AIBU to ask about bizarre parenting advice you've received?

[squeakyballs]

It's been a long week with a teething DS and I though this would be a lighthearted way to get to the end of today!

I'll start. I'm British but live in Australia. We took our 7mo DS to a daytime birthday party recently. It was sunny and although mostly in the shade, I was putting sun cream on him to be extra cautious. A friend's mother who was there (native Aussie) advised us to put him in the sun for 30 minutes without sun cream to 'toughen up' his skin to the climate. She had done it with her children. She was being deadly serious, definitely not joking .

What whacky advice have you been given?

That I should wean 5 month old ds from breastfeeding at 6 months old because this (poster) says 'give baby breastmilk only until 6 months' ie only breastmillk, not solids or juice etc.

This was from a health visitor in a childrens centre at ds 4 to 6 month check. And ahe wouldn't accept that she was wrong, not even when I pulled my phone out and found contradicting information from WHO. Because she doesn't work for WHO. so found NHS guidance and she still wouldn't have it because advice changes, I shouldn't google and go against HCP advice and it was a new poster.

I laughed and walked out and complained.

Loads of other batshit advice. Usually from my mum or dsis's. Ds was a typical bf baby and was feeding an awful lot. I should bottle feed, switch to formula, give a dummy, cry it out, blah blah fucking blah.

I ignored them all.

SIL was told by her MIL to avoid all foods that were a good source of protein when pregnant because it would be bad for the baby by making him grow too big. She was advised to eat a small portion of rice and vegetables for every meal and nothing else.

@pinkyboots we got this advise about my ASD 2year old son from the health visitor 😱😱

@bobbetybob I was also told to spray him with water to distract him during a meltdown by my HV!

I was told that about suncream to help with vit D..

Mine was an older relative. Ds had hit and bit me.. Terrible 2s. I removed him from the situation and told him it's not kind etc.

She said you should hit and bite back twice as hard..

To give the baby a spring onion to chew on when he was weaning.

To give him yogurt at two weeks old to “help him sleep better.”

To rotate his sleeping position from birth so he didn’t have a flat head.

Funnily enough, I just ignored this advice.

I changed HVs after this final nugget of genius broke the camels back.
"He has white spots on his nose because he drinks milk. That's why they are called milk spots it's the milk in his skin."

She was batshit crazy was pushing me to wean at 3 months etc etc so I asked to change to someone who had a fecking clue what they were doing!

MIL told me to put surgical spirt on my nipples to toughen them up for BF.

My FIL announced when our DD was 3 months old that we should start giving her some tea in a bottle for a different taste as that's what they did with their kids. Told my parents out of genuine shock and they said people used to do that back in the day when they couldn't afford milk

Jesus. Pinky and bobity, your health visitors are fucking idiots.

My elderly neighbour telling me at 7m pregnant that I should eat less, especially carbs, from now on so the baby didn’t get too big.
Carbs increase insulin levels which have an impact on the baby's weight, it's the reason diabetic mothers have bigger babies on average.

The worst advice I have ever received is to ignore bad behaviour. It's the worst advice ever, it just doesn't work.

Not parenting advice but during pregnancy my SIL wrote to me begging me to stop eating poppyseed bread because otherwise my baby would be born with a heroin addiction

I was told to stop eating carbs at an antenatal class(not in uk) to stop the baby being big. I understand there is a lot of gest diabetes here but they are obsessed with babies being too big for birth. Obgyn was horrified that my first child was 8 lbs 4 oz!

Another nugget from a registered lactation consultant was to not drink any fizzy juice when breastfeeding as when you express you can see the bubbles in the milk .

After we told my GM (in her 90's) that I was expecting, her first response was "Oooh, you won't be able to wear high heels now!".

Nope, no idea where that one came from. Especially as I'm over a foot taller than her in bare feet, and rarely wear anything more than a 1 inch heel!

My exMIL (thank god) told me when my DS was in hospital with meningitis at 3m old....it was because I ‘hadn’t breastfed him’ and I was ‘asking for something like this to happen’

Needless to say I didn’t speak to her after that. Ever.

I got told by the cafe assistant in Asda that I didn't look like I was carrying a girl. "definitely not a girl, come back in and show us when he's born".

I am sure she knew better than 2 different sonographers at separate scans telling me it was a girl.
And yes, was absolutely a girl.
And no, didn't show the crazy lady!

I am

To suck snot with my mouth out of my newborns nose. Still makes me feel sick

MIL told me that it was my fault the baby wasn't sleeping through the night because I was breastfeeding.

No, she didn't breastfeed her own children - how did you guess?

My elderly neighbour telling me at 7m pregnant that I should eat less, especially carbs, from now on so the baby didn’t get too big.

I believe this is standard advice in Japan.

Don't let them sleep in your room at all. Straight into their own room and no baby monitor . From a mother of two young children - this is not someone from a totally different generation or culture. I ignored her.

That my formula fed babies would deffinatly have all sorts of health problems because I didn't breast feed and breastfed babies don't get asthma or skin problems. Funnily my kids have never had so much as an emergency gp appointment and hers has terrible eczema she still maintains she's right I don't see her much.

Also to ignore bad behaviour

Yes, it’s true about the advice not to eat many carbs in Japan. They told me not to gain more than 500g a week in weight on average. When I went slightly over one week they told me to cut down on the sweets and rice and eat more vegetables

Not parenting advice but during pregnancy my SIL wrote to me begging me to stop eating poppyseed bread because otherwise my baby would be born with a heroin addiction

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not parenting advice but during pregnancy my SIL wrote to me begging me to stop eating poppyseed bread because otherwise my baby would be born with a heroin addiction

Wow! This might be my favourite so far!

Genuinely shocked by some of the HV advice on here

I believe this is standard advice in Japan

I feel bad for avoiding her now! It struck me as contradictory to the nhs advice that you shouldn’t eat for two, just 200 calories extra a day in the last trimester.