Folk medicine, and how to respond to it

I'm hearing a fair amount of folk medicine these days as the teenagers tell me what their mothers and aunts and grandmothers are telling them to do for their babies. The good news is most of it's right, or at least benign. I love being able to say "Manzanilla is harmless and makes you feel cozy," for example (manzanilla is chamomile), or "yes, chicken soup is good for colds. There's even been scientific studies of it, and it helps." And it's bemusing to hear that a rattlesnake bone necklace or bracelet is good for teething, but all I have to say is "oh, I didn't know about that one," because if Grandpa ties the red string securely and the baby doesn't choke on the rattlesnake bones and the string doesn't catch on something, baby will not be harmed by the gift. And in making the necklace for the baby, Grandpa has done some important family-building work.

But I heard second-hand that somebody was saying that a sunken fontanelle (soft spot) was a sign that the brains were slipping and they should be righted by turning the baby upside down or by sticking a finger into the mouth to massage the palate.

Nope nope nope nope!

If the baby's fontanelle sinks visibly, the baby is in trouble and needs to be seen right away. That baby is dangerously dehydrated and needs to absorb fluids now, probably given intravenously. The original trouble may have been diarrhea, or hyperthermia, or a failure to take in enough liquids because of a loss of appetite or problems with the sucking reflex. But what matters right this minute is that the baby has lost enough fluid that the bath around the brain has shrunk. That baby needs a doctor.

I don't know who was the source of the bad information, but the good information is back in circulation, and they may not remember exactly what I said, but they're remember "if the baby has a sunken soft spot, that baby is in serious trouble and needs to see a doctor."

None of the babies has a sunken fontanelle, by the way. They are all healthy (including the one with the bad cold and the couple with "I-just-started-eating-solid-food constipation." Their mothers take them to the doctor a lot, because even after all the cuts there's still a bit of public health care for low-income babies, and the babies of teenagers are taken to be automatically low-income. They get their shots and their well-baby checkups and they get looked at when they get the runs or a persistent cough. And consequently, the babies are healthy.

Consequently, the parents can stay in school.

Consequently, the babies will grow up healthy and be able to finish school

Consequently . . . well, you know where I'm going with this.