A wild blast from the past

[Dave-W]

To think, people actually believed this stuff in MY lifetime:

Keeping the baby on the family's regular schedule applied to all aspects of parenting. Does your baby cry at night? Don't think about coddling it. Sackett insisted that a baby can't learn that it'll get everything it wants in an instant. He equated soothing a crying baby to "sowing the seeds of socialism." That one extra lullaby in the middle of the night could turn your kid into a commie nightmare.

Bizarre things people believed 50 years ago

 

[Tree of Life]

People still believe in the "cry it out" method today. It's not as in vogue as it was at its origin. But just because it's not in vogue doesn't mean it's wrong.

 

[Dave-W]

Do you still think that NOT crying it out will make your baby a commie?

 

[*LILAC]

I couldn't get past the "give your baby cereal at 2 days old"... wow! Talk about wrecking a newborn's digestive system!

 

[JAM2b]

I never let my kids "cry it out" when they were infants. When they were toddlers and just having a tantrum, they could cry to their heart's content before I would give in, but I always made sure there wasn't something really wrong that they needed help with first.

 

[JAM2b]

My parents, and my dad's family, always fed infants foods way before they should. I even had a few relatives who would put tiny amounts of beer in a apple juice or tea to make the babies relax or go to sleep.

When I was an infant I often had low blood sugar, and in the 1970's the doctor's recommendation was to put a teaspoon of sugar in my bottles of formula. As I grew up and still struggled with it, my family would push "sugar milk" and chocolate milk and any kind