HOW TO VET MOM ADVICE ON THE INTERNET

Every mother now parents inside a firehose of advice: influencers, forums, reels, well-meaning aunts with screenshots. Some of it is excellent. Some of it is dangerous. Most of it is confident. Since confidence is free, here is a working filter for everything you read — very much including this site.

THE FIVE-QUESTION FILTER

• Who is actually speaking? A credentialed person in their own field, an institution, or 'a mom who did her own research'? Lived experience is valuable testimony; it is not a dosage chart.
• Where does the claim come from? Credible content names its sources and links them. If the answer is 'trust me' or 'they don't want you to know,' close the tab.
• Is someone selling the conclusion? Advice that terminates in that person's supplement, course, or affiliate code deserves double scrutiny.
• Does it match the major bodies? When a post contradicts the AAP, ACOG, WHO, and CDC simultaneously, the burden of proof is on the post, not on you.
• Does it use fear as the engine? Good guidance informs your judgment. Manipulation replaces it — usually with urgency, disgust, or dread.

One more honest layer: institutions update, science self-corrects, and 'the guidance changed' is a feature, not a scandal — it means the system is metabolizing new evidence. A source that has never once said 'we updated this' is more suspicious, not less.