Nebulous Internet Disease and Better Safe Than Sorry
From Wired.com, watch out for Nebulous Internet Disease:
The infection typically begins when the victim reads about an unusual affliction on a news site or current-events blog. Upon reading, the victim begins to experience one or more symptoms of that disease, typically minor symptoms such as a scratchy throat or slightly reddened area of skin.
I have never found a disease online and thought I must have it, but I am guilty of Google diagnosing on occasion. When our son was ten days old, he started projectile vomiting. He could throw up about four feet in any direction. Our sofa smelled like curdled milk until we washed it once the deluge was over (thank you, slip covers). Our laundry schedule was highly accelerated. For a couple of first time parents, it was a pretty stressful situation. I looked around the Internet, asked on my online mommy support groups, and what I came up with was that he might have pyloric stenosis, a narrowing of the pyloric valve that could possibly require surgery. I was floored by how his symptoms matched the online descriptions. And my mommy board friends with babies who had this problem agreed. It really seemed like my kid might have this thing. Fortunately, the surgery to correct it was very routine and the prognosis was excellent. I steeled myself for the news and for the worry I would endure while my infant son was in the operating room. My husband, who was slightly (but just a hair slightly) less hysterical than I was, didn’t quite buy it: “We take our baby to Dr. Whang, not Dr. Internet.”
As it turned out, an ultrasound revealed that our son did have something akin to pyloric stenosis, but it wasn’t quite full blown pyloric stenosis. He just had a narrowing of his pyloric valve, which he later outgrew. In other words, he had an immature digestive system. In other, other words: he was a baby. A baby who happened to vomit a lot.
Mommy Mythbusters quoted this Wired article today, too, in their post busting Myth 26: Better Safe Than Sorry Is Rational Thinking. The post is about the book Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. I think I’m going to have to get this on Audible. It just sounds too great. Here’s a little description from Mommy Mythbusters:
I must encourage all parents, who tend to feel the world is a dangerous place, to pick up a copy of the book, Sway. (It is even available in audio book form at Audible.com for those of us whose reading has to take place while driving or washing the dishes.) I promise that it will be (as it almost always is) a humbling experience to have what you think of as a sensible reaction (aka “better safe than sorry”) picked apart and shown back to you as hard-wired psychological knee-jerk silliness, but it is a punch worth taking.
Reading the book will help you understand why, even though driving is one of the most dangerous activities you can engage in, you feel that it is safer for your child than letting him walk to school. The reason? You don’t perceive driving to be a dangerous activity. Whereas, you do perceive walking to school to be a dangerous activity (child abduction).
Take this quiz to gauge your reaction to each of these statistics. Be sensitive and truly notice which of these raises your heart-rate more?
- Auto Fatalities: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the 41,059 traffic fatalities annually in the U.S. 1,670 (4%) of them are children age 14 and younger. (1)
- Child Abductions By Strangers Fatalities: According to the National Non-Family Abduction Report October 2002 (recent study performed by the U.S. Department of Justice) there are 115 non-family-member fatal kidnappings per year. (2)
You’ve just read the facts, but be truthful, which of these activities, driving to school or walking to school, still feels more threatening?
Hm…the truth is I’d be hesitant to let my son walk to school because of all the crazy drivers in my neighborhood. So does that fear come under Auto Fatalities? Oh no. How do I completely avoid an auto fatality? That’s what I’d like to know. What website can tell me???
Angeline (Mommy Myth Buster) Said,
June 2, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
Thanks for the props in your post! I appreciate it.
That is a really good point about traffic accidents near schools. That is one of the things that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “Safe Routes To School” program talks about.(http://bit.ly/pmgLq) Instead of parents realizing that walking to school is a very safe thing to do and just letting it happen, they are driving their kids to school, thus creating tons of traffic around schools, and actually MAKING it unsafe — creating the problem themselves! The Safe Routes To School program helps teach schools, parents and kids ways to be safe when walking or biking to school. It also encourages parents to stop driving their kids to school to stimulate a healthier lifestyle (encouraging exercise and avoiding pedestrian/auto accidents). http://bit.ly/pmgLq
Julie Said,
June 4, 2009 @ 10:24 am
Okay, I’m so glad that the NHTSA actually covered this point! That PDF is great. Just glanced it and now must attend to more boring matters, such as my checking account. I love Mommy Mythbusters!