To believe this? - Is this just an old wives tale? 50's baby routine. My partner thinks I'm stupid to believe mums used to do this..

[NinaJade666]

So I've heard from lots of people that 'back in the day' (specifically the 50's) that new mums were advised to get baby into a strict routine, which involved parking babies in their pram at the end of the garden and bringing them in every 3 or 4 hours for a feed. Crying or not.

My partner says don't be an idiot and believe that, that's just an old wives tale. QUOTE - "They never would have done that. Put baby as far away as possible from mum? In the garden alone? They weren't stupid back then you know."

Anyone know if their parents or grandparents did this or were advised to?
Any links anyone can provide to 'prove' I'm right? Or wrong?

TIA

[mrsjay]

yeah 8 although 2 of the oldest were gone by the time my mum and her brother started school 5 still in the house. I think there is 19 yrs between the oldest and youngest

[Minifingers]

And for those families with no garden, they could put baby in one of these, and close the window: cage

[YummyYummyYum]

MIL says she did it and her neighbour did it (leave babies in the garden) but they both took their baby inside when baby started crying. That was with my SIL and in the 70's.

[Ilanthe]

My 15wo DS is happily napping in his pram in the shade under a tree at the moment. I am sitting at the patio table about 3m away though but have popped in to get the odd thing.

I used to park DS1 outside the kitchen window if he had fallen asleep while we were out and do all the dishes, etc while he slept, rather than trying to get him up the steps into the house and waking him.

[OnTheBottomWithAWomansWeekly]

Cailin "she literally just ignores it" - are you my sister?

[jacks365]

I and my brother were born mid/late 60's and fed on a schedule. I still get stick from my mum because I feed on demand, pick up a crying child etc apparently I'm spoiling them. Well the eldest is now 19 self assured and living away at university and the youngest is 20 months and currently napping ( outside in her big comfy silvercross pram) but she's closer to me there than upstairs in her cot.

[CailinDana]

I also wonder if it could have an influence on a person's relationship with food. if as a baby you're only ever picked up to be fed then surely the food=comfort link will be very strong?

[Loa]

which involved parking babies in their pram at the end of the garden and bringing them in every 3 or 4 hours for a feed. Crying or not.

MIL did this in late 70's. What was worse was the house was a fill in and the back garden was separated from the house by quiet a considerable distance- in fact she couldn't hear or see him. Neighbors use to tell her it was wrong but she got on with her house work in peace and thinks it something to boast of today.

Her mother DH grandmother used to leave her sibling in a pram on back doer step as I've done on occasions - when bringing them in meant waking them and I wasn't far away. The difference alludes my MIL.

[Loa]

I also wonder if it could have an influence on a person's relationship with food. if as a baby you're only ever picked up to be fed then surely the food=comfort link will be very strong?

As this generation was/is the eat everything up on your plate generation ,IME, I'm not sure it would be possible to single that out.

[NinaHeart]

I used to bung my babies in the garden for a sleep (large silver Cross pram) but I did feed on demand. (1980's). Fresh air is good for people of all ages and we lived in the country!

[NUFC69]

I had my two children in the 70s and, to some extent, it was actually easier then than now - certainly more relaxed. I was an "elderly" first time mum (28) with my DS and therefore had to stay in hospital for ten days (second and subsequent babies you could leave after 48 hours). We had moved by the time I had my DD and, because she was born in a GP led unit, my doctor's rule was: first babies you could leave after 48 hours, second and subsequent ones you stayed in for a week to get some rest.

Staying in hospital did mean that you had real help with breastfeeding (tbh, I was staggered when my DD was having her first child, to discover that there was still an issue with breastfeeding). My two were fed more or less on demand and it would never have occurred to me not to put them in the garden to get some fresh air - I just listened out for them and popped down to see them. One of the reasons why mums stayed in hospital for so long was that there was (not sure if it is still in place) a statute that post partum mums had to see a midwife for fourteen days after the birth. My midwife called every day until the fourteenth day after each birth.

