No, the strangler hair is not an urban legend. Even with its crazy name, barely more evocative than that recognized by pediatricians as “tourniquet syndrome”. This famous strangling hair, which can also be a simple thread escaped from clothing, will not suffocate your little one. On the other hand, it can easily twist itself (hence the tourniquet) around one of its tiny toes, where it will cut off blood circulation. The cute arpion will then turn red then purple-blue and become very painful. At this stage, a trip to the operating room will surely be necessary…
Young parents, on the other hand, can reassure themselves: dry drowning, liver crisis and cold snap are indeed myths. Gudule, 5 years old, may have had a drink at the swimming pool, but he will not die in his sleep in the coming days: this is a real fake news. If Jérémie eats too much chocolate, he will definitely be smeared, he might vomit, but the liver has nothing to do with it. As for the cold, it certainly makes life easier for viruses, but it is these microbes that make us sick and not, alone, the drop in temperatures or forgetting a hat.
“Parents no longer know how to distinguish truth from falsehood”
“All these misconceptions, and many others, you have no idea how widespread they are. In my practice as a pediatric emergency physician, I hear them every day,” sighs Dr. Nicolas Winter. Better known under the nickname “To be or not Toubib”, the thirty-year-old, star of social networks (280,000 followers on Facebook, 60,000 on Instagram, etc.) and bookstores (65,000 copies for his first work, Emergencies or not emergencies, ed. First, 2021), decided to dedicate a book to it, Does the magic kiss exist? (First, in bookstores March 14). “Faced with the mass of information available on the networks, parents no longer know how to distinguish truth from falsehood, to the point, sometimes, of falling into the trap of pseudo-therapies,” he notes.
In fact, from hand-foot-mouth syndrome to sobbing spasm, including Babi (baby with intense needs) and Kiss syndrome, there is plenty to get lost in. Spoiler: the first two are very real. One is viral and causes fever and skin rashes, the other is discomfort linked to too strong an emotion. Impressive but benign. If they are very popular on moms’ discussion forums, Babi and Kiss, on the other hand, are real imaginary illnesses, invented from scratch by “unsavory characters, who do not hesitate to take advantage of the distress of parents to offer them unnecessary ‘care'”, deplores Toubib.
A source of immense happiness, the arrival of a child nonetheless plunges its parents into oceans of fatigue, perplexity and anxiety. A boulevard for fake meds, these practices which claim to cure even though their effectiveness has never been demonstrated. “At this period of life, they all rely on the same springs, very linked to the specificities of early childhood,” notes Nicolas Winter. The long list of benign ailments in babies – colic, reflux, difficulty falling asleep, etc. – are linked to the immaturity of the nervous and digestive systems of newborns. The only remedies are hugs and patience. But at a time when medical time is becoming scarce, caregivers are not always available to reassure parents, and some can quickly feel lost. “However, the more anxious adults are, the worse their baby will be, because toddlers are emotional sponges,” recalls the author. It is on this fault that pseudo-therapies and those who practice them play, from pediatric osteopathy to aromatherapy via homeopathy. By feeling like they are doing something for their child, parents will feel reassured, they will get better… and so will their baby.
Practices with sometimes serious consequences
Ultimately, isn’t that the main thing? No, replies the emergency physician, well placed to see the harmful consequences of these practices, which are often as costly as they are useless: delays in care, poor diagnoses, even endangerment of the child. The amber necklace, which is often amber only in name, has never calmed toothache. But like the bed bumper or sleeping on the stomach, it is a risk factor for sudden infant death. The section of the tongue tie, more and more often carried out, including by chiropractors or osteopaths even though they are not health professionals, is only justified in a very small percentage of cases – and certainly not to calm colic, reflux or stiff neck. On the other hand, it carries risks, like any medical procedure: hemorrhage, ulceration, reduced motor skills of the tongue, etc.
As for the famous Kiss syndrome (a German acronym translated into French as “induced symmetry disorders of the cranio-cervical junction”), the existence of which no serious study has ever proven, as Toubib reminds us, its “treatment” consists in cervical manipulation of the baby. “It is dangerous,” he emphasizes. “It can cause serious discomfort, apnea, dissection of the cervical arteries and therefore stroke and death.”
Without going as far as such dramatic situations, the emergency physician too often observes poor care of the small patients who arrive in his department. “Parents come for a cough ‘that won’t go away’ in their child, telling us that homeopathy or naturopathy has not worked and that they no longer know what to do. In reality their child is asthmatic and a Ventolin treatment will relieve it,” he says.
However, the doctor is not fooled: unnecessary care and prescriptions are not the prerogative of pseudo-therapists. “To be credible in our fight against unconventional practices, we, doctors, must also be self-critical,” underlines Dr. Winter, who devotes part of his book to useless medications. Sore throat syrups, for example. “It’s the passage of a substance when swallowing that soothes the pain, just swallowing the saliva will do good,” he notes. Good news for children: a suckable candy will do the trick. The same goes for cough syrups: as ineffective as the previous ones, and potentially harmful. “Coughing being a reflex, particularly to evacuate the dirt that you have in your bronchi, it is a very bad idea to want to stop it,” assures the author.
Beliefs that die hard
Also forget about anti-emetics (in case of gastro, a little sugar and rehydration solutions will most often avoid a trip to the emergency room) and anti-inflammatory sprays to unclog the nose. “I spend my time reducing prescriptions. For colds, the only treatments are washing the nose with physiological serum, paracetamol and patience,” recalls the emergency doctor. The extended winter prescriptions follow the same logic as “fake medicine”: giving the impression of doing something to reassure parents and, incidentally, to build patient loyalty… Forgetting, in the process, an ethical principle of basis: respect for scientific data to treat their patients.
All these bad habits and other false beliefs prove all the more difficult to uproot because they are often simple to understand, and therefore to peddle. They are then passed down from generation to generation. This is the case with hydrocution, which your parents certainly already gave you to prevent you from jumping into the water as soon as you left the table, on the pretext that you were in the middle of digestion. Well, the end of the meal has nothing to do with it. A loss of consciousness just after a short dive is still possible, but it is due to the temperature difference between the (hot) air and the (cool) water, which can cause constriction of the vessels and vagal discomfort. The excuse nonetheless allows parents to rest after a good meal, without having to watch the kids splashing around. This is why you will probably bring it out to your children in turn…
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