Infections are not caused by lack of socks!?

[gruffalomom]

MIL staying with us for the holidays and DS1 has developed a chest infection (he is 4).

Dr diagnosed him and put him on antibiotics.

MIL is adamant this is because DS1 walks around with no socks on.

My understanding is bacteria don't really care if you have socks on or not?!

The house is warm and he doesn't want socks on...

Aibu to leave him without his socks?

You're immune system lowers when you get cold. So does stress/shock. As the article linked to shows, the more bundled up you are, the less you are at risk.

Likewise, if you start to feel run down and look after yourself, it will just pass quickly.

All that, doesn't seem as relevant, in today's heated houses, cars, buses.

But back even in the 70's, when I was a child, it was relevant. We woke up with ice on the inside of the windows, obe room was heated and the kitchen was warm, if cooking was going on. If you went out with wet hair, it would stay wet all day, shops wasn't heated like they are now. We'd have to wear coats in class, sometimes.

There was still malnutrition knocking about among the WC.

Children died because of their general environment, they developed all sorts of things that they wouldn't have got, if they were MC, or better fed/more warm.

We know a bit more now, but you've got to consider the time and experiences of the older generations, as to why they think the things they do.

@PennyMordauntsLadyBrain A friend of mine, intelligent, works in law based job, mother of two grown up children, also told a pregnant friend that arms above her head would cause the cord to wrap around her baby's neck. I was
My gran was insistent babies got epilepsy from people tickling their feet and causing them to fit.

Canker from sucking a penny was common in DH's family.
Who on earth would want to suck a vile pre decimal penny?
Him and his cousins of course, just to see if they did get Canker what ever the fuck that is (not envy)

You get piles from sitting on a wall.

You catch colds from not wearing a vest.

Be careful out there folks, it is really risky.

Yes ... but ... why, in an NHS public advert on the radio for the flu vaccine before Christmas did they say 'the cold weather can make you more susceptible to illnesses' or similar words?? Made me do a double take

..oh and anyone who has experience of Italy will tell you the dangers of 'un colpo d'aria'. Something between a draught and a chill ... never really figured it out but it causes all sorts, including palsy/paralysis!

My grandmother told me never to wash my hair when on my period because when you lean over the basin, all the blood in your body rushes to your head and you'll cause problems stage whisoer "down there" while pointing dramatically at her stomach.

I remember most of these, too, and I'm in the US! It's international so it must be true!

I'll add in "Don't sit so close to the TV, you'll go blind!".

Don't sit on storage heaters, cold steps or you'll get piles. Don't sit on earth, you'll get worms. Don't eat raw pastry or swallow chewing gum as it'll knot itself around your heart and you'll die. Don't drink cold water on a hot day, you'll go into shock. Prick a blister to let the "evil" out. Butter a burn.

And no holding newborn babies if youre on a period

@70sbaubles I need to know what happens if you do! Does it affect the woman or the baby?

I’m trying to persuade my children to put on 3 pairs of socks today. I don’t want another pesky virus messing up my NYE again!

Cold can suppress your immune system. Which makes an infection more likely to succeed in it's wicked ambitions.

Though I would think if socklessness lead to a level of coldness which would cause enough stress to lower immunity you might notice.

There's a small bit of sense in these old wives tales. Or at least there's a glimmer of reason. They can be true, though the hit rating is quite low!

And no holding newborn babies if youre on a period

well ok, there's sense in some^ of them. There's a few that are just plain nuts.

Though I'm guessing that one comes from good old misogyny. Unclean women and all that.

Ticking a baby’s feet Ames it nervous
Causing it to 👀 look upwards over it head will make its eyes cross permanently
Never aallllow a child too blow up a balloon for fear it will will be swallowed andet stuck on it’s tonsil☠️
Never swallow chewing gum because it will become wrapped around your tonsils.
Drinking whiskey while eating oysters will kill you.
If you wake up a sleep walker the shock will kill them

I don't know where people come up with these things. My moms in her early 40s and kept telling me throughout my pregnancy that if I put my arms above my head or stretched to reach something on a shelf in a supermarket the cord would become wrapped around the babies neck. She was horrified to hear about all the pregnancy yoga classes. She's had three kids, I find it hard to believe she didn't raise her arms or stretch throughout any of those pregnancies. And she won't accept that it's wrong.

Kaiserslautern, it’s more likely that you were feeling so very cold as your body was already fighting/ succumbing the tonsillitis.

My DP is foreign and believes that if he doesn't wear socks in bed he will get a cold lol, at least he's easy to buy for at xmas [grins]

My mum insists that margerine should be slathered on bruises but only severe ones.

My mum used to tell me that if you cross your eyes (playfully) and wind changes, they will stay like that.

Another from mother 'Eat the crusts on your toast. It will make your hair curly' Omg... and yes, I have curly hair! Must be true 🤣

hahaha! I forgot about the wind! If the wind changes your face will stay like that

And I was also told my hair would go curly if I ate the crusts...i have curly hair 😲

I've also remembered the time that MIL said that DH had a hernia because there had been a minor earthquake in the country he had visited months earlier. He had been there the week before said earthquake happened.

"Did anyone ever rub garlic onto a child's feet? Has it ever done anything except make their socks smelly? Is there any way to convince people who believe in it that this does not work?"

"No, there's no reasonable way to convince people - because garlic is medicine."

Sure, that study and others have found that garlic (taken internally either by eating it or by inhaling its vapour) is good for you, and that topical application may be good against specific external conditions.

It doesn't cure an existing chest infection if you rub it on your feet, though, as far as I know. Athlete's foot, yes, it is probably good against that if you have the patience, pimples, maybe even acne; but a chest infection, not so much.

My former next door neighbour used to tell me constantly that I'd catch cold because I'd walk out into the garden or to the car barefoot.

She clearly got fed up with me ignoring her so one day she shouted out of the window "If you keep going outside like that you'll get ANTHRAX"

Spoiler: that was 15 years ago and I haven't ever contracted anthrax as far as I'm aware.

hate to spoil it but I was told the same about crusts

Duly ate them

Bloody poker straight hair that has since cost a fortune in curling implements

You will get a cold if you go out with wet hair

My mum thinks you get a chill on your kidneys from sitting on a cold surface!