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?

I was told to wash tuna fish if it was in brine before giving it to a 9 month old.

The health visitor and I parted company after that word of wisdom.

The hv told us it was a "no no" to take the baby out in the dark. Have never managed to figure that one out.

When visiting the (older, non-British) GP to confirm pregnancy, he gave me the advice to eat one piece of fruit a day (what, like one grape? said BiL) and don't let your husband be too rough during sex . I decided to have ante natal care from the hospital midwife and didn't see him again.

Someone mentioned sucking snot out of a childs nose, completely normal in lots of places, those weird snot suckers are a very western thing. My son has only recently been able to blow his nose, before that I would just suck it out and spit it in a bowl.

Re soya: doesn't it contain female hormones? Which could have an effect if consumed in large quantities.
Re high heels: they throw your spine out of alignment which can be particularly damaging during pregnancy as the ligaments in your back become softer (or something like that). But you shouldn't wear them at all really.

I was told to wash tuna fish if it was in brine before giving it to a 9 month old.

That doesn't seem that odd as advice, as it'd get a bit of excess salt off. I often rinse olives in brine to make them less salty. Though I suppose better advice would be to buy tuna in olive oil or spring water.

@Nomorechickens no soy does not contain female hormones, it contains phyoestrogens which actually have the opposite effect to oestrogen and have been shown to be beneficial in supporting hormonal balance and preventing a number of hormonally-mediated illnesses such as cancers.

@TheNoodlesIncident I know, sadly my teeth took the hit on the calcium front. But it was the way she said it, not you will be ok if you up your calcium, but you must stop or you will fall apart. Terrible advice at 8 months old

Some of these!
My MIL told me to stop holding my baby's hand at night as it was stupid or some shit.
I listened to her and stopped holding my 3 day old baby's hand through the cot bars we were still in hospital together.
She also accused my DH of spoiling the baby by picking him up.
I really dislike that horrible woman.

My GP put on my notes "expected female child" based purely on the size and shape of my bump (We'd not been told sex at the 20 week scan). When DS was born we did indeed do "praise be, it's a girl with a winkle!"

My DM said we'd have to get rid of our cats because the baby could inhale a cat hair and choke to death.

I laughed at the no lifting of arms above elbow. Did they not realise that our DNA is 98.6% identical to chimpanzees? They climb bloody trees when pregnant and swing from branches.

Don’t get him wet and never ever feed after midnight

Ds was admitted to hospital at 12.5 weeks. They didn't know what was wrong - he was very unsettled and stopped breastfeeding, screaming as if in pain. Anyway a couple of the paediatric nurses said I should be feeding him solids and he was probably upset because he was hungry! At the time, weaning guidelines were to start this at 6 months so I was a bit

I was told by my MIL to stop bothering with Calpol for teething because her ‘dentist friend’ (she has no such friend) told her that teething doesn’t actually hurt babies.... so I invited her to come and see my twins when they were teething and getting their pre-molars in and asked why it was they were crying, pressing their little faces and OBVIOUSLY IN FECKING PAIN? She hasn’t mentioned it since 😊 she also denies that Sleep Regression is a real thing, that twins take a bit longer to speak properly as they tend to babble to one another and usually one twin will speak for the other.

The twins Paediatrician said that I shouldn’t leave my DD to cry too long as she’d had a collapsed lung in NICU and was on Oxygen at home so, whilst some crying was healthy to help strengthen her lungs, I must make sure not to let her get to the point of hysterical crying (Not that I wanted her to of course!) then my HV said to leave them both to cry and put headphones in and listen to music if it helped me get on top of house chores during the day I never did and thought it was awful she even suggested it!

When I was pregnant with my first baby inwas told by a taxi driver not to wear jeans. Even super stretchy maternity jeans were damaging to the baby according to him! the expert

My grandma told me to start potty training before my son was a year old.

A work colleague told me not to raise my arms above my head when I was a couple of months pregnant as the baby would ‘fall out.’ She was deadly serious, too.

Some of these are completely bonkers!

My HV told me to get rid of my cats as they would sleep on the baby and kill him. She was quickly asked to leave.
Another HV told me DS should not be eating a whole weetabix for breakfast as it was too much and he would get fat. He was about 12-13 months old at the time
MIL told me to give DS water inbetween feeds to fill him up from birth as well as putting him to bed at 9/10pm from about 6 months old and he would sleep through till midday.
My neighbour begged me not to cut his hair till after his first birthday or he’d have bad luck for the rest of his life

ive been told many of time by the older generation(never anyone under 60) that i need to smack the disabilities out of my children,a good smack and they will learn not to do it again

this has been when they are having meltdowns outside

ive very very gobby and take no shit so they were put very firmly in their place

My dh was told by a midwife in the hospital not to hold the baby when’s asleep because he’ll get used to being held.

I was told to use steel wool on my nipples before baby was born to toughen them up for breast feeding.

My dm told me not eat anything spicy or drink fizzy drinks when Breast feeding as it would enter my milk and upset ds tummy.

Oh and not exactly advice, but I was asked once when pregnant by a (male) friend that if I tried and squeezed and pushed really hard could I push the baby out at any old time? The mind boggles, it really does.

@Youvegotafriendinme I was told that too! I have 4 cats and was told I must immediately rehome them as they were a clear risk... I said I couldn’t find any actual reports of a cat suffocating a baby and I wasn’t exactly going to encourage them into my twins Moses baskets for a bloody nap! Stupid woman reported me to Social Services in the end (because she didn’t like me - that’s the only reason the SS could come up with anyway when we finally got on decent speaking terms) and they just said to keep the cats away from the twins sleeping areas and have a rearrange of our tiny flat to make the space a bit more suitable, then I was signed off after a few extra visits to ensure I hadn’t reverted back to how it was before and that was that. But why they still believe cats and babies are an automatic recipe for disaster is beyond me.

Funnily enough I’ve still got all 4 and my twins are fine and they even play together now (well my two younger Male cats play with them, the older females allow pets and that’s it ).

Cam77, are you raising a child or a gremlin?

@pinkyboots1

Spray water? Did your HV think you had a cat or a child?

To put weetabix in babies night bottle and make the hole in the teat bigger so it goes through...apparantly this is to make the baby sleep lol

Having a dgf with dementia I got some grand pearls of mixed up wisdom.. thankfully he’s not able to administer any of his cure all’s.

The cat will kill him!
Why?
Cats are bastards. (Apparently dcat is plotting against all children in some gang ring)

Bottle feed them or he’ll go tit daft.. (apparently happened to df )

Give him a half for teeth (a measure of whiskey at 12days old.. nope gramps that’s wind not teeth)

Don’t hang the washing out.. it’s feckin boring!

Spoil him and blame some other bugger.

And finally.. “just leave him outside” where, when, how often.. who knows the child in question was still inside me at that point.