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Original poster

Why have rules and regulations in regards to babies changed so much?

70 replies

majidmania · 06/12/2018 22:23

I was talking to my mum today who gave me an insight on how we were brought up.

Formula was okay to give back then
midwives used to help you bathe the baby in hospital (no one showed me or cared what I was doing)
she used to only have one bottle that she had to wash every time, in time for the next feed
there was no kettle then so used to have to boil the water and the baby just had to wait
if the baby threw up, the clothes were left on as you didn’t have the luxury of having loads of clothes to change into
we slept in the same bed as my parents, Moses baskets were a luxury
there was mould and leaks and all sorts back then in the house and in the bedroom
we got weaned at 3 months

We all turned okay. Got abit of eczema and that’s it.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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youaremyrain · 06/12/2018 22:26

Yes, most babies survived but some didn't and there is more knowledge about risks, and how to minimise them, available now.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 06/12/2018 22:27

Well the guidelines, which are not rules or regulations, on Weaning changed years ago as early Weaning can increase the risk of allergies. Maybe that explains the eczema?

Orlande · 06/12/2018 22:30

Partly greater knowledge (so we now have lower infant mortality and greater life expectancy) and partly it sounds like poverty/lack of resources in your particular household. Generally standards of living are higher, clothes etc are cheaper, but a lot of children still live in poverty in inadequate housing.

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WillowintheUK · 06/12/2018 22:34

@majidmania, can I ask when you were brought up? Just curious because my eldest is over 40 and what you say bears no relation to how he was brought up.

I breastfed through choice and was encouraged to do so.
Friends who ff had several bottles and proper sterilising units.
Baby was never left in soiled clothes - we were pretty skint but had several outfits - friends and relatives, as now, were very generous with gifts.
He had a coach built Silver Cross pram and a Mothercare cot. (Gifts from each grandmother).
We'd a local authority flat. Wind and watertight, very cosy in winter.
Weaning is the only thing I recognise in your list, and even then 4 months was recommended.

RaininSummer · 06/12/2018 22:37

This does sound more like the fifties than any time since.

katienana · 06/12/2018 22:38

Formula is still fine to give.
New mums used to stay in hospital for up to 10 days so baby would have first bath in hospital. I would have liked to be guided with this as I was nervous with first ds1!
How old are you op as I'm not sure when mouldy houses or babies in vomit stained clothes was standard or acceptable? (My last flat was mouldy so I do understand how difficult it is to solve but I never thought it was normal).

Theweasleytwins · 06/12/2018 22:38

3 years ago when i had dt the midwives bathed them before we went home. Guess it differs depending on the hospital. Wasnt shown this time

StateofIndependance · 06/12/2018 22:41

It does sound like 50s. Especially the milky knitwear for babies. They always smelled according to my Mum.

titchy · 06/12/2018 22:45

I don't think those are examples of rules and regulations, more consequences of poverty.

Original poster

majidmania · 06/12/2018 23:20

Sorry, I didn’t know what the proper word was so I just said rules and regulations.
I was brought up in Yorkshire in the 1980s. Maybe it was poverty. My mum said it was the norm back then but it probably was to the area we lived in.

OP posts:

blackcat86 · 06/12/2018 23:49

That is not the norm for the 80s. I was born in the 80s and we lived in a clean, dry terraced house. My parents could barely afford the mortgage but ensured it was clean and there was enough money for heating etc. They has several bottles and a steriliser when breastfeeding wasn't working. My mum went to visit the health visitor who actually refused to hand me back until my mum had everything in place to bottle feed me as i had lost a lot of weight. I had a Moses basket. It was 2nd hand but clean and safe. I wasn't left in sicky clothes. Again they were second hand but clean and usable. They wouldn't have dreamed of co sleeping.

There were some things that were different:
-Cot bumpers and blankets were the norm.
-I was laid down on my front to sleep.
-The house was probably warmer than my gro egg would like now for baby.
-isofix bases for car seats didn't exist.

my mum confirmed her pregnancy much later than I did.

A lot of the changes are to do with safety, particularly around SIDs and have reduced infant death. When I was the born the rate of SIDs was 5% in the USA (I couldn't find UK stats but used this to educate MIL when DD was born). It's now 0.5%.

Stroller15 · 06/12/2018 23:53

The GP apparently told my mom to drink stout when she suffered with low iron. That's one of the things I can remember she always said.

PickAChew · 06/12/2018 23:58

I was born in the 60s and my sister in the early 80s. Bottles were sterilised with Milton tablets and the house was always spotless. None of us had car seats. Blankets for my sister, but no cot bumpers. I don't think they were even a thing, yet.

PennyMordauntsLadyBrain · 07/12/2018 00:03

I’m another 80s baby, and it doesn’t ring true for the stories my mum has told me about my babyhood, apart from the weaning.

The one bottle thing sticks out for me- I was a twin and it was my dad’s job to prep the formula each night for the next day. He says about making up five bottles for each baby, plus one spare each, so 12 in total. Only being able to afford or chose to buy one seems to have been very unusual.

PaulMorel · 07/12/2018 06:30

It is important to sanitize the area of the baby in which they stay. We can't tell or we can't predict that the germs are building up to harm our babies.

NotANotMan · 07/12/2018 06:38

Formula was okay to give back then

It's still ok, but it's not best

midwives used to help you bathe the baby in hospital (no one showed me or cared what I was doing)

Babies don't need bathing in the first couple of weeks, it's best to top and tail. New knowledge :)

she used to only have one bottle that she had to wash every time, in time for the next feed

We have more of most things now, it's convenience. Being inconvenienced by only having one bottle isn't a virtue

there was no kettle then so used to have to boil the water and the baby just had to wait

I grew up in the 80s and we had a kettle

if the baby threw up, the clothes were left on as you didn’t have the luxury of having loads of clothes to change into

That's gross. We had a washing machine and clothes would be dried on a clothes horse in front of the oven. Some houses even had central heating in the 80s

we slept in the same bed as my parents, Moses baskets were a luxury

No they weren't. I had one that my grandmother had kept from the 60s.

there was mould and leaks and all sorts back then in the house and in the bedroom

What's the point of this?

we got weaned at 3 months

Yep and that is really bad for babies which we now understand so advice is don't do it

I really hate these 'things were better in my day' posts because they usually weren't. How is it better to leave babies in vomit covered clothes and leave them crying for their feed because you haven't got a kettle? Eh?

Original poster

majidmania · 07/12/2018 06:58

I wasn’t saying my mum said “things were better in my day”

Obviously things are so much better!

And it’s become obvious that my mother was poor or has over exaggerated or it was the norm in my mother’s area of where she lived “apparently”.

My point of the post is how amazing times have changed, how readily available things are and how me and my siblings still survived and turned out okay considering the circumstances!

And how amazing my mum coped, which I could not have done!

OP posts:

Original poster

majidmania · 07/12/2018 07:01

I don’t think the eczema was due to weaning at 3 months as we all seem to have got it in adulthood and mine was more dermatitis. All my dads family have it so could have been inherited.

OP posts:

NotANotMan · 07/12/2018 07:08

You said 'why have rules changed so much' and that it hadn't done you any harm.
Forgive me for assuming you meant things were better before!

Morgan12 · 07/12/2018 07:12

Not once did OP say things were better in my day.

I'm an 80s child and was weaned around 4 months. Sometimes my bottles weren't stererlised because my gran said 'kids need germs'

I do have some stomach issues which I suppose could be because early weaning.

SoyDora · 07/12/2018 07:16

I’m an 80’s child and don’t recognise anything from your description either. My parents weren’t well off but we had clean clothes/cots etc. I was BF until a year, as was my brother (early 80’s).
Things were certainly less geared up for

SoyDora · 07/12/2018 07:17

Posted too soon. Things were certainly less geared up for convenience then, and I think in general people had fewer of everything (bottles, clothes etc).
We were weaned at 4 months.

LovelyBranches · 07/12/2018 07:20

I gave birth for the first time 4 years ago and the midwives brought a bath to my bedside and showed me how to bath him. Didn’t happen when I gave birth two years ago but I assumed that’s because it’s my second.

I was formula fed in the 80s, it was never a problem. My Nan breastfed all 5 of hers 40s/50s because it was cheaper.

Both of my dc have slept in bed with me from day 1. We had a Moses for downstairs but they both hated it.

I didn’t use bottles.

camelfinger · 07/12/2018 07:23

Things have changed as people learn about what works best at a population level. Childhood mortality rates were higher in the 80s than now.

Verbena87 · 07/12/2018 07:26

my mum breastfed us in the 80s and my grandma breastfed in the 50s. I don’t think either felt they were doing something out of the ordinary and it’s been a real help to me having older women who’ve done it all before to talk to (especially having grandma say “well yes, they told me 4 hourly feeds as well but babies have their own ideas don’t they? It’ll pass” during cluster feeding!).

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