The things our Mums did when we were babies.........

[Northerner]

Following on from Coddys boiled egg comment!

According to my Mum I had sugered water as a new born, had a crushed rusk in my bottle from 4 weeks, was put to sleep on my tummy and was potty trained by 12 months and walking at 9 months.

Your turn!

Mil, Dummys dipped in honey, Dp's baby teeth came through black !!!

and why do any women aged over 50 think their children where potty trained by 12 months?

Mil, Dummys dipped in honey, Dp's baby teeth came through black !!!

and why do any women aged over 50 think their children where potty trained by 12 months?

born mid 1960's, I was bottle fed, a hungry baby so had boiled 'millet' added to bottles.
loved a 'nice bottle of tea' and liked it strong, with plenty of sugar.

My mother was made to breastfed me at hospital ( her labour was 37 hours long) and hated it, and couldnt do it , something to do with her odd nipples.

I also had ezcema days after birth, but my family were not surprised, it was the family norm to itch.
solids well before 4 months, first word was 'gerber' which was the make of baby tinned food. my favourite was the chocolate pudding.
( I still love strong tea, and all things chocolate)

I had warm brandy and sugar for wind, brown sugar water for constipation, all on a teaspoon from days after birth.
After the birth of my first child my mum searched for gripe water and was horrifed that they had removed alcohol from the ingrediants!!

My hair was cut short for many years to 'thicken it up' as it was a bit wispy, and photograghs show a almost bald two yr old with fat legs in a red velvet pinifore dress and nylon bouse and tights.
I was a lazy child and didnt walk, so a wheeled dog was brought(bonzo), and I was taken to the top of a hill, had my chubby fingers pressed on the dogs metal handal, and pushed down the hill .
It worked , apparently.

I had ezcema cream in a brown jar when i was about 6, this was betnovate, and many a person of my generation with facial ezcema have paper thin eyelids!
However , I was lucky the ezcema was on my legs, I slapped the cream on at night, and slipped in to my nylon nightie, and nylon sheets, and wore at school my nylon green school tights.
The skin on my hands is pretty thin and wrinkly.

I can remember going to london zoo for a summer outing, with my baby brother, my mum would heat his bottles up really hot and wrap them up in nappies to keep them warm all day.

We both were allowed outside to play at five years and could run around where ever we liked and came home when hungry.
We went to the corner shop to buy mums fags, and 5 p 'mixtures ' in small white paper bags.
A treat was the beano. but was considered a bit expensive at 3p

I cant think of anything else, but I am sure it will all come back to me!

we used to ride in the back of my dad's open trailer 4 miles to the tip, and back again!!

remember betnovate- is that why my skin on my ears- oh I seeeee, I did wonder what happned to that

Was BF until HV warned Mym not to as I was too hungry. Same happened to my DH.

Was thrown in the pool by a teacher as couldn't swim. Didn't work, don't try it, three years until I learned as became terrified.

Yep the infantile rusks. Also was only fed lamb casserole and choc pudding for two years as I was somewhat partial, wonder why I have all the allergies then? And alcoholic gripe mixture for colic which was in fact most likely dairy intolerance.

Lovely range of marron cords (for DH) and frilly blouses (for both of us!!!)

Pram being left outside with me in for hours in the blazing sun to colour me up (though Mum did keep an eye at all times as I was something of a miracle baby pg wise, and several babies were, apparently, nicked in 973 after being left in prmas outside shops).

Also remember though quiet roads, being able to get on my bike and go for a day without anyone worrying about Paedos, fields that are now ugly housing developments, teachers not being too afraid to tell bullies off in case their parents sue them, etc etc etc

"taped their eyes shut, their mouths and tied them to their cots." I am horrified by this. Ggglimpopo please tell me this is a joke

I have a friend whose dad made a chicken wire "lid" for her cot to stop her climbing out.

My mum used to put my reins on at night and tie me to the sides of my cot for the same reason

I was born in 1975 and think my mum must have been doing things a bit differently from most as I didn't start having solids until 15 weeks (and that was baby rice). Also DS seems to have been potty trained earlier than I was (he was 27 months).

Well I was born in 1977 in Australia and I have never slept in my parents bedroom, never slept in a moses basket or cot (straight to homemade wood framed bed), never breastfed (mum's very touchy if this is mentioned), never put for day time naps and put in the swimming pool everyday for 2 hours with my dad.

My son had a carrycot on the back seat (1982) but it was strapped to the car. We bought special straps from mothercare but couldnt figure out where to drill the car etc. so had to go to a garage for it fitting. Then when he was 9m he got a car seat. They were all upright then, this one was black vinyl
(nice when weather hot!) and you could buy a liner cushion from mothercare for it. Only mothercare seemed to stock things like that.

