Within
Normal Limits
of
Reason

"Chance is the very guide of life"

"In practical medicine the facts are far too few for them to enter into the calculus of probabilities... in applied medicine we are always concerned with the individual" -- S. D. Poisson

November 15, 2005

WSJ - New Advice on Getting Babies to Sleep; Dr. Ferber Softens Stance On Letting Infants Cry

Link goes to free summary by UPI:
Longtime polar opposites -- pediatricians Richard Ferber and William Sears -- have softened their stances on getting a crying baby to fall asleep.
Ferber, in an update of his landmark 1985 book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" that is due in spring, will back off his position that a child should be allowed to cry untouched until he or she falls asleep. ...
At the same time, Sears in his just-released "The Baby Sleep Book" says parents need to consider their own rest and not necessarily respond to their crying baby day or night.

The Wall Street Journal:
These shifts are among the latest in a flurry of new guidance that seems aimed at offering practical solutions for parents -- neither too harsh nor too permissive.

Empirical validation is the key

  • Whole Language Movement sounded good in theory when it was proposed in the 70s--until it was carelessly and prematurely adopted nationwide, producing a generation of children with difficulty reading.

  • If inhibiting COX1 causes gastric ulcers, selectively blocking COX2 with Vioxx then indeed seems like a reasonable idea for targeted pain control.

  • If menopause is characterized most prominently by decreased female hormones, estrogen replacement therapy surely would correct the undesirable effects of menopause.



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