Looking at my DD and DiL, I can't see very much difference between how we brought up our babies, although co-sleeping was mostly never thought about, but some people did it anyway. Weaning was slightly different - 20 weeks was recommended when my DC were born. I suppose the biggest difference is that we mostly put our babies on their fronts to sleep. I understand the medical reasons for putting them on their backs, but my DC would never have slept if I had done that (so glad I didn't know about the reasons!). Children also tended to walk earlier - DS took his first steps at nine months, DD at eight - twelve months seemed to be about the latest for most children.

Tbh, I am quite glad that I am not having babies now as I think things are more proscribed now than they were.

[Tinpin]

My children were born in the 90s and my (older) health visitor told me to
put them out in the garden under the washing so they could watch it flap. It keeps babies amused for hours she said. They did seem to like it. They weren't left crying though.

[TalcAndTurnips]

May I offer some quotes from my late grandmother's copy of Everywoman's Home Doctor - edited by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, Bart., C.B., M.S., F.R.C.S. in 1934?

• "If there is a balcony or clean healthy space in which the cot can be placed in the open air, there is no necessity to take out a child under six months; the mother can easily manage her rest during the afternoon when other less fortunate mothers are giving baby his daily airing."
  

• "On a wet day keep baby at home in front of the open window, protected by a screen from the draught, and he will have more fresh air than in his closed-up pram. Slow increase in weight, lack of activity and muscle tone are often due solely to stuffy airless rooms and outings rendered useless by the heavy cloud of baby's breath hanging about him under the hood of the perambulator."
  

• "Babies are extremely susceptible to streptococcal infections and to catarrh of all kinds, and resistance is lowered further by exposure to an overwarm, tainted atmosphere, such as that surrounding the mother's bed at the end of the night. Baby should be put straight into his cot. If garden of balcony is available, he can be put outside at once, except during the winter months, when it is best to wait until sunrise if baby is not accustomed to sleeping out at night."
  

• "Many mothers find that 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm are convenient times, but in any case the first feed of the day should not be later that 7am, making the last feed 11pm."
  

• "His mother may pick him up at five o'clock for a little play-time. The father should be allowed his share in this, and many a man is as deft and gentle as a woman, but on no account should a baby be over-stimulated by too many caresses; such over-stimulation has been proved to be bad for the child's psychological development."
  

• "Four-hourly feeding is becoming the recognised principle for all healthy babies... Similarly night feeding as a regular custom is gradually becoming a memory of the past"
  

• "Baby must be taught the habit of unbroken rest for eight hours at night from the very first... A few disturbed nights at first are well worth the trouble if they ensure, as they will do, an unbroken series of good nights right up to teething-time, when baby may be excused an occasional whimper."
  

• on 'Holding out' (over a potty): "The chamber should be placed on the mother's lap and baby sat on it, so that the cold rim just touches the buttocks. By the time baby is a month old, he should have learnt what is expected of him."

[TheMagicKeyCanFuckOff]

It's still current advice in my countr (Sweden) and we did this with our DC. However, we didn't do it in the 50s way, they wear very thick, Swedish baby clothes which are suitable for the weather, and not crying. Essentially, you cuddle them and feed them and place them in their pram to sleep outside. This can be in the garden or on a flat balcony. Thn the parent will usually stay there, read, or whatever. They nap outside.

They had baby cages coming from the windows. Not actual cages, but a bit more space jutting out, like a cot.

[Lilymaid]

"... but on no account should a baby be over-stimulated by too many caresses; such over-stimulation has been proved to be bad for the child's psychological development."

We are all doomed!

[katydid02]

I was put in the garden in my pram and left to cry, but then maybe that was because my mother didn't want children! lol

[annis51]

