To wonder what my mum was playing at to give me Ribena as a baby?

[Hotmad]

Mum asked me if I gave my 3 month old any Ribena in a comforter type dummy??? She used to do that for me!! Apparently there was baby Ribena about 30 years ago!
What other ideas from the past so you know of that would never be done now?

Tea in a bottle. And my parents do not understand why I don't want to give caffeine to an energetic toddler now...

The process of weaning us onto solids apparently started with baby rice in the bottle at about 8 weeks.

My friend has done this with her most recent baby.

Was just over two months old and being fed mashed potato to 'fill her up'.

Even in the 70s there were those who realised that HVs were talking shit and that sugar wasn't a good idea for healthy teeth.

When i was in my highchair my mum used to
Give me the bones off the chicken- and sit
Me on
My
Potty whilst strapped in !!!!

DS is 18. I used to give him tea in a sippy cup.

I'm 34 and when I was about 4 I drank a whole bottle of calpol, and proudly announced the fact to my dad, who says he's never moved so fast in his life taking me to hospital! So whoever said calpol didn't exist 30 years ago, it bloody well did!!!

To be fair though, a whiskey gargle is the absolute best thing ever for severe toothache.
My Dad used to give me aspirin at the drop of a hat.

My mum used to give me and my 4 brothers milky sugary tea in a bottle and has been trying to get me to give the dcs tea since newborn although I've since found out she used to give them tea whenever she babysat

My mum thought I was mean not getting risks for my DS ( a common refrain was " but you used to love your rusks ") and the summer club we went to gave us jam sandwiches every day for lunch - my brother still can't touch the stuff. No seat belts or child locks - one day my dad was going round a roundabout and my brother opened the door and rolled out right under a truck and came out the other side unscathed !

My three year old will only drink ribena. She has a small cup of apple juice with breakfast and 2 cartons of ribena in the afternoon. That is it. She isn't dehydrated, just a stubborn girl who doesn't like to drink. The doctor said I need to force her to drink more, if anyone has any bright ideas how i can do that, I'd be grateful. (I've tried star charts, bribery,not caring, caring a lot, making it a game with dolls, I tried not having ribena in and she stopped drinking for two days till I gave in, etc etc) If not for the sake of her teeth, then for my bank balance. Ribena cartons are expensive!

So however bad ribena is, if they stopped making it tomorrow, I'd be stuck!

I used to have a ladybird book about babies and it was illustrated with bottles of blackcurrant squash for babies.

It was very common.

Lucy have you tried experimenting with different kinds of cordial to see if she'll expand her range (Vimto maybe if they still make it?) My nan used to give us Vimto as a special treat (now she loved Ribena - she would give it to us in milk as a milkshake - you know the undilute stuff - as far as I remember it didn't curdle or anything!) Would your DD try that to get her to drink something milky?

Ribena for children used to be called "Ribena Toothkind" - they got in a fair amount of trouble when that was proved very, very wrong!

DD1 and DD2 were born in the late 80s. The recommendation then was to start weaning at 3 or 4 months, I certainly didn't start weaning at 2 months or give them tea in bottles and this wasn't recommended by any health visitor. I did give them baby juice when they were over 6 months but that was diluted. I was also very careful about how much sugar they had and I wasn't the only Mum doing this.

Lucy maybe you have tried it already but have you tried partially emptying the cartons and then topping them up with water. After a while you could reduce so that it's mostly water???

Lucy will your DD drink diluted Ribera in a glass with lots of ice or. Crushed ice. My DC all loved crushed ice as little kids?

(Sorry if I am suggesting things you have already tried)

And imagine that, we are all still alive. Some of us are even gym fit with no fillings . I do have a very sweet tooth though.

Rusks melted in milk, from a month old. Didn't do me any harm, apparently - not sure I agree!

You could still get Baby Ribena when DS was a baby 23 years ago, he loved it! There was no reason to not give it to him in fact the HV recommended it if they wouldnt take plain water

DD is 2.5 and the difference between her diet and his is astounding. When he was being weaned (at 3 months) I was given a weaning foods sheet. It was only a few weeks before EggGate (thank you Edwina!) and the list contained raw egg yolk stirred into other foods to add protein!

40 years go there was junior disprin for pain relief until they discovered aspirin was potentially dangerous for children under twelve. it tsted elly nice, unlike calpol

our school climbing frame was over the concrete slabs. esther had programme on that too.

we used to lay down in the car on the back seat on journeys. no car seats, not even seat belts. seat belts were fixed (not retractable) and had to be adjusted to each user and were not often in the back seat at all. nor were they mandatory. there were no head "rests" on front or rear seats to prevent neck damage.

we used to lay down in the car on the back seat on journeys.

We once did a 6 hour journey to the south coast for our holiday and set off at stupid o'clock (like 3 am, no idea why, we werent going to a wedding!) and mum and dad put the estate car seats up and made us a bed in the boot so we could sleep. On the motorway. In the dark. The thought of the doing that with my kids now brings me out in cold sweats. You cant even get lie flat car seats anymore (a la mode when I had DD 13 years ago).

we used to have dripping sandwiches. dripping is the melted fat from a joint of meat, solidified in the fridge. gorgeous it was too but what it has done to my health I don't know.

there were also salad cream sandwiches and something called sandwich spread which I found disgusting.

teachers smoked in the staff room.

Rosehip syrup is not 'just sugar'.

Giving children rosehip syrup started during the war because of the shortage of fruit. Children's diets were deficient in vitamin C.

Rosehips contain more vitamin C than an equal amount of oranges.

Fruit continued to be in short supply well into the 50's,so all children were advised to drink rosehip syrup to prevent vitamin deficiencies. The government used to pay children for collecting them, my Mum remembers doing it.

It's all too easy to look back and judge now, without any understanding of just how difficult feeding the nation was in the 40's and 50's.

When there isn't any fruit, fresh or otherwise, and limited everything else and there is rosehip syrup packed full details for vitamin C then you give them it.
It's not like children ate any other sugar.

Children of the 40s and 50s had a MUCH healthier diet than modern children, the national as a whole was the healthiest its ever been.

We got Ribena as a treat. It was real fruit juice as far as dm was concerned. Bless her. :)