Medical world changes its mind/directions to the public

I agree with the changing advice. It’s incredibly annoying, but it’s also necessary.

When I started babysitting in the late 70s, you put a baby to sleep on it’s stomach so that it wouldn’t choke if it vomited. Now you put a baby on its back to sleep.

When I was a kid, if a friend got chicken pox they had a party to expose friends since it’s a rough illness to get when you are older. Now there’s a vaccine for that.

Giving sugar water to babies.

Rubbing teething gums with whiskey or letting baby suck on whiskey soaked rag.
Yuck yuck..

I was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks with a 9.12 pound baby. I wasn't allowed to ride in a car for several weeks.

Two that immediately spring to mind:

During the middle years of the twentieth century it was recommended to lie babies on their tummies to sleep. That then changed to their backs or sides; current advice seems to be that they should lie on their backs.

Advice on the number of eggs we can safely eat without affecting our cholesterol has changed many times, from 1-3 a week, to a couple every day. Sometimes it changes depending on whether you have other conditions such as diabetes.  I think we will continue to see changing or conflicting advice on this for a while yet because there still doesn’t seem to be unanimous worldwide agreement, meaning studies are still coming up with differing results.

ETA: oops, I see basket1lady already mentioned babies’ sleeping position.

I talk about how medicine changes nearly daily at work. Residents and students are always surprised to find out that we didn’t always do things the way we do today.

We used to depend on the Friedman Curve in labor, with expectation that women would dilate 1-2 cm per hour. We are now far more patient and wait 4-6 hours to see change.

There used to be cocaine in soda!

We thought for weight loss that calories in needed to be less than calories expended without much regard for what was in those calories. It’s far more complex than that.

Mercurochrome used to found in every house for minor scrapes.

So many things!!

so many baby ones!! my mom kept trying to get me to add some baby cereal in a pumped bottle so newborn baby will stay full and sleep longer. my doctor advised against this - breast milk is all that is needed.

breastfeeding recommended now with bonus that it reduces risk of breast cancer, which no one ever knew.

don't give any peanut products until over a year/18 months, now recommended to introduce common allergens earlier.

the potential effects of repeated concussions on mental health and brain function.

we know better so we do better - but it is shocking how fast things change with this virus. i am now constantly skeptical of anything i hear, suspecting it will be disproved in the near future. and though me and my family are fully vaxxed, we continue to and will continue to wear masks indoors for foreseeable future.

the unfortunate part is deniers use the quickly evolving knowledge to dispute things that were "known" before as their big "A-HA - SEE!!!"... which defies logic to me but seems to make things make perfect sense to them!?

And the Red Cross gave out cigarettes to the soldiers!

People who can't understand that the virus and our understanding of it are changing They have no critical thinking skills.

I read an interesting quote recently by the liberal economist John Maynard Keynes that also fits this scenario.

When asked to explain a change in his economic policy, Keynes responded. “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?”

Just because you change your mind on an issue doesn't mean it's a negative or bad thing. It means you have more information on the subject and can then use your critical thinking skills to determine whether you still hold the same position on the matter.

Majority of these Anti vaxxers are uneducated, fear mongering, ignorant idiots.

Then you have the “fake” anti vaxxers who are pretending to be nurses, playing doctor and instead trying to push their MLM remedies of snake oils, vinegars, and sugar waters.

Aspirin used to be given to young children.

Yes I know what the question was. What was the rationale for not riding in a car? I've heard of no driving, though not for postpartum reasons unless you had seizures or something.

I've got antique obstetrics books and even those don't say you can't ride in a car. I've genuinely never once heard of this, so I asked.

The bold part is exactly why I recently had a radical bi-lateral mastectomy with latissimus dorsi flap procedure in mid July.

I have the BRACA1 breast cancer mutation.  I had my hysterectomy & ovary removal many years ago, before the BRACA1 was known about.  

I have the really-close-exact dna mutation that my cousin had (died April 2021), my mom (died 2003), my aunt (1985) and other relatives that live in Western Canada.  

I am at the prime age when the cancer rears its ugly cells.  I chose the surgery and am very glad that I did.  They have found some suspicious cells in the breast tissue. 

I am healthy right now, which is why I had the surgery.  I have seen family members deal/live with chemo/radiation and other treatments and they were all so very sick for so long.  

Yeah, with this being so new I erred on the side of caution because I believed Delta was going to change things up quite a bit and I feel they let up the mandate too early. I get why they did it, to get more people vaccinated. But I feel it was a bit misleading and it bothered me because we knew Delta was different, why not wait just a bit on our science and see how it was affecting the rest of the world that was already in the trenches? So I’m with you, I’m frustrated about the messaging. But I’m not frustrated with the changing science, and how that can change the messaging. That’s just science.