Drop of alcohol to help him sleep? What do you use?

[Martha91]

I have a 1 year-old who (like many I'm sure) is an absolute nightmare with sleeping. Not often but occasionally I've popped a few small drops of brandy (he seems to quite like the taste(!)) to help him off. It was something my nan used to do to me.

I wondered if this was something others did and which alcohol they tended to use?

Thanks in advance!

It's the hangover I struggle with. However well dd has slept after a night on the sauce, she's puking into the dustbin at toddlers and demanding a coca cola and a fry up through Wheels on the Bus.

This thread is comedy gold, I hope.

No, OP. Just no.

Give your child some milk or food before bedtime and a cuddle. If you are that desperate for some sleep, spend the money you are spending on brandy on a babysitter instead.

MrsDevere - good post, cheers.

Pic

Although this link is about fetal development, it does lay out how devastating alcohol is when still developing.

I'd say if there is enough alcohol to make a baby sleep then there is enough to damage its development.
A lot of damage is done to the brain and as such won't show until later in life and through development or behaviour.

www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/fertility-and-pregnancy/foetal-alcohol-syndrome

In seriousness though DD's nursery sent round an email saying not to assume allergies and dose them up immediately, which I thought was a bit weird. Key worker translated for me: the babies are being given piriton every night for non existent allergies, to get them to sleep. So drugging your offspring does happen these days, just not with brandy.

It used to be the case that brandy was rubbed on the gums when baby was teething. Then some clever person twigged and started making teething gel with alcohol ...

Personally I would use prosecco. Just a thimble full but as it doesn't keep I would have to finish the rest of the bottle

didnt gripe water have alcohol in it?

anyway my dh used to rub some brandy on his kid gums for teething

he ddnt put it in the bottle mind

HerRoyalFattyness What would everyone recommend for my 13 month old who had his jabs today?

I think in this case mix his drinks, for a faster relief. Best would be to select ones you've already introduced separately. This is NOT recommended on regular nights, you understand, but it should soothe him after the jabs today.

Doesn't prosseco and champagne give them wind?

All those bubbles in a bottle

What size teat do you need to avoid the wind?
Obviously, I only want the best for my baby, so that would be my alcohol of choice

Ok. Feeding time at the zoo has been survived by all here - no alcohol was served!

There are no studies because there is NO way to gain ethical approval for 'properly designed' (double-blind, controlled) study - for obvious reasons.

IMNHO, and with no scientific back-up, I agree that a one off small amount of alcohol is unlikely to cause longterm damage. Note the 'unlikely'. There IS more and more research in to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the short term and long term effects of unborn babies being exposed to alcohol in utero.
The upshot is that there is no safe limit - I don't see how that should suddenly change when fetus turns in to a baby just because it has been born - you could argue the opposite, without the barrier/filtration of the placenta a baby ingesting alcohol itself is at higher risk than if the mother drinks while pregnant.

The other aspect is a social one: if you do it once, and it works, well, then what?? Do you do it again? Or a bit more because it didn't work? Or will it be alternating swigs for parents and child?? What a lovely bonding activity... It normalises alcohol when really, as you said, pictish there is no need.

Some of us have experience of non-sleeping babies. There are plenty of other and safer ways to encourage a baby to sleep. And ultimately, they all do eventually, even if they cause sleep-deprivation in the parent first

There is more evidence on the effects of alcohol on the teenaged brain - I can see no reason why it would be less potentially damaging in babies.

Too smart to start - resources aimed at teenagers

More about the adolescent brain and ethical constraints

I think all of that justices a fairly horrified disbelief at the OP.

Oh, and as an aside, Infacol in to bubbly instantly makes all bubbles disappear - trufact.

My DM rubbed brandy on my gums as a baby. Guess what I drink now?!

As a child of the 70s I was one of the ones whose dummy was dipped in whisky and who had brandy rubbed on my teething gums. Explains a lot really.

I wouldn't do anything as barbaric as introduce spirits to a teething baby. Stick to merlot in the bedtime bottle, at least that way you're contributing to one of their 5 a day.

Look
www.tanners-wines.co.uk/spirits/favourites/miniatures.html
They even make them in baby size

I would be suprised if I was sober as a baby.
Teething, not sleeping and teething where all treated with 3 different drinks. Oh and fever was treated with booze.
As a toddler on special occasions all the way through primary was given babycham or shandy, cos it's just pop really.

Would I do this to my own children? Would I fuck.

I have cried with laughter at some of these suggestions. The bong one still has been howling when I re read it.
My Nan used to put a bit of whisky in my bottle back in the 80s but I never would, I couldn't deal with the guilt...

Vodka & night nurse smoothies. That's the way forward.

Agreed with Pictish the OP is being given an unfair kicking though.

Not everyone knows that alcohol is bad for babies / children! You lot might. But not everyone does, even now. At least Martha91 actually asked and will hopefully listen!

Omg!!! The sugar.