuro-bigotry. Neuro-bigotry is prejudice against people on the autism spectrum based on the idea that they are less worthy of moral regard than everyone else. Who taught me the new term? None other than neuro-bigot Kate Tieje whose nom de quack is Modern Alternative Mama. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” […]
What’s the difference between skeptics and denialists?
Why are those who battle pseudoscience called skeptics? It’s not because they are skeptical in the colloquial sense. Rather, the term refers to the philosophy of skepticism. It’s an approach to knowledge that requires that claims be well supported by evidence. According to Wikipedia: [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Skeptics won’t believe without evidence; […]
What Donald Trump and anti-vaxxers have in common
I’ve seen the speculation that Donald Trump is purposely trying to lose the presidential election. The thinking seems to be that no one would purposely be so contemptuous of the truth, so offensive and so outrageous if they wanted to win. Surely Trump can see that he has reached the ceiling of his support and […]
Balance your evil humors the Food Babe Way!
For hundreds of years medical practitioners were obsessed with “evil humors.” What are evil humors? Humoral theory, also known as humorism or the theory of the four humours, was a model for the workings of the human body. It was systemised in Ancient Greece, although its origins may go back further still. The theory was […]
If anti-vaxxers are allowed to avoid vaccines, shouldn’t the rest of us be allowed to avoid anti-vaxxers?
California anti-vax parents are having a tough week. Senate Bill 277 went into effect on July 1, barring unvaccinated children from public schools unless they have a medical exemption. Personal belief exemptions will no longer be allowed. According to The Sacramento Bee, Scores of students without vaccine proof sent home on first day of school: […]
Vitamin K: Do we have an ethical obligation to babies whose parents suffer healthcare delusions?
Vitamin K refusal is in the news again. According to WBUR: The baby was born full-term and healthy, but now, just a few weeks later, lay limp and unresponsive, barely breathing… “The baby was diagnosed with bleeding in the brain,” said Dr. Ivana Culic, a neonatologist … … The parents of the baby had refused […]
Amy Tuteur, MD
Dr. Amy Tuteur is an obstetrician gynecologist. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1979 and her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1984. Dr. Tuteur is a former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She left the practice of medicine to raise her four children. Her book, Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting (HarperCollins) was published in 2016. She can be reached at DrAmy5 at aol dot com... More
