Is this picture disgusting or beautiful?

By BBC Trending



This photograph of a father holding his son in the shower has been shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook in the last fortnight. But over the same period it's also also been taken down by the social media platform more than once before ultimately being reinstated each time. Why?

In some ways the picture appears to show a fairly everyday scene. A dad cradling his severely sick child in his arms. Except in this instance, they are in the shower and both naked. The picture was posted on social media by the photographer Heather Whitten who lives in Arizona in the US. It shows her son Fox and her husband, the boy's father Thomas Whitten.

For many viewers the image is a touching portrait of parental care and affection. The reason that father and son were naked was because Fox had Salmonella poisoning for which he would soon after be hospitalised.
"Thomas had spent hours in the shower with him, trying to keep his fever down and letting the vomit and diarrhea rinse off of them both as it came," Whitten wrote in her post accompanying the photo.
"He was so patient and so loving and so strong with our tiny son in his lap... I stepped out and grabbed my camera and came back to snap a few images of it and, of course shared them."

But for some people the image is inappropriate at best and at worst has undertones of paedophilia. Whitten has been surprised by this reaction and was shocked when people posted negative comments about what was for her a beautiful moment.
...

.. and, of course shared them.

Whitten has been surprised by this reaction and was shocked when people posted negative comments about what was for her a beautiful moment.

... undertones of paedophilia

Acetone wrote:
For one thing if my fever ever got so bad my parents thought I needed to "cool down in the shower" and got naked and sat in a shower and took pics of how super powerful my dad was, rather than rushing my ass to the hospital I'd be pretty pissed.

purplerat wrote:

Acetone wrote:
For one thing if my fever ever got so bad my parents thought I needed to "cool down in the shower" and got naked and sat in a shower and took pics of how super powerful my dad was, rather than rushing my ass to the hospital I'd be pretty pissed.

Young kids can spike high fevers but don't necessarily need to be rushed to the emergency room. If possible it's much better to manage it at home rather then bring them to the hospital where they really can't do much more anyways and the kid will be very uncomfortable and exposed to who only knows what types of infectious diseases from other patients.

ED209 wrote:

purplerat wrote:

Acetone wrote:
For one thing if my fever ever got so bad my parents thought I needed to "cool down in the shower" and got naked and sat in a shower and took pics of how super powerful my dad was, rather than rushing my ass to the hospital I'd be pretty pissed.

Young kids can spike high fevers but don't necessarily need to be rushed to the emergency room. If possible it's much better to manage it at home rather then bring them to the hospital where they really can't do much more anyways and the kid will be very uncomfortable and exposed to who only knows what types of infectious diseases from other patients.

Dowsing in cold water is not the recommended treatment though. Official advice seems to keep changing between 'don't do anything, it doesn't help' and 'swabbing with cool damp cloth doesn't hurt'.

Fever on its own is one thing but fever with vomitting can indicate very serious conditions, medical attention required. Even if it's 'just' food poisoning, that can kill even a healthy adult or cause permanent organ damage.

I still don't get why the memory of hours of your feverish child shivering vomiting and shitting in the shower before you finally take him to a doctor is one for the family album (or indeed facebook).