Dr. Paul vs. Dr. Bob

This month’s Pediatrics has an article by Dr. Paul Offit, vaccine expert and author of Autsim’s False Prophets, which reviews Dr. Bob Sears’ The Vaccine Book, and points out the book’s various flaws (though in a non-spoonfeedy way, which can be a problem for the non-scientifically minded; one has to actually look at the studies [...]

Screaming at Santa…

No, not me, It’s PodBlack Cat with Skeptical Parent Crossing blog carnival #3. I’m going to submit an entry for Carnival #4 ASAP, before I miss the boat yet again! Please, especially, check out this great post by Parenting Solved, about melamine in US infant formula. And while you’re there, check out this post as [...]

I take it all back about Penelope Leach

I noted in a previous comment that I’d heard she’d mellowed over the years regarding her stance on childcare. But I really, really didn’t expect something quite as sensible as this from her:

Shit that happens, and some that really, really shouldn’t

Two incidents germane to this blog are currently keeping our local press busy this past week. I would put the first in the “shit happens” category – a cluster of tragedies that look connected and cause hysteria, but probably aren’t; the latter, however, is a clear sign something was clearly not working, and policy needs [...]

Milking the Hygiene Hypothesis for all it’s worth…

Makes you really want to stay at this hotel:

‘Scientific Yediot Aharonot’

Way, way back, in my antedeluvian medical school days, when a student would quote a medical factoid with little basis in reality (or just guessed wrong on a question posed him), the professors would smile patronizingly and ask, “Where’d you get that one from, Scientific Yediot Aharonot?”. They were referring to Israel’s largest daily newspaper, [...]

Media flubs it again re: MMR?

An 18-month-old Cheltenham, UK boy who was found dead in his crib 10 days after receiving his MMR shot (and whose parents claim the vaccine caused his death) was found, upon inquest, to have died from reasons apparently unrelated to the vaccine:

The AP ideal meets mainstream parenthood

I made a comment on Angela’s excellent blog, Cerebral Parenting, in which I stated that
While we all laugh at the women on MDC who take the “natural living” aspects to extremes (some would say, their logical extreme), almost all of modern parenting discourse, even the supposed mainstream, is informed by the AP/NFL ideal.