When Jessica Knurick was pregnant with her second child in 2022, her social media feeds were awash in warnings about all the things that could put her baby at risk.

“I was in such a vulnerable life stage, and I had really bad postpartum anxiety too,” Knurick told STAT one recent afternoon, speaking from her home in Denver. “And I found myself getting caught up in some of that stuff and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, like, is this terrible for my baby?’”

So Knurick, a registered dietitian with a Ph.D. in nutrition science, decided to start posting videos of her own — advising pregnant women and new moms about issues like caffeine and baby formula , and unpacking the fear-mongering tactics she saw wellness influencers using to discourage parents from safe, potentially lifesaving treatments

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