All posts by Clay Jones

Clay Jones, M.D. is a pediatrician and a regular contributor to the Science-Based Medicine blog. He primarily cares for healthy newborns and hospitalized children, and devotes his full time to educating pediatric residents and medical students. Dr. Jones first became aware of and interested in the incursion of pseudoscience into his chosen profession while completing his pediatric residency at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital a decade ago. He has since focused his efforts on teaching the application of critical thinking and scientific skepticism to the practice of pediatric medicine. Dr. Jones has no conflicts of interest to disclose and no ties to the pharmaceutical industry. He can be found on Twitter as @SBMPediatrics and is the co-host of The Prism Podcast with fellow SBM contributor Grant Ritchey. The comments expressed by Dr. Jones are his own and do not represent the views or opinions of Newton-Wellesley Hospital or its administration.

Cases of Newborn Syphilis are Increasing at an Alarming Rate

Cases of syphilis are being diagnosed in infants in record numbers in the United States.

/ October 1, 2021

A Very Serious Book Review: The Heroic Adventures of Kid Ki’ro

An Australian chiropractor has written a children's book extoling the virtues of the profession in a most elliptical fashion.

/ September 17, 2021

Deadly Alkaline Water Case Highlights Problems with Bottled Water Regulations

Bottled water can be convenient, and sometimes necessary, but it is unfortunately not always as safe as it should be. A recent case of toxic alkaline water hospitalizing several people, and killing one woman, shines a spotlight on problems with regulation of the industry.

/ September 3, 2021

Chiropractic Care of an Infant with Erb’s Palsy: Another Worthless Case Report

A recently published case report claims that chiropractic care helped heal an infant's paralyzed arm. In reality, the chiropractor took credit for the natural course of a well-known medical condition and luckily didn't make things worse for the patient.

/ August 6, 2021

A New Study Finds No Benefit from Chiropractic for Infant Colic, but They’ll Keep Doing it Anyway

A new study attempted to answer the question of chiropractic's potential benefit for infant colic. It was successful, but I don't think it turned out the way the authors' hoped. Sadly, I don't think that this will change the mind of any chiropractor who treats babies.

/ July 23, 2021

Summer is Here, and Infant Swimming Programs are Still Unproven

Summer is in full swing and many babies are hitting the beaches and pools for some fun in the sun. Unfortunately, those swimming lessons for infants that you might have seen advertised online are still unproven and potentially dangerous.

/ July 9, 2021

Science-Based Satire: More Chiropractors are Using Subluxation Sniffing Dogs

Are dogs being trained to detect subtle chiropractic subluxations? If so, can they really outperform the Subluxatron 9000-X? And what about cats? These questions and more won't be answered by this post, because it's clearly satire and doesn't represent reality or even the opinions of the managing editors of this website.

/ June 25, 2021

Separating Fact from Fiction in Pediatric Medicine: Burping Doesn’t Prevent SIDS, and Other Gas Related Nonsense

Though a seemingly worldwide practice, there is little plausibility and no evidence to support burping infants before, during, or after feeds. And it doesn't have anything to do with SIDS.

/ June 11, 2021

A New Study Reveals that Naturopaths Order a Lot of Unnecessary Pediatric Labs

A new study further supports our concern that naturopathic doctors get a bunch of labs for no good reason.

/ May 28, 2021

CDC Data Reveals Frustrating Infant Death Statistics

Since the significant decrease in the rates of sudden unexpected infant deaths in the 90s, we have hit a bit of a wall and there is much we don't know about this complicated problem. A new study analyzing CDC data is a step in the right direction.

/ May 14, 2021