Stupid parenting advice you've been given

[Lillieslamb]

What 'stupid' parenting advice have people given you?

The ones that stand out to me:
Put whiskey in dd's milk to make her sleep
Give dd multi vitamins instead of milk as she doesn't need it now (at about 6 or 7 months old)
And my friend was once told a ham sandwich would cure her baby's cold!

Where do people even get these things?

Only today at a soft play place. Apparently my 7 mo dd is too young to be cruising so everytime she pulls herself up I should push her back down to teach her to stop it.
If I don't she will have "stumpy" legs.

My mother proclaimed that it was important to never admit being wrong – because a child needed to have absolute faith in their mother (“mother knows best”). Consequently, of course, there was absolutely no need for her to apologise for anything.

I was an adult when she said that. Put a lot of things about my childhood into perspective. Needless to say, I didn't do that with my own children.

As much as I lovr my parents they were a bit like that too, it's always reminded me of in Matilda the line "I'm right and you're wrong. I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it". I've promised myself I will always try to apologise to dd whenever I'm in the wrong.

Said to me by an old lady "When my children were grizzly like that I'd give them a piece of toast ". I was in Matalan at the time.

I am an old gimmer and we did the hot bottle of milk wrapped in a towel for a night feed. Dd graduates this year so seems to have survived.

My MIL also thought babies should be wrapped up until they were red hot and wouldn't turn the fucking heating off

The best one was always that babies/small children kept up late WILL sleep in until 11am
(I realised the one and only time she babysat she probably just ignored DH and siblings like she did mine!)

It wasn't really advice, but dh's nana used to put his uncle in his pram in the garage when he cried. I didn't really know what to say, as she's such a sweet old lady!

Karma - that's awful actually. You're the mum and that shows such a lack of respect, not to mention is dangerous.

I was too thin to breastfeed and should stop otherwise ill make myself ill.

To keep an eye on DDs weight as she had a roll of fat around her wrist at 3 months old.

"Your baby is spoilt because you breast feed too much"
No. My baby breastfeeds a lot at your house because you keep the heating up so fucking high that it dehydrates him.

gigi556 Fri 19-May-17 07:58:12
Sadly, the older generation don't realize that the advice has changed in the last 30 years! You know, because of research...

Please don't generalise.....

Lots of DGPs do listen to their adult DCs and read current and follow advice and guidelines :)

My MIL was bordering on obsessive with cooled boiled water when mine were tiny. I gave in and let her do it.

I'm still not sure what magical properties it contains, but watching her delicately trying to spoon feed a newborn 1ml of water was a bit of entertainment for me and DH at least.

If anyone can shed light on this ritual, I'd be delighted, especially if we ever have DC3

I was told that DD should be wearing a hat as she will get too cold. We were in the chiller aisle of Tesco for about 3 minutes.
A friends was told to give her DD chicken bones to gnaw on to help with teething.

I used to give dd cooled boiled water In a little dropper

Biscustin, I remember reading about bottle fed babies needing extra water in the summer as formula isn't hydrating enough. Not sure if this is still in parenting books, this book was from the 90s.

"You got to drink milk to make milk"

Not advice I was given but a mw recommended cooled chamomile tea for a colicky newborn, the mum rang the hospital to check and they confirmed.

• You should let the newborn baby sleep alone outside in all weather, babies sleep better outside followed a few months later by
• You NEED to teach your baby to sleep outside because otherwise she won't be able to nap outside when she's at the childminder's

(I'm in Denmark)

Advice from anyone who uses the phrase 'rod for your own back'.

I'd love it if anyone could provide some witty comebacks to help shutdown unsolicited advice?

"Don't encourage babies to acquire the learned behaviour of sleeping in cars"

Was only 8 months pregnant at the time but knew that that one was codswallop!

"Sleep when she does". She hardly ever seemed to bloody sleep, and then only when in the back of a car I was driving, or in a pushchair I was pushing. I clearly remember once being out in pouring rain, baby happily sleeping under the waterproof cover and very seriously considering lying down on the pavement curled round the pushchair wheels and sleeping while the rain pelted down on my unconscious face.

EElisa 😁

breastfeeding ds in public means he will grow up with serious issues thinking this kind of disgusting flaunting of one's body is normal...

feeding 4 mo EBF DS roast lamb and peas "but look it's cut up! it's in pieces he can chew on and it's only a few peas" is apparently such a good idea that both parents announced they would just do it when I wasn't looking. Ditto with any other food. Then couldn't understand why their bitch of a daughter didn't hand over DS for grandparental cuddles...

Dip dds dummy in everything! Chocolate, custard, honey!! , beer!!
Things to but in a bottle. Brandy, warm water and sugar, Rusk, tea, juice.
I should have my heating on full. While baby is fully dressed whilst swaddled very tightly with a blanket over her. She didn't just suggest this . She actually did it! Not my dm this on. She was a fairly distant friends dm. Didn't really know her.
I was the village teenage mum so everyone thought it was there place to raise my baby.
Which sounds nice. But when there own kids was all in prison or had drug/alcohol problems. I thought maybe I could without there input