to ask the older parents on MN

[VegetariansTasteLikeChicken]

what you did in your day that would have got you sacked from MN today and potentially a visit from ss

I slept on my tummy, mother smoked when pregnant. .. and my nan thinks asprin is the best thing to give a baby for teething. And rice in my bottle from probably day one to get me off to sleep

My middle son born 1985 was on three meals a day by 3 months, almost snatching the spoon out of my hand and crying when the bowl was empty.
He is normal size, weight, no allergies, so obviously did him no harm having solids from 10 weeks. He also chewed on a chicken bone that had somehow missed being pureed in the food processor.

Hmm, well my mother left us at 6 weeks old for two weeks with a nanny as it was considered a good idea not to let your children become too dependent on you!! There was some book that all her social circle read about child rearing - cannot remember who it was who wrote it but it was the opposite of Dr Spock.

A teaspoon of sweet sherry in bottle for colic

But she slept a dream right?!

My dc are now 39.6 and 43.9 and happy and healthy ( God knows how though!).

Oh yes veg slept right through after that :)

NCIS were you advised to put them on their backs, or did you feel more confrtable doing that? I thought it was advised to lay on their stomachs then?

Bottle fed from the start. No seat belts or car seats - my mum used to put her arm across me and my sister whenever my dad braked . Best one though - when we moved to West Africa when I was 6 months old (dad in the forces), my mum was advised to supplement my diet with half a pint of Carlsberg a day because the formula milk was not sufficient and I wasn't eating properly!!! Still feel at that one! Do I win?

I was born in the late 80's.

I had rice in my bottle from 3 ish months. My mum smoked while pregnant, she cut down but didn't stop as the doctor told her it was dangerous to stop totally.

I also slept on my front and still do, as did DH. The one guideline I ignored when I had dd1 was back to sleep. She had undiagnosed reflux and didn't sleep more than 15 minutes on her back after taking over an hour to settle. I was hallucinating from lack of sleep and she'd only sleep on her front. My other three slept on their back from birth but now all sleep on their front.

I remember using 'sunscreen' in the early 70s. It was called sun tan oil (or lotion) and was used to help you tan, rather than prevent tanning. The highest factor was something like 10 or so, and the aim was to get down to factor 2 by the end of the summer. That meant you were acclimatised to the sun and unlikely to burn.

I also remember being treated for sunburn. Many times.

Im the 60s/ 70s my mum..
Weaned at 3 months first food she offered was boiled egg.
Didn't breast feed.. You only breast fed if you couldn't afford formula apparently!
Put baby to sleep on the tummy
Cows milk to drink after 6months.
Put the baby in the car in its carrycot no seatbeat..

All advise from health care professionals..

shallweshop!

Carlsburg! My nan was "prescribed" tequila at the end of her pregnancy as she was at risk of preterm labor... and that helped apparently

In 2005 I was told to put my baby on a four hour feeding schedule. I feel so sad that I did it. I just thought the health visitor must be correct. She also told me to top him with formula in the evenings as he was a very hungry baby. By two weeks my milk supply had totally gone. The HV was ANCIENT though, I should hope she has retired by now.

She also said it was fine to wean at three months.

If only I'd had mumsnet...

I put very premature (28 weeks) DD on her tummy to sleep always. It was at HV's insistence that she would die in her sleep if I didn't!!
I hated it as she couldn't lift her head at all for months, being so early, so I couldn't really see her at all, but I was young and afraid of the HV.

My grandma remembered teething babies being given 'a drop of laudanum', which I am pretty sure was opium!

These are brilliant. Do you think we are as a whole more uptight about child rearing these days and is it because of the ever-changing guidelines?

Nylon sheets and nylon nighties. I'm surprised we didn't cause a house fire!

Dm used to give us a mix of whiskey, hot water and sugar to help us sleep if we were teething.

Both dm and df smoked. And the car didn't have seatbelts in the rear.

I remember being in london with friends and being picked up from the tube station by another friend. We all squeezed in - all 7 of us

I used to sleep on the sofa during the day with ds1 (with him asleep in my arms. He was on the outside). He's now 18.

I read the autobiography of a WW1 soldier, whose wife was advised to have a pint of beer a day to keep the baby small, so that she would have an easier labour!

(It's the only thing I remember from that book. Somehow more shocking than his descriptions of trench warfare.)

yes if there weren't seats in the car.. you just squish harder.

Not sure if it was the same thing.. but was speaking to my grandmother and she mentioned something she used to use either with her children (or maybe was given to her?) and a quick google assured me it was opium based.. Too right it got them off to sleep

*weren't enough seats

Nylon sheets and nylon nighties. I'm surprised we didn't cause a house fire! Quite. We crackled.

My mother made me wear nylon knickers (bottle green, to add insult to injury); they made my bum cheeks itch and I got into trouble at school because I couldn't sit without wriggling.

Vegetarians - I know and I promise tis true! Tequila story also quite shocking. Where did they get their ideas from? There can't have been any research or evidence to back up these particular little gems of wisdom!

I used to sit outside the pub every Friday night with a bottle of Coke and bag of crisps until closing time. My mum would be inside getting drunk.

Was normal in my day

Oh god yes - piling kids into a car. I can remember sitting in the front footwell when there were no more seats left! I also remember going on holiday very early in the morning, and my parents making up a bed for my DSis and I by folding down the back seat of the Vauxhall Viva!

Enb76 Thinking about that book - could it have been Truby King?

I remember reading about him and his appalling child care theories years ago when I read Sheila Kitzinger.

Vegetarians I think the 'back to sleep' campaign had just started, certainly wasn't advised to put them on their tummies possibly on their sides with a rolled up blanket to stop them going onto their tummies. I know there was a lot of emphasis on not letting them get too hot.

My mum used to babysit my aunts 4 dcs a lot and that meant 6 dcs squished into the back if a nissan sunny! Te oldest would sometimes get in the front but often my granny was with us so all went in the back. Two oldest had a youngest each on their knee and seatbelt round both of us and two middle in the middle with no belt. Mum did the arm between the front seats if she had to brake hard. I remember an 'awakening' moment when my aunt and her dh had an accident in their own car and the youngest dc was lying sleeping across the knees of the older 3 dcs. They were all hurt but not badly thankfully but it gave all the adults enough of a shock that no more squishing in happened and mum actually got dad to buy a jeep with seats in the boot that had seatbelts so we were a safely restrained.