Pediatric Integrative Medicine

The AAP presents the current proliferation of "alternative" or "integrative medicine" in a surprisingly neutral way — as though we simply need to accept this as a given, rather than an epidemic. In contrast, if the term "childhood obesity" were presented in this way, there is no doubt that it would be treated as a major problem that requires the attention of medical professionals and society at large.

AAP clearly condones and encourages the use of alternative treatments, and consumer interest clearly trumps medical efficacy. Just because consumers often believe in healing prayer or homeopathy doesn't mean that medical professionals should be recommending faith-based approaches — those are perfectly well addressed in religious settings. If pediatricians cannot be trusted to vigorously debunk the worst of these approaches, how can they expect to be taken seriously when arguing for the science-based benefits of childhood vaccination?

We are currently facing tremendous politcal pressure to limit the amount of medical care available to the American population; surely the AAP has a moral obligation to lobby against wasteful and unproven forms of therapy?

Finally, I take exception to the shift from treating 'patients' to serving 'consumers', since the latter is only limited by how much money can legally be extracted from an individual.