Misinformation and Over-Medicalisation in Perinatal Care in the Age of Social Media

Elise Armoiry
1 hour ago
4 min read

A highly relevant article on over-medicalisation in perinatal care has just been published; we present it here.

This article echoes our previous articles on these themes:

on intraoral practices in osteopathy
On manual therapies in cases of ankyloglossia
On over-medicalisation
On evidence-based breastfeeding support

Would you like to discuss and reflect on practices in perinatal care and ethics in breastfeeding support? Join our discussion groups!

Context and Issues of over-medicalisation

Excessive crying, breastfeeding difficulties, and sleep disturbances are among the most common reasons for consultation in perinatal care. Approximately one in five parents reports that their baby cries excessively, generating considerable stress and an active search for solutions [1]. Faced with these concerns, many families turn to social media, where they encounter a multitude of practitioners, contradictory advice, and scientifically unfounded information.

This clinical review article, published in 2026 in Acta Paediatrica, introduces two key concepts to describe these excesses:

Over-medicalisation: treating normal developmental variations as medical pathologies [2].
Para-medicalisation: recourse to alternative therapies not grounded in evidence (osteopathy, chiropractic, craniosacral therapy, reflexology…) [2].

Data That Speaks

Trends in Diagnoses in Finland (1998–2023)

Drawing on Finnish national data, the authors demonstrate marked temporal fluctuations in diagnoses made in infants under one year of age, particularly for:

Gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR)
Allergic colitis
Ankyloglossia (tongue-tie)

These rapid fluctuations cannot be explained by a genuine change in disease prevalence. Rather, they reflect a growing tendency to interpret normal infant behaviour through a medical lens [6].

The Rise of Alternative Therapies

Global Google search trends over 20 years show a significant increase in interest in "baby tongue-tie", "baby osteopathy", "baby reflexology" and "baby chiropractic". These data corroborate clinical observations in Australia, the United States, and Finland [5].

The Role of Social Media

Social media have become one of the primary vectors of parental decision-making in infant health [11]. The WHO recognises online misinformation as a major threat to global public health [12]. On Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, parenting advice is often presented in the form of highly engaging personal narratives, making it difficult to distinguish evidence-based information from commercial promotion.

A striking example: a content analysis of Instagram publications tagged #tonguetie, #liptie or #buccaltie reveals that nearly 90% contained inaccurate information, the majority generated by non-physician healthcare professionals [14].

With regard to breastfeeding specifically, a study on Instagram showed that educational content is minimal, dominated by the commercial promotion of products, often relayed by influencers [13]. A psychological phenomenon compounds the problem: the illusory truth effect :the fact that the repetition of a statement, even a false one, increases its perceived truthfulness [29].

Note: this connects with the reflections we have published on influencers in this article.

Interventions Analysed: Where Does the Science Stand?

The authors provide a critical overview of the most widely used interventions:

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for "silent reflux": multiple placebo-controlled trials demonstrate that they do not improve crying, irritability or regurgitation, and may increase the risk of infections and bone fractures [18].
Tongue-tie, lip-tie and buccal tie (surgical section): short-term benefit demonstrated only for maternal nipple pain in cases of "classic" restrictive tongue-tie. No quality evidence for posterior tongue-tie, lip-tie or buccal tie. Post-operative massages may worsen feeding difficulties [4].
Body therapies (osteopathy, chiropractic, reflexology, craniosacral therapy): no evidence of efficacy, no credible biological rationale. Risks: delayed diagnosis, financial burden, disruption of the parent-child bond, and reinforcement of parental anxiety [20, 21].
Elimination diets (maternal and/or infant): no evidence in healthy infants with isolated symptoms. Risks: maternal nutritional deficiencies, negative impact on maternal wellbeing, and increased long-term allergic risk [16, 17].

Consequences for Families

Beyond the direct risks (surgical complications, medication side effects), the authors identify more insidious consequences:

Erosion of parental competence: presenting normal infant behaviours as pathologies undermines parents' confidence in their ability to respond to their baby's needs [23].
Impact on socio-emotional and neurobiological development: an impaired parental response during sensitive early periods can have lasting repercussions on the infant [24].
Financial burden: evidence-free therapies represent a significant cost for families and healthcare systems.

Implications for Practice

The authors call for an early, multidisciplinary, family-centred approach, combining the latest advances in neuroscience, lactation science, and psychology [27, 28]. They highlight the urgent need for proactive professional engagement on social media: using the same platforms as parents to disseminate reliable, non-judgmental information, in order to counter misinformation where it spreads [15, 30].

On the regulatory front, several learned societies have recently taken a stance: the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on frenotomies (2024) [4], the French National Academy of Medicine on cranial and visceral osteopathy in infants, described as a "questionable practice" (2024) [21]. In Finland, the Finnish Paediatric Society published recommendations that led the majority of insurers to stop reimbursing osteopathy for infants.

Key References Cited

[1] Wolke D. et al. — Fussing and Crying Durations and Prevalence of Colic. Journal of Pediatrics, 2017

[4] Thomas J. et al. (AAP) — Identification and Management of Ankyloglossia. Pediatrics, 2024

[5] Immeli L. et al. — Vauvan Ensimmäiselle Elinvuodelle… Duodecim, 2025

[11] Frey E. et al. — Parents' Use of Social Media as a Health Information Source. Academic Pediatrics, 2022

[13] Marcon A.R. et al. — Protecting, Promoting, and Supporting Breastfeeding on Instagram. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 2019

[14] Booth L. et al. — Misinformation and Readability of Social Media Content on Pediatric Ankyloglossia. JAMA Otolaryngology, 2025

[15] Panthagani K. et al. — Training Health Communicators. NEJM, 2025

[18] Safe M. et al. — Widespread Use of Gastric Acid Inhibitors in Infants. World J Gastrointestinal Pharmacology, 2016

[20] Mamud-Meroni L. et al. — The Dark Side of Musculoskeletal Care. Biomedicine, 2025

[21] Académie nationale de médecine (France) — Visceral and Cranial Osteopathy in Newborns: A Questionable Practice, 2024

[27] Douglas P.S. & Hill P.S. — A Neurobiological Model for Cry-Fuss Problems. Medical Hypotheses, 2013

[29] Henderson E.L. et al. — The Illusory Truth Effect. Journal of Cognition, 2021

This specific theme will be addressed in the NDC Possums approach training.