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!

when I was weaned my mum fed me exclusively on dried egg powder (with added water) and custard for a year ... she suffered from PND and found it very hard to cope, poor mum

I covered maternity leave for someone who, when she had the baby and came back to visit the office, declared that if he wasn't sleeping through the night by the time he was a week old she would be putting rice in his bottle She also told me (I was pg at the time too) that breastfeeding was peverted and that her getting a full night's sleep was of far more importance to her than her son's feeding needs ... and lots more besides that I have forgotten since! I wonder what that child is like now...

I was in hopsital for 3 months between 1 and 4 months old, mostly in an incubator. Mum and Dad only allowed to visit an hour or so each day, hardly touched in case of infection, doctors did what they thought was best and rarely had to explain themselves to parents. Dad used to say how perfectly good I was when when I came out - slept a lot, never cried.... Makes me feel a bit sad for myself. Anyway, I definitely think the experience of having a child in hosp is a LOT better now.

My mother tells me (without irony!!)that both she and her GP who came to visit her in the cottage hospital after I was born celebrated the occasion by lighting up their ciggies on the ward.

I was wheeled everywhere in a Silver Cross pram, left outside shops, oh apart from when my carrycot was put on the back seat for car jpurneys.

I think all this was normal in the sixties!
My granny used to tell me to put a "thickener" (rusk?) in my babies' bottles, to "make them sleep through". But granny he/she is bf, don't ypou remember!

My mum used to feed me pureed meet and veg out of the bottle as I "would not eat otherwise". She made a bigger hole though, so the puree could go through.

Weaned on egg at three months old.

MIL's sister potty trained her 5m old to save him some bad time with eczema or at least that what's my MIL swears for

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i have a classic photo of me aged 8 months propped up in bed between my mum and dad, each of whom are smoking a ciggie.I also have fond memories of sitting on my mothers knee in the driving seat and 'pretending' to drive the car- we were actually moving and I was steering(age 6)
It is a miracle I am here to tell the tale. When I was a tiny baby my parents had a very sporty car and my carrycot did'nt fit in the rear, so they put me in a drawer which they wedged into the bucket seat in the back. Classy!

Like others have said, Db and I used to stay out after school and at weekends roaming the streets and only returning when we were hungry. I went to school (40 minute journey) by myself on teh tube from age 7. It was great but, alas, Im not sure I would dare let ds do it now. Ditto the running round goodness knows where in London in the evenings. Have times changed or was ignorance bliss?

god, yes the roaming around was great. We would go off for an entire day( it was quite rural) and I clearly remember walking to a village to buy sweets which i now know is 4.5 miles from our childhood home. we also got the train home on our own from school when I was 9 and my sister 7, about 10 miles.My mother has a nervous breakdown when I remind her of this, as my sister and I have kids of a similar age and the idea of them getting a train on thier own is enough to make us all pass out.

My parents bought some melanine 'crockery' so my sister could help dry the dishes sitting on the draining board when she was 1.

We were all out of nappies by a year. Apparently we never had dirty nappies (sat over a potty after a feed!)!

I was put in reins in my cot because if I rolled over I woke up...

My mother is quite mortified by the last one now. GP (male) suggested it apparently.

My ds1 was born in 1975. He started on solids at six wks and was off formula/bottles at 6mths. He ate scrambled egg, marmite sandwiches and mashed bananas and drank boiled cow's milk with added sugar. My other three were bfed for at least a year as advice had changed between ds1&2. Mind you, my HV with ds1 was an old moo. She eventually went off to breed horses -she certainly wasn't suited to humans. I used to leave ds outside shops in his pram, if there wasn't room inside. It never crossed anyone's mind they'd come to any harm.

According to mil, dh was weaned on biscuits and custard. I think she breast-fed, though. When he was a lad, dh used to charge his friends a couple of pennies to come and watch his mum breastfeed his baby brother! It was a nice little earner, apparently.

I was born at the end of October & for some reason,my mum had to take me to the Drs when I was a few months old.He complimented my mum on my suntan & asked where we had been on holiday (this was 1968/69).We hadn't been anywhere-it was weathering from being outside in the Silvercross pram.Apparently if it was wet,she'd park the pram in the stable with the door open.

We lived on a farm & had raw milk,straight from the cow when we were toddlers.I never had bottled 'treated' milk until I started work.Mum tells me that on visiting my Grandma & looking in her fridge,I announced that 'we got our milk from cows,not from bottles'.