Yes it is true. We had a big Silver Cross and a cat net which my mother produced from somewhere. The pram was only in the garden if it was nice weather and very near to the house otherwise it was in the hall. My latest grandson uses the pram every day. We have a Silver Stream in the kitchen next to the TV and he loves baby TV. Strapped in now of course. He has a Lincoln Royale for the garden but he is 14 months and the cat is frightened of him. Last summer we had the special net on because a fox would have got him. Lots around here.
I have had 4 babies of my own and 2 grandsons. My babies had a routine established with the help of my mother because I didn't know how to look after a baby. I was only 21 and I always did what my parents told me to do. Strangely they were only wrong once & then only because they were not given all the information which they should have been given. In 1983 it was normal to do what your parents said. Now children are rude to their parents and wonder why they have to cope on their own. Our community midwife told my daughter not to listen to me because I would be out of date. Fortunately she remembered my mother being told this when I had just had my youngest and realised that this was stupid. I recently looked after both boys (5 & 14mths) on my own for a week while the parents went on holiday in my caravan! When they returned both boys looked much healthier than before. All their washing had been done and the house was tidy, supper was ready and peace reigned!!!! Mummy how do you do it; you make me so cross etc etc. Well darling I have a routine. So children need a routine and Mum needs one too. Just like school so you know what you have to do and when you're going to do it. The routine varies according to the child's age ie development so the baby has two naps a day and the boy doesn't have any. The baby gets a bath in the morning and the boy has one in the evening. My daughter baths them together so there is always a rumpus going on. She now uses the same routine and is finding looking after her children much easier. Oh yes a newborn has 6 feeds in 24 hours unless they are a premmie when it is 8 feeds. It is all in the NNEB book. Professional nannies have routines and this is their career so it must be for the best. I had a nanny for my last baby when I had had my fourth section in less than 6 years. She was far better at looking after my children and house than I was and I realised that it was because she was very organised. When she left I carried on doing things like she did and it was so much easier. So 2 6 10 etc.

[iamadoozermum]

I was born mid-70s and was fed 4 hourly, 20 mins per side. BF had to be stopped at 4 months as the milk wasn't any good for babies after that. On to solids then. My mum tells me about all the things she used to do to entertain me and stop me crying until the magical 4 hours were up as she honestly believed she would cause me harm if she fed more regularly.

When I was having problems BF DS1, my MIL said it was because I was feeding him too long and too often and didn't have him in a proper routine - he was about 5 days old.

[superstarheartbreaker]

I think it's a good idea that babies spend a lot of time outside if in a relatively unpolluted environment, however I don't think leaving them far away is a good idea nowadays.

[thegreylady]

I had my babies in the 70's and the advice was 'never let them sleep on their backs as they might choke if they are sick!'
I also had a big pram and while we were in England I put the pram in the garden for them to sleep.Ds was born in Sierra Leone so was kept in air conditioned rooms a lot of the time.

[Shesparkles]

I was born in 1970 and put outside to sleep under a tree in the garden, with a hot water bottle if the weather was cool.
I did the same with my children (born 1997 and 2002) although not for hours on end.
I have a coach built Silver Cross, complete with sun canopy, insect net and cat net, and my 2 slept comfortably in it till they were over a year old.
It's in the loft now in case I get grandchildren......

[DownstairsMixUp]

I would believe it, shrugs. Things change. I was born in 87 and my Mum was told with me and my brother for us to sleep on our fronts, fast forward to 2009 when I had my baby and i was told it's dangerous and baby must go on the back.

[neunundneunzigluftballons]

In 1983 it was normal to do what your parents said. Now children are rude to their parents and wonder why they have to cope on their own.

Actually I find that comment quite rude. I am not ever rude to my parents and they are a great support. That said my mother acknowledges a lot of things have changed since her day bringing up children and a lot of the advice she has given to me is contrary to the advice she would have had because she has reevaluated some of the things she has done over the years.With 5 children and 13 grandchildren with whom she is heavily involved she doesn't ever seem to have subscribed to that one size fits all model.

[YouStayClassySanDiego]

My children were born 1995-99.

They all slept outside in the back garden [secure and locked], in appropriate clothing and well covered from wasps, cats , rain, etc.

I was always in earshot and it was great, no problems at all and they all slept like logs!.

They didn't sleep outside in mist or any damp conditions however.

[SueDoku]

My children were born in the 70s - they went outside in their pram for a nap every day. It was the usual thing then and not seen as being unusual in any way. However, if they had cried, I would have gone out to see what was wrong - the Truby King idea of feeding every four hours on the dot was outdated even then (and I couldn't have done it anyway).