#665: Lauren Feder

Lauren Feder is a homeopath (“known for her holistically minded approach and combining the ‘best of both worlds”) and president of the Holistic Pediatric Alliance, an organization you do well to give a very wide berth. According to her own bio she is a “frequent lecturer for parents and professionals”, and she has indeed been given media time by The Doctors, Oprah and Dr. Oz, and he has written several articles for what must count as one of the most garishly fluffy bastions of woo, the magazine Mothering. In her contributions she provides recommendations that are not, shall we say, completely aligned with current medical science. Instead of (or at least in addition to) vaccinating against the whooping cough, for instance, she recommends homeopathic remedies, claiming that “Holistic medicine and homeopathy may shorten the course and severity of the illness,” but – predictably – provides no evidence for that claim (it won’t). But she has anecdotes!

Feder is also on the advisory board for “The Holistic MomsNetwork”, together with Barbara Loe Fisher, Peggy O'Mara (the publisher of Mothering Magazine), Sherri Tenpenny (“one of America's most knowledgeable and outspoken physicians, warning against the negative impact of vaccines on health,” to be covered) and Dr. Lawrence Rosen (an “integrative” pediatrician and contributor to the NVIC “vaccine safety conference” in 2009).

Feder is also the author of Natural Baby and Childcare and The Parents’ Concise Guide to Childhood Vaccinations, books you wouldn’t recommend to your worst enemy. But she has, apparently, been noted by the antivaxx movement for her homeopathic alternatives to vaccines and promotion of “natural” methods to prevent “vaccine injury”, and has been giving talks on said issue together with celebrity doctor and woo promoter Jay Gordon.

Diagnosis: Another fluffpot with what we assume are good intentions. But intentions aren’t enough, and she has been given the opportunity to share her misinformation and woo quite extensively. Dangerous.