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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

who even does this?!

51 replies

spillyobeans · 30/10/2015 06:04

Got the strangest parenting 'advice' from the mil the other day...to mix coke a cola or pepsi in with formula/expressed breastmilk in the bottle so 'it tastes nice for him', WTF! who does that?!

I love my mil and shes a massive help- i vouldnt be without her, but sometimes i do wonder how dh survived childhood

OP posts:
Sirzy · 30/10/2015 06:06

That has to be the strangest parenting advice I have seen!

JeanSeberg · 30/10/2015 06:06

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

hesterton · 30/10/2015 06:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SumThucker · 30/10/2015 06:10

My friend's mum told her to put some polo mints in boiling water when her 4 month had colic, so I can well believe the stupidity of some.

Original poster
spillyobeans · 30/10/2015 06:19

Shes in her 40s. And im not slagging, im just genuinely perplexed by what she said, so much so i had to share!

OP posts:
circlelake · 30/10/2015 06:23

No one. No one does that.

GruntledOne · 30/10/2015 06:27

My mother used to tell me to dip a finger in brandy and give it to the baby to suck ...

Out2pasture · 30/10/2015 06:31

Wouldn't it curdle? Odd suggestion for sure.

Original poster
spillyobeans · 30/10/2015 06:31

Gruntled, my dad said his mum used to a actually put brandy in a bottle and he apparently 'slept great' - no wonder!

OP posts:
BeeRayKay · 30/10/2015 06:32

Actually the boiling polo's makes sense.

Peppermint is meant to help colic. Thats probably where the advice stemmed from.

BeeRayKay · 30/10/2015 06:33

And the brandy is an analgesic, it numbs the gums

Original poster
spillyobeans · 30/10/2015 06:39

Yes but all the suggar and addatives cant be good, and your not suppost to even give them cooled boiled water unless dehydrated. And surely baby bonjela etc is better than pure alcohol? Can understand the reasoning behind it but still dont think id personally do it

OP posts:
BathshebaDarkstone · 30/10/2015 06:47

In her 40s??? I'm in my 40s and I'd like my DC to keep their teeth thanks! Shock

Wrcgirl · 30/10/2015 06:56
Shock
MsJamieFraser · 30/10/2015 07:09

Its an old wives tale, if I remember rightly it has something to do with getting a non milk taker to take the milk, as it made it sweeter... a bit like putting rusks in babies milk, the only thing the baby enjoyed was that it made it shamefully sweet hence why the baby drank more of it.

same with tea, even now parents give tea to babies as a bedtime drink...

its nonsense, but then 30/50 years ago... guidelines have changed two fold.

StillStayingClassySanDiego · 30/10/2015 07:38

I'm 47, I've never heard of anyone putting Coke in with milk for a baby.

I have heard of people putting a drop of brandy into a bottle for a restless non sleeping baby.

EnoughAlready999 · 30/10/2015 07:52

Breastmilk tastes nice so not sure why you would want to make that sweeter.
Formula, on the other hand, does taste like shite.

acquiescence · 30/10/2015 09:22

Jean seberg, why the need for such a rude response? Maybe just say nothing, your comment adds nothing.

ToastyFingers · 30/10/2015 09:23

A friend of mine, whose mother would be 50ish now used to mix his bottle with cola.

shudders

mamabambi21 · 30/10/2015 09:28

My nan used to put tea in my dads bottle, said it was the only way he would drink it. Then wonders why he was a hyperactive child... Caffeine anyone??

VintageTrouble · 30/10/2015 09:31

My DM used to be snooty about people putting cold sweet tea in baby''s bottles when my DB's were small (they are 40's now). Then explained how they used to buy orange juice from what was then the HV's that was so sweet it was like syrup.

Yeah because that was better!

GruntledOne · 30/10/2015 09:39

BeeRee, trust me, my mother didn't give us brandy in order to numb our gums. It was definitely to give herself a good night's sleep.

Sighing · 30/10/2015 09:56

I had brandy as a baby. It was not to ease my gums as I did not start teething until after the mad screaming from gastric pain (I don't remember they were deciding whether to operate on me due to weight loss, then barely gain for my first months of life). My dad used to sneak me brandy whilst 'walking me to sleep' my mum was convinced he was magic (because it worked) until he confessed years later. His mum had suggested it.

paulapompom · 30/10/2015 09:58

Sounds like a recipe for disaster (and rotten teeth ). My grandad used to rub brandy on teething babies gums. It eased the p nd helped them sleep. Apparently he tried it with me and I perked right up and wouldn't sleep all night.

Bit Hmmat the angry comments to the op. And clearly some people do this and it did happen.

miaowroar · 30/10/2015 10:09

I am 60 and my oldest is 30 and I can honestly say that even then the idea of putting anything but formula in a baby's bottle was rigorously disapproved of. Even my own grandmother told me that some of her contemporaries had done it but were told off by the others. Where do these people get these ideas from?

They did do other (by today's standards) horrendous things though - my grandad had my sucking a liquorice stick at six weeks apparently, and once my mother virtually force-fed me a boiled egg because she thought I should be hungry. (Ooh - I was ill-done-to). Wink

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