When we changed the car, DH thought "it cant be that difficult" and tried to reinstall the seat. He drilled through the fuel line.

He also had a rusk in his bottle, but he was about 3-4 months old, late by many standards! And he had his dummy dipped in Virol (just like me!). I bought Dr Spock, put him on the Spock schedule and he slept through from 8 weeks. I used to catch him on his potty when he was about 9-12 months and didnt have a dirty nappy after that, (used terry nappies), but he wasnt reliably dry until he was 22 months old and he used to love to wee in the grates at the side of the road when we went out in the buggy. Every time he saw a grate he would ask for a wee!

When I had my daughter, everything had changed, (1986), Dr Miriam Stoppard was in fashion and we were all encouraged to demand feed ... that woman has no idea what she was responsible for! Also by then, car seats from birth were available, but most of us used them in the front!

i remember that dr spock manual, mom must have read it at some point, can't remember much else tho. wasn't it in the papers about that nursery teacher?

I was put outside in the garden in a large pram every morning as they did in those days...60's Think it has geiven me Serparation Anxiety ever since (joke). Also was left outside a shop with big sister sitting on top of the pram in one of those toddler seats. When our mother came out I was screaming..it wasnt till she put me in the bath that night that she saw a big bite mark on my arm. (naughty big sister) ! !

the one about the gas is shocking!!!!

I misheard the bit about the nursery school teacher on the news here - it wasnt here, it was on the radio, but it was Russia. She taped their eyes shut and their mouths and tied them to the cots....and if they still played up she shut them in the toilets naked. She is on trial for negligence

Thought it was a bit extreme, even for France.

I can't believe we are all still alive!

I wouldn't drink milk as a baby, so my mother used to give me sugary tea in my bottle (from v young, from what I can gather) Also, my Dad told me once that my parents gave me whole marshmallows at 5 months old, and I was subject to the rice in the bottle from 4 weeks, and was weaned by 2 months. Oh yes, and I was potty trained by 9 months.

I also have a vivid memory of sitting outside a pub one afternoon while my mum and dad went in for a drink, and my dad coming out intermittently with a packet of crisps and a bottle of coke with a straw. I was there for a good couple of hours. I wasn't even in the "safe" confines of a car!

my mum also said that smoking was actively encouraged on the maternity ward, and she used to light up during bfing.

And I was given Phenergan like it was gone out of fashion.

In fact, Phenergan was such a staple in our house, my Dad named our cat after it. (My dad is a weirdy eccentric though)

My mother hung me from the washing line by my fingers when I was a newborn to see if I could support my own weight. She promises she would have caught me if I'd fallen! Apparently she was testing to see whether I had prehensile grip - like an ape. She'd just done a degree in zoology and was curious...

Also used to let me eat worms while she was putting out the washing. And put my sister in I in the boot of the Cortina estate on long journeys - we had a duvet in there and thought it was very exciting.

amazing how we have all survived really.

Can you imagine a 60s/70s/80s version of MN?

edam is your mum in a nut house lol

but we were all happy kids in the 70's dont you wish it was that safe for our kids to play outside the way we did and some things my mum did i do now i put dd outside to sleep in her pram as long as it wasnt raining and there are plenty of other things i do that are probalby frowned upon but i have a happy child and thats all that matters

ok haven't read the thread but my mum has done all of the following;
dipped the dummy in whisky
put us to sleep on our tummys
put a teat on a gripe water bottle
given us a chop bone to chew on

i was brought home from the hospital in a moses basket on mums lap!(1972)

intergalacticwalrus-my mum said smoking was encouraged when she was preg! the hospital trolley used to come round and sell you cigarettes!!!!

my mother told me she used to flick the soles of my feet to wake me up because i was such a sleepy baby. (Awful)

Ostermilk was the thing in the late 50s when I was born and I had that. It was still going when my son was born and he had the hungry baby version Osterfeed. Not heard of the carnation thingy.

My grandmother used to tell me that she paid a penny extra (1930s and 40s) for cow and gate as opposed to national dried milk, for mother and auntie.

My daughter used to have weak tea in her bottle because she wouldnt drink juice - this was suggested by the health visitor once she was weaned. Both kids had either Ovaltine or Horlicks at night. Cows milk boiled from 6 months, soft boiled egg and weetabix for breakfast in the highchair.

When I was in the highchair (?) age, mum and dad fed me curry and I choked on a chilli pepper they had forgotten to remove. I was also regularly treated to alcoholic beverages ... whisky for colds, brandy for belly ache, shandy at weekend when mum and dad had beer from the "beer off", and Grandad gave me Pink Ladys (like babycham) at Christmas and was surprised when I was falling over.