Warning about charity book shops - outdated guidebooks on parenting

[MamanFlo]

Hello mums !

As I was browsing the parenting section of my Oxfam charity bookshop I came across an old copy of Dr Spocks guide to early childhood...so old that it stills recommends to put your baby to sleep on its tummy rather than on its back, which is a major cause of cot death. I mentionned that to them and they've put it away...you never know : someone might buy it and not realise the advice is wrong (although the awareness is hugely out there now). In those old books there might be other pieces of advice that is not relevant anymore or proven to be dangerous...

If you happen to have a charity bookshop close by, have a look just in case...

flo

Yep, I have got one at my local library saying that it was fine to spank the kids (dr. Green?)

I believe that the ones about weaning are the more risky, there have been somany discoveries about food and allergies recently that you can even find things suggesting to use egg as an early food.

there you go ! and it applies to libraries to...
thanks for mentionning weaning: it's not my focus at the moment as DD is 2 weeks old, but I will definitely be careful !

The same is also true of recent publications in bookshops - I bought one last year for dd2 and even though i am a grandma now I had to point out some things which i thought were way out of date eg early weaning and some others that i can't remember. It was also difficult to find one suitable for her age ie not full of pictures of women in their thirties and a general tone of smug wealth.

i looked at a weaning book - about to start with dd2 - and it is a very recent publication and it advocates weaning at 4 months - so they do not need to be old books to be out of favour/outdated practices.

Flo, if you see an outdated edition of any parenting manual in your public library, do report it to the staff on the information desk. I am a librarian and to some extent we have to rely on our readers to point these things out. Plenty of librarians don't have children (can't imagine why ) and would not necessarily be aware of changes in parenting advice.