It is sad that many of us have been so well-trained to listen to advice from the “experts” that we no longer even query if these “experts” are really experts as long as some fancy letters come after their names. But those fancy letters do not make them experts on our lives or our children’s lives. It just means they have had more paper qualifications than you or me.
Take doctors for example. So many are so well-trained by the medical school on conventional treatments that anything that departs from it is treated with scepticism and suspicion. Sure many bogus and quack alternative treatments abound. But by treating all alternative treatments as quack aren’t we then throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water?
BTW many doctors are also not breastfeeding knowledgeable. They may be breastfeeding friendly but they are not well informed so are still dishing out advice given to our mothers! It can really be frustrating to share a solution to a new mom but is be pooh-poohed coz “the doctor says….”
Then there’s the issue of vaccinations. This is a controversial topic for sure. And I am not going to touch on it except to say that the “experts” who continually insist that there is no link between vaccines and disabilities will find it hard to convince parents who have a child who suffers from vaccine injury. Can we trust our child’s health to these “experts” who don’t tell the truth but go where the money beckons?
Then there are the baby “experts” – they range from those who tell you to schedule your baby like clockwork to those who tell you to let the baby dictate your life. Now it is popular to bash the Cry It Out method of training a child to sleep. And blame everything from being shy to being belligerent to this method. 🙄
And since education is such a big thing to parents, you have education “experts” telling us that our child must know a certain set of information by a certain age and if your child does not, then your child is “delayed” or has “disabilities”. Really?
In the health arena there’s even more controvery between “experts”. First they deem all saturated fats as bad then now they have discovered that saturated fats like coconut oil and lard are actually healthier than processed rancid oils sold in the supermarkets! They also used to tell us that man-made, chokful of trans fat margarine is better than butter. But today these “experts” have to swallow their pride and admit that they were wrong. How much more of ding-donging are we going to hear?!
Which “experts” should we going to listen to?
“Experts” don’t know everything. They only have statistics to look at to draw their conclusions. And their personal experience and agenda often colours everything coz they are human like us. Fallible. And sometimes (most times?!) we have to look at the financial backing of the study that is quoted. Who is providing the funds for these “experts” to research and experiement?
Remember Mark Twain’s “Lies, damned lies and statistics” line? Statistics can be twisted any ole way to suit anyone’s purposes. The same set of numbers are be interpreted at least 2 ways! And for those who are not mathematically inclined (like moi 🙂 ) then it is even easier to pull wool over our eyes!
A personal anecdote : a friend’s dd was diagnosed by one set of “experts” to have special needs. But upon seeking a 2nd opinion was declared normal. Huh?! And then there is ds’ chronic neck aches which now have progressed to headaches. None of the “experts” we have seen were able to help. And it is only recently that I found out that he could be having cervicogenic headaches.
So what are we to do?! As my friend wisely said – pray and ask God for revelation. Man doesn’t have the answers. She’s 100% spot on! Seek God’s wisdom and ask to be directed to the right godly counsel. There is no short cut.
So which “expert” are you listening to today?
1 Comment on Listening to the “experts”
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Dear Serene,
Thanks for sharing this. Yes, we should pray and ask God for revelation if we really need an “expert’s advice” and seek godly counsel as well.
My boy was admitted to KKH for wheezing problems on 2 separate occasions at the beginning and end of Apr 2009 respectively. he was then about 13 months old. We were told by the doctors that if he has 4 episodes of wheezing before he turns 2 yrs old, he will be labelled at asthmatic.
After his second round of hospitalisation, we decided to see a pediatrician instead of just seeing GP. This pediatrician has seen our boy through a few more episodes of wheezing and I am quite sure if we go by the KKH docs’ definition, he will be classified as asthmatic.
But when I ask pedi, he is just very kind to say “He is on his way there if he continues to wheeze” and then proposed some way of treatment and advised changing his bedsheets weekly. Thank God that now at almost 3 years old, my boy is much healthier and does not wheeze much anymore.
Seems to me like there are at least 2 schools of thoughts and I had chosen to believe what sounds good to my “itching ears” ie “he is on his way”.
The point I want to make is, even among experts, there are conflicting views. Hence, the best is still to pray and ask God for revelation as you have said. 😀