Parenting in the past - what were they thinking?!

[maGicGift]

For example... alcohol in baby's bottle to help him sleep, leaving baby in the back garden/front porch for nap time (so parents can't here him cry) feeding baby condensed milk in a bottle instead of formula.

It's amazing how advise changes so quickly - do you have any more funny/strange past parenting stories? Those above were from my Mum/Gran

Agree with you, HellNoSayItAintSo, and there are so many of them online, searching for a platform and 'victims' to try to intimidate wth their notions of 'perfection in parenting'.

I've enjoyed this thread, reading about what other GPs and parents have done in the past, it's really interesting and quite nostalgic for me.

Gina Ford's horrid little book still advises parents 'not to exhaust their babies with cuddles'.

www.amazon.co.uk/Yesterdays-Children-Antiques-History-Child/dp/185149135X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304620346&sr=1-3

Ive just ordered this book as I agree with you, this has been really interesting.

How do you do that cool thing with the link? making it a word not a www.?

Agree with those who supported putting babies out for a fresh air nap - my mum did it, I did it, my DD does it. Secure back gardens and in plain sight.
It has nothing to do with leaving them to cry (that's utter rubbish) and everything to do with giving them fresh air.
We did it rain or shine (not in fog though) and as long as they are well dressed and you can see them in the back garden they are fine - and they sleep so much better for it.
Lots of new mums seem to fear even going out for a walk with their baby in the first month or two - what do they think fresh air will do to the baby?

Oh - and neither me (50 odd) or my mum (77) were "ignorant and neglectful" - believe it or not we used common sense.

Way too much angst and worry surrounding parenthood these days because of conflicting advice and busybodies thinking they know best.

Babies were left out in the garden because it was thought fresh air was good for the health. It was thought being shut up in doors all day was unhealthy and would make people sick. So women were advised to air rooms by leaving windows open for a few hours every day whatever the weather. They were told babies left inside would be ill far more often than babies left outside for a number of hours every day.

And they were right lesley33!

Common sense.

Some things are just the same ,but now all have fancy names like BLW .freeplay,playdates,benign neglect etc

I'm trying to follow the Gina Ford routine with my 3month old and don't think i've read the bit about exhausting them with cuddles! I have skimmed through most of the waffle though and just cut to the routine timings. I do flount the 'no eye contact and no talking after 7pm' rule - that's the only time me and dh get on our own with baby once our older kids are in bed so we tickle, cuddle and coo at him the minute his eyes open till he's exhausted and collapses into an exhasted heap for the rest of the night i thought her book was the work of the devil with ds1 but ds3 is very contented on the routine.

i'd love one of those old fashioned prams - dh is having none of it! i know a mummy with a 2 year old who has always, and still only sleeps in the garden in his buggy for daytime naps - she can't get him to sleep in the cot during the day.

My 6 month old would only sleep through when he had had an afternoon walk in the fresh air.

Childhood wasn't as fetishized in the past as it is today. Childhood was just something you had to put up with until kids were old enough to work and bring a wage into the household.

When I was born (complicated forceps delivery) my mother was advised not to see me for 2 days because they had made a mess of me and I didn't look very nice - she agreed to it!

i brought my kids up in the late 70s early 80s as babies, i fed them solids when they wanted them (around 3 months) they slept outside in nice weather for fresh air, went in the car for a ride round the block if they wouldnt sleep, youngest in 1982 was first one to get a car seat older ones got a seatbelt, didnt put alchohol in thier bottles but gripe water did contain some ibelieve, they went to bed at a routine time when i wanted not when they did, got meals at the same time each night and ate what they were given or went without when dad came in from work, if they were naughty they got sent to thier room, if they threw a tantrum i ignored them, and they all seem to have survived pretty intact

My uncle is a doctor and was telling me the other day that if a baby isn't given a lot of time outside, it never develops its focal length properly, which makes sense to me.

I remember my grandma telling me that when her boys were young (they're both in their sixties now) her and my grandad would regularly drive back from friends houses, after dinner and lots of wine, with the boys asleep laying down on the back seat (no belts). They once had a small crash and turned around to see both boys had rolled off the back seat but were still sound asleep on the floor of the car!!!

THat's interesting ninedragons - and it does make sense doesn't it.

I also weaned mine at approx. 3 months - they were 15-16lbs at the time and hungry!
Started them on baby rice/rusks/baby porridge then they moved upwards to blended carrots/bananas/anything suitable that we were having but minus seasoning or sugar.
I also didn't buy into the weekly weighing and percentile-watching. I could see them, they weren't too thin or fat and they were thriving active and alert.
There does seem to be an awful lot of fancy terminology around nowadays for things that aren't really new - and things do go in cycles so people who bang a drum for one thing now may well find their own offspring will go back to older methods that have been dressed up in a new name.
I was also told you couldn't "spoil" a little baby in the first 3 months or so - they usually cry for a reason up until about 3-4 months. So mine got picked up when they cried as tiny infants.

I don't think that is quite true RobF-my grandfather loved babies and DCs and spending time with them. People did actually enjoy their DCs too-at least some did!

re the hanging the baby from a hook thing, dh and I read about babies being swaddled and then the swaddling nailed to a board so they were upright. When dd (who loved being swaddled) had a chest infection and struggled to breathe lying down so had to be held upright day and night for a couple of days, we were thinking 'dare we? dare we?' but we didn't.

however we did wonder if the hanging-babies-on-hooks/boards thing was related to children getting a lot of chest infections in smoky houses in the olden days.

my mother was told you had to give them a bath every day 'to tone their skin'.

My gran (who was at the beginning stages of dementia we now realise) looked after me while mum worked - went to the shop one morning, left me in the pram outside.... mum came home at lunchtime and asked where I was... cue very rapid run to the shops to find me still lying in the pram outside.

I think DS definitely sleeps better for fresh air and I make sure I air his room daily, regardless of weather. I would keep his window open at night too but the traffic noise (and my paranoia about burglars) stops me!

My mum weaned me onto solids at 7 months as no-one told her the current guidelines. It wasn't until my aunt mentioned I should probably be eating properly did she bother. Not sure what to make of that! On "early" weaning, I waited until 6 months with DS but with subsequent DCs, I'm going to consider it earlier if I think they're ready instead of blithely following rules. I'm also a bit at people who wean at 17 weeks or 6 months to the day as if a switch goes off and bam, solids are ok!