To wish posters would not dish out misinformation

[dancinginthehall]

I saw a thread recently where several posters repeated the same medical misinformation. I have also read diet and exercise threads where some posters dish out their own opinions as absolute fact with the air of being an 'expert' on the matter. Just now I saw a thread where a poster mentioned, apropos of something else, that she has a glass of wine with dinner every night, and several posters told her, very seriously, that she had a drink problem.

AIBU to think that some posters actually do more harm than good by trotting out this vaguely medical type misinformation - either scaring posters, putting them off making healthy changes to their lifestyle, or misdiagnosing because they actually haven't a clue what they're talking about?

People read stuff on here and repeat it sagely. Like The Freedom Programme gets rolled out on all the relationship threads. Someone, somewhere, once knew about it and now everyone's an expert.

@Soubriquet Oh yes, people put all stuff on burns. I'm the poor sod in A&E who has to SCRUB toothpaste, butter, turmeric or whatever else off of burnt skin. Not a pleasant experience for me but 100x worse for the pt

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3381589-Aibu-to-ask-what-to-put-on-a-a-scald?pg=1&order=

This is a recent burns thread. Pretty typical unfortunately.

It would probably help if people didn't post questions like the above In AIBU.

I find it hard to resist the urge to post yes, you are being unreasonable to post that question here, you need the health section or even better a qualified medical professional in person or at the very least sensible published information that has been written and approved by people who are qualified to give advice.

As an internet forum people are probably going to share what they know or have experienced, but it's on everyone to take it with a pinch of salt.

E g. Drinking wine daily might be totally fine and a social thing or it could be functioning dependency. It depends on what the person is like on the days they don't drink and why they're drinking. I know of a few people (professional roles eith stress) who think nothing of having most of bottle of wine at night (which thry say is a few glasses). I wouldn't call those people alcoholics but would say their consumption is too high and based on how they talk it's all how wine helps them unwind or switch off.

Personally I don't like the frothy school advice like 'send an email saying safeguarding and then they have to listen', school can't give a detention without your consent so refuse, demand a meeting with the head, contact the governors, threaten them with ofsted and then they'll know you mean business. Often thay advice doesn't get you taken seriously at all and you end up being flagged to staff as someone who flies off the handle.

I can't understand the threads when people post "any doctors / dentists / physios / etc?" Normally the people replying will openly say that they aren't an HCP (so they weren't asking you), but also there's no way of verifying who anyone is anyway.

I think sometimes people try to get free advice on some things - I wouldn't share my professional expertise for free on a forum, because surely there's some liability?

Wow the burns thread has some shocking advice on it. Especially the toothpaste bit. How can people be so stupid.

I love food/diet threads, particularly children’s diets. They’re so batshit. I would never come to MN for diet advice.

This. There was once a thread on here from a poster who had a playdate for dinner. She served fish fingers, peas and for pudding, frozen banana blitzed together with a few chocolate chips. The other child's parent told her it was a 'junky' tea and so many lunatics agreed with her. WTF?

I can't understand the threads when people post "any doctors / dentists / physios / etc?" Normally the people replying will openly say that they aren't an HCP (so they weren't asking you), but also there's no way of verifying who anyone is anyway.

Exactly! Who is actually going to come out and admit that and open him/herself to legal issues. Or who would take advice on a net forum from someone who writes, 'Yes, I'm a neurosurgeon,' when you have people who have been known to troll about anything and everything and even fake their own death online.

"I would say if you drink every day then yes, you have a problem."

Surely it depends on how much you drink every day. There's a big difference between a glass of wine with dinner every evening, and hitting the vodka at 11am every day - and many, many areas in between.

For instance, my 84 year old neighbour has a small whiskey before his dinner every evening. That's it. He doesn't go to the pub, or drink extra at weekends or anything like that. Are you seriously saying he has a drink problem?

To be fair on the burns thread most people were shouting down the stupid advice but at the poster who kept insisting toothpaste worked and tin foil i mean really???

Whenever there's a thread about smoking in pregnancy, someone says, "Just keep smoking, the stress of giving up is worse for the baby than the odd fag here and there." There's absolutely no scientific evidence to back that claim up. What does "worse than" even mean in a medical context? I've never heard of any research showing that maternal stress during pregnancy causes SIDS, for example, but there's a strong link between SIDS and smoking. And surely the guilt and fear that a mother feels while smoking during pregnancy would easily cancel out the stress of nicotine withdrawal?

Are you seriously saying he has a drink problem?

Oh, you just wait! Someone will soon be along to tell you that yes, he does, because the government says so (you know, those guidelines that seem to shift every few years but you're supposed to follow those rather than use your brain and your common sense about your body and health).

And surely the guilt and fear that a mother feels while smoking during pregnancy would easily cancel out the stress of nicotine withdrawal?

And surely you understand how nicotine is incredibly, strongly addictive with many those who are physically addicted to it experiencing a range of non-psychosomatic withdrawal symptoms. Heaping judgement, fear and guilt on addicts does not fucking work and is utterly stupid. Addicts who admit their addiction know they have a problem, they know it is causing themselves and others harm, they are well aware of this.

And surely you understand how nicotine is incredibly, strongly addictive with many those who are physically addicted to it experiencing a range of non-psychosomatic withdrawal symptoms.

But they can't possibly be as stressful as the utter shame of knowing that you, a grown adult, are harming a helpless baby.

Addicts who admit their addiction know they have a problem, they know it is causing themselves and others harm, they are well aware of this.

Exactly! That's why continuing to smoke while pregnant is more stressful than giving up. That was my whole point.

But they can't possibly be as stressful as the utter shame of knowing that you, a grown adult, are harming a helpless baby.

Why yes, they can! ANYONE who understands physical addiction knows this. It's proven knowledge. That's exactly why it is so hard to deal with addiction. SMH!

I don’t think your post is right at all Pearl. If anything, I can understand more smoking when pregnant whilst I’m pregnant myself 9 months is a long time to give your body up to someone else and it’s easy to think it won’t affect the baby anyway.

When not pregnant I love the idea of super healthy diets and exercise and all the rest (I don’t smoke anyway) when pregnant I feel so hormonal and miserable I couldn’t give a shit really.

Do all women smoking during pregnancy feel ashamed and guilty? I very much doubt it.

When I had my babies this was all fairly new and I can well remember women saying things like 'my mother smoked when she was pregnant with me and it didn't do me any harm.

I know we know more about the effects now but I think that attitude still pertains for a lot of smokers.

Addicts are frequently in denial about the effects of their addiction on them, their families and in the case of pregnant women on their unborn babies, not to mention how much the addiction is costing them in money terms.

The women you see walking around with large bumps and a fag in their hand, never seem to look either stressed or ashamed about what they're potentially doing to their unborn baby. If they were surely they'd be doing it in private rather than walking down the street where everyone can see them.

I suspect they don't give it a great deal of thought and anyway, like a lot of these things, it won't happen to them.