Support 2.0

I woke up this morning and turned on the Today Show to find this segment on Digital Moms.

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The segment features folks from CafeMom discussing some of the findings from the survey I covered in an earlier post as well as Heather Armstrong, the popular blogger dooce.com and author of the new book It Sucked and Then I Cried. Heather started her website/blog in 2001 and believes that blogging saved her life. As she battled with postpartum depression in 2004 fans of her blog supported her by listening to her struggles, sharing advice and assuring her that she was not alone. Similarly, when Chastity Cortio's daughter was diagnosed with infant asthma, Chastity used forums on CafeMom to get support from other parents caring for a child with the illness.

In a time when every minute of every day is filled, online communities can be an excellent resource for parents dealing with personal health issues or caring for a sick child however, they can also be dangerous if not used properly.

In an article penned for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Dr. Robert Nohle warns that getting medical advice online can be a gamble. "There is no easy way to know that the information you are getting is accurate -- or evidence-based for that matter," he said. Self-diagnosis based on others experiences can lead to unnecessary stress or a delay in needed treatment.

I was recently diagnosed with Lyme Disease and spent days consumed with reading widely varying opinions and stories on how it could impact my unborn child. I was scared sick and it took three infectious disease specialists to reassure me that treatment would eliminate any potential harm to my child. I was also informed that I am not the only parent that has fallen victim to unneeded stress as a result of "Cyberchondria" and was warned to take everything I read online with a grain of salt.

Millions of parents are using online support groups but it is imperative that we remember they are simply for support and should never replace proper medical attention. For all you cyberchondriacs, be sure to follow Dr. Nohle's tips to ensure the safety of you and your family.

# Bring in the information you have found online to your pediatrician so he or she can see the source.

# Stick with quality Web sites; check your health insurer or provider's Web site, or wrongdiagnosis.com, or look for sites ending in .gov or .org.

# Ask you pediatrician's office for recommendations.

# Looking for an online support group? Check with a related national association, such as jdrg.org, for juvenile diabetes support.

Digital Moms

Razorfish and CafeMom recently conducted a survey of Digital Moms which shows some interesting findings as to how mainstream digital media has become in this market. Of the 32 million Digital Moms, women with children under the age of 18 that go online, "more interact with social networks (65%) and SMS (56%), than with news sites (51%)." Even more surprisingly 52% are gaming online or via a console.



While the above chart indicates that moms are using a wide range of mainstream and developing media, the age of the mom and the age of the child play a big role in how they use it. The study found that women under 35 use technology more for communicating with friends and strangers with similar interests whereas moms over 45 use it more for information about what is going in the world and what is going on in their child's world. 47% of Digital Moms with a child over the age of 12 that use social networking sites do it to monitor their child's online behavior! (While this seems high, it is significantly lower than the 72% of parents that admitted to spying on their kids' online activity in another study.)

Similarly, the topics of content researched or items purchased online in the last 30 days varies by age. Overall, 40% selected Fashion/Clothing, 31% selected Food/Cooking and 26% selected Baby/Parenting. However, women with children under the age of 5 were significantly more likely to select Baby/Parenting 46%.

This survey highlights some interesting facts about the behavior of moms online, however I think it would be more eye opening to breakdown the data even further by the age of the child to determine at which point of a child's development a mother begins to prioritize herself again. I would assume that among moms of children under the age of 2, the percent that have read or purchased Baby/Parenting items in the last 30 days would increase dramatically and that less than a few percent would have free time to be gaming. From what I've seen, they're too busy running after the toddler or trying to catch up on sleep!