My brother was an early waker as a tot so my parents used to put him in his playpen, in front of the gas fire as we had no central heating, and go back to bed upstairs. Also did the loose carrycot on the back seat and I'd stand behind the rear seats fro journeys, wearing out the carpet. Our cousins had the kiddie seat belts which bolted into the floor of the boot and we considered them wimps - oops

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Oh yes,just remembered,we had an old bedford van on the farm & we all used to go to market in a nearby town in it.5 adults & 5 children,with no seatbelts,just aluminium seats down each side of the van & bags of shopping flying around.Then we progressed upmarket to a landrover defender with removable seats that balanced across the back,still no seatbelts,but an old fireguard tied behind the drivers seat at the front to stop the dogs from jumping into the front seats.
Happy days.

You are right Cod,this stuff should go in a book.

remember being able to wander off to the shops and play in bushland near our house for the day. Remember not having seat belts in my brother's first car. My mum had a volkswagen beetle and as I was the smallest I was often right over the back in the little area behind the back seat. Sleeping across the back seat on late nights home in the car - no seat belt. Pictures of us being nursed by my mum in the car as we went places - not even in a carrycot.

According to my mum - I was a "greedy little cow..." (her words) because I apparently used to sit on the streets begging for food (nothing changed there then )

Apparently I would only sleep on my tummy as a baby & once my mum threw me downstairs in the carry cot as I wouldn't stop crying (she reckons now she probably had PND). Later, she once found me in the garden with the dog and a grotty old bone - dog and me happily chewing either end!! She reckons it helped my immune system!

We used to go on holiday in my Dad's Transit van which he usually used for work. He made 'worktops' down both sides and g-clamped a cooking stove to one. My M & D slept on the floor of the van, I slept on a plank across the 2 worktops and my brother slept on the front seats!

My Dad also bought my brother and I an old car which we painted like the Dukes of Hazzard (but with emulsion!) and we then drove as fast as we could around the field next door - no adults with us, no seatbelts - we were about 9 and 12!!

My mother walked me in my pram to collect the family allowance from the PO 2 miles away. She must have been very pleased to get it as she left me there, walked home, realised something was missing, then walked back to collect me.

I know this is a bit different from your stories but i always wonder how my grandma managed! She had 3 children the same ages as mine [1,3&5] I have disposible nappies and a washing machine [along with a never ending pile of washing!] She had washable Terry nappies and no washing machine. Although in my defence- she diddnt have mumsnet to spend all day distracting her from housework

fuzzyfelt-we had an old car too.An Alfa Sud,which my dad bought for my sister,to drive around the fields.We must have been about the same ages.Dad & my uncle taught all 5 of us to drive very early on & by the age of about 8 we were all able to drive a landrover across the fields to go shepherding.We drove tractors too,but they were harder to stop,if I remember rightly,as the brake pedals were so stiff.We had our own tractor too,called Chuggy-God we were so lucky compared to kids today!

Oh,I'd better clarify-we didn't drive the landrovers or big tractors unaccompanied-we always had an adult with us-but with the old Alfa,we could do what we liked when we liked in it.

My mum and dad had a wooden car (you know what I mean!!) and my dad drilled through the bottom of it so he could tie my carrycot in. Apparently to all his friends my dad was mr safety and everyone thought he was a genius. He did say it was a problem when it was raining though!

This is so funny......and scary!!! How the hell we all survived childhood is beyond me.
I was born in 1973 to very hippy parents. They took me at the age of 18mths to live in a commune down the south of france for the summer before my mum went back to work as a teacher. From what I can gather..drugs were very free-flowing and I was left to my own devices !!!
Apparently I too was potty trained by then, and had been weaned at the popular 6wks.
Got taken out in cars seat-belt free, and when my brother was born, I held him in the back seat cos they didn't approve of us being strapped down!
I have always been told the story of me, at the age of 2, burning my nans house down. They had left me alone in the lounge, and when they came to find out why I was so quiet found embers strewn around the lounge. They popped me in my cot while trying to sort the mess, only for one of the embers to have caught light. I do remember being lifted from my cot by a fire-man, but how true the rest of the story is is anyones guess.
One sad result of my parents drug use is that my mum now has schitzophrenia, altho none of this seems to have ruined me or my brother. My brother is training as a doctor and I am a capable mum of five...(well, as capable as any of my friends )