What's the worst piece of advice you have ever been given re parenting?

[grumblingirl]

Mine include:

1. Strapping ds2 into his cot by tying a sheet tightly round the mattress and base so he can't wriggle about at night. My reply 'A bit like a straight jacket for babies eh?'

1. Putting my newborn in a (used) furry soft dog house as a playpen/sleeping basket (offer of 'giving' us the dog house included)

1. Stick a dummy onto LO's face with sticky tape so it doesn't fall out at night - This one was a joke though because I was moaning about lack of sleep (again).

Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets this crackers kind of advice?

Similar to Pagwatch, I was told by a top Paediatric Neurologist, "There is nothing wrong with DS that wouldn't have been cured if you had taken him to toddler group more often." DS then 20 months couldn't clap, point, wave, sit, crawl, walk or talk (he said the same again at 30 months but by then DS could sit) He had undiagnosed CP AND a rare genetic neurological/connective tissue disorder.

My MIL said of my DD (then aged 2.5) "make her be right handed, being left handed is such a handicap." She is an Oxford educated graduate and ex nursery school owner. I won the battle and my DD is happily lefthanded.

Where does this idea that cuddling babies = spoiling them come from? How can you not cuddle them, they're so soft and tiny and cute.

[emo]

Not had any howlers yet but DS is only little, give it time!

marmaduke.. my mil also has the left/right handed thing (dd is not quite 5 months old)...

pinkem I'm getting an unintentionally amusing portrait of your poor dh being paid occasional visits were he was bitten/doused in food by your mil

cyteen - I think the cuddling thing was a really common idea.. will google in sec for article I read recently about the difference in child rearing ideas 30/40 years ago -

Message deleted

poppy34, we believe she did the same to DH. His writing is genuinely dreadful, barely readable with either hand! He plays golf and cricket left handed naturally.

Add sugar to a bottle of water solved everything according to my sister from upset belly, constipation (SP?), diahorria, (SP?), colic.. etc..
Pulling my ds forskin pack when he was a little baby to make sure his penis works correctly - mil

leoleo, wtf?

poppy34 - Everytime she gives me another 'gem' I smile!! I also now give my dh extra cuddles to make up for the ones he obviously didn't get as a child!!

I agree with the poster that most of those things were just the done thing and what we do now will be shocking to our daughters and daughters in law when they have kids

My grandparents all did the spoon of whiskey in the last bottle at night with full support of their family doctors

I have heard parents with bitey children say that nothing worked till they bit them back and then they never did it again as they understood how it felt - and they are not talking about 2 generations ago

the scariest one IMO is that babies should sleep in the sitting room on front of a fire (which is left on all night), and be wrapped up as warm as possible even indoors. I know of one grandmother who insists on this when her grandkids stay with her. Thing is - it WAS what the doctor ordered in her day, my gran was told to do the same (and sadly lost a child because of it)

advice is always changing. Best practice today may be outta date and considered dangerous next year

Yeah, MIL obsessed with cooled, boiled water. On more than one occasion, can't remember the reason the first time, but it was suggested in order to give him a different taste. Don't like to rub in that MY milk doesn't taste the same all the time.

xx

leoleo
perhaps MIL had a child who had had a problem.
When one of my DS's was little their foreskin was too tight and caused huge probelsm. The soloution was to retractthe forskin during bath time.
If she had a child with this problem she may think that is prudent for all little boys.

It is odd but not dreadful

my dad said same thing re our notorious biting cat thing as a child - claims he never bit him again (which I know to be a lie as that little fecker darling animal was biting right up to the final vet visit age 22)

Actually I think she was of the opion that you need to tear the foreskin so it moves back. I understand what your saying my friends MIL had a simular opinon with good reason (he son had the same problem).

'If he is having a tantum throw cold water over his head!'

i wish i'd tried that with my son once or twice

A bit of whisky in his milk will make him sleep -25 years ago for ds1- from an old lady that I did not know

rub whisky on gums for teething
dont cuddle baby too much or end up spoilt
dont go everytime they cry

I can't remember any but my Mum stopped her MIL from rubbing her wedding ring on my elder sister's gums 'to help her teethe'. A ring which had been on her finger for nigh on 40 years.

Don't tickle his feet, he'll get a stammer.

"the trouble with your kids is they're too comfortable. You want to traumatise them a bnit, they'll be much easier to manage"

My dh was told to put flour straight onto burns he recieved from boiling water by his granma

Greensleeves... I had EXACTLY the same thing said about my DCs... they were too comfortable, they need to be traumatised a bit..put the fear of god into em.

I can beat that llareggub - "don't tickle his feet, he'll explode". From my (usually less insane than this) mother. She did admit afterwards that she'd always wondered about this piece of advice when it was passed on to her, but didn't like to try it in case it was true.

She has also started insisting DS needs ferola (sp? I have no idea what it is) in a bottle with some formula. He is just over 8 weeks.

Actually, scrap my earlier comment, she is fairly insane.

moon

I hope for your sake you don't know my mother