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

Depends what you mean by older I'm 54 and was pregnant when I was 31. I've never smoked and always eaten healthily. As conception was a contraceptive error on the night I didn't drink anything from that night onwards to be sure. Wasn't a heavy drinker.

I was told co - sleeping was bad (would not have done it anyway) and he was in his own room within a week.

I bf for 2/3 months and hated, hated ,hated it. Found it painful, unpleasant and soul destroying. Hated being a milch cow. So will probably be kicked off for that.

I also don't get hysterical about germs.

Son is 23 and hasn't seen a doctor since he had his MMR so I must have got something right

I do think the odd dummy dipped in brandy may have been used when I was teething and we went on a long car journey though!

I'm amazed at some of these 80s babies being weaned at 12 weeks. DS1 was born in 1988 and was ebf for a full 6 months with nary a squeak about weaning before then, as far as I remember.

The only thing that I do remember was being told by a consultant at the John Radcliffe that I shouldn't still be bf him at 18 months because "he doesn't need it." I ignored - my hippyish tendencies were fairly strong.

I bought a sling for my very small DD in 1980.
It was called a Kangourou carrier, and cost what was a lot of money to me, about a week's housekeeping I think.

There were 2! in our local Boots, and I always hoped to see whoever had bought the other one but never did.

I didn't see anyone else with one for years and years. I was regarded as distinctly odd and was often asked if my baby could breathe all right.

My mother and mil both hated it, especially my own mother, who said 'What on earth did you buy that for? Babies should be in a pram.' about a million times.

As my DD was tiny,I used it for ages and loved it.

Yes I had rusk in my bottles at night. My db would only sleep on his front and we were on solids earlier than today.
I remember my Nan putting baby oil on her face to sunbathe. That didn't end well.
Bouncing around on the back seat of my dd's Cortina as he tried to hit a ton on the motorway.
And my dad smoking in the house.

dd's Cortina? Dad's Cortina.

I am 60, so definitely an 'older mum'.

Some of the things I've read on this thread were not the way Things Were Done back then, but loopy individual idiosyncrasies.

I have never heard of giving babies aspirin for teething for a start. And I have much older siblings who never did that either!
I first went abroad on holiday when I was 4 and my mum certainly used sunscreen on me.

Smacking, no seat belts (standing in the front!), smoking all around, bottle feeding and baby rice were the norm. Oh, and whisky-soaked cotton wool on the gum for toothache.
Not being allowed to get down from the table until every scrap was eaten, and disliked veg 'hidden' under meat and potatoes

I used to sit outside the pub every Friday night with a bottle of Coke and bag of crisps until closing time.

Lemonade, not coke! And Pepsi actually did taste more like Coke in those days! And don't forget the packet of salt in the crisps!

I am a child of the 70s and remember sliding from one side of the back seat to the other as my dad cornered!

I can also remember my (nylon, of course) dressing gown catching fire and my parents running to get it off me while I stood there wondering what was going on (I had been standing with my back to the fire, so had no idea).

Yy my childhood most of these.

Outside the pub with coke and crisps.

#Happydays

My mother gave me bottles of milky tea when i was six months old. We didnt have a lot of money so obviously no suncream. From the age of 5 we used to spend summers playing on a pit bing and stole turnips from a farmers field to share between us. And my mother insists she potty trained me at six months - by giving me a bottle - probably tea - and sitting the potty on her lap with me on top. When i was grizzly she'd dip a dummy in sugar for me.

Peanut Butter as a weaning food. At 16 weeks. And that was in 1995.

I am a survivor myself of a 70's "how many children can you get in a mini" type childhood. But we did at least have sun cream. A whole tube of factor 6 for the family for 2 weeks.

I survived. And so did DS. Though he still doesnt like peanut butter.

We never wore seatbelts as children and I can remember my DM holding my baby DSis on her knee in the front of the car while dad was driving DM also left us alone in the house to do night shifts (we were ages 2-10) when my Ddad left us!! I was born in the 70s
And I co slept with all 3 dcs and they are all perfectly fine

Can't remember when he was weaned but it was a mixture of home made and bought. Was vigilant about sun screen.

He slept on his tummy, never smacked.

My aunt used to dip my cousins dummy's in her whiskey/rum or whatever she was drinking

We used to sit in the boot of the Capri with the boot open using the parcel shelf as a table for our coke and crisps on sunny Saturdays outside the pub. The coke bottles were the height of sophistication. Definitely the 70s because we moved in 79.

Was a bad sleeper, the doctor prescribed my mum baby Valium. Had days when dcs were babies when I wished this was still available.

I put my dcs out in the garden in the pram to sleep and still would. I dont see the concern about that

There were 2! in our local Boots, and I always hoped to see whoever had bought the other one but never did.

Maybe she will pop up on thread

On the asprin thing, I am sure my nan was talking about a baby asprin or something (not a full dose!) but she had never heard of reyes syndrome and that it was no longer recommended. My mum was a baby early 60s

This still absolutely appals younger people when I recount it...dd1 was very small when she was born - she had IUGR and I was induced at 38 weeks - she was only 4 and half pounds so we were both kept in hospital for two weeks on the premature baby ward. All of the babies were obviously small and unwell, and scbu was next to us.

I hold my hands up - I was young and in a not too good relationship and I did smoke throughout my pregnancy...

Anyway, there was a dedicated smoking room next to scbu and just down the corridor from the delivery suite. The entire floor stunk of smoke. It just seems unbelievable now! There was a group of us with our little babies along the corridor and we would be found most evenings in this room, smoking away with our cans of Guinness we had been advised to drink! The babies weren't in the smoking room obviously, but we stunk ! This is a quarter of a century ago .

My parents both smoked around us in the car and at home.

My dad would give me and my friends lifts everywhere - pilled up on each others laps, we'd get 6 or 7 in the backseat and 2 in the front.

I used to go to the park alone, a 5 minute walk away...aged 5.

I grew up ok twitch

I can also remember me and my mum going to McDonald's...I'd have a happy meal, she'd sit and have a coffee and a fag :o

stopgap - my experience is I suspect the same as yours. I was born early 1960s.

My father didn't come to the birth.

Weaned onto rice/weetabix in milk and then solids at 3 - 4 months as I was a 'hungry baby'. I too now have a severe gluten intolerance.

Whisky on gums obviously worked too up until the point I could have 'aspro' which was when I was very young.

Rocked to sleep by driving round in my Dads landrover in my cot on the front seat. No carry cots or seatbelts back then.

Left outside at night from about 5am to 7 am in winter or summer if I cried (Spartan baby obviously) as it was 'the only place I would sleep'.

Put on my stomach to sleep 'as I rolled over anyway'.

Suncream was something I had never actually seen until I went to university. I just worked outside all summer on my fathers farm and got slowly frazzled, bronzed and burnt.

Was a bad sleeper, the doctor prescribed my mum baby Valium. Had days when dcs were babies when I wished this was still available.

Ooh toddler valium would be nice.

you'rebeingasillybilly current guidlines are the baby should be around you at all times when sleeping.

It's fairly exhausting really.

Oh- well all my gardens have been very small and pram would be just outside the back door while i moseyed about in the kitchen. They'd have been futher away from me at night when sleeping in their cot while i was downstairs. I think the fresh air helped them sleep.

The entire floor stunk of smoke. It just seems unbelievable now! There was a group of us with our little babies along the corridor and we would be found most evenings in this room, smoking away with our cans of Guinness we had been advised to drink! The babies weren't in the smoking room obviously, but we stunk

I find it strange watching old tv shows where they show police officers smoking in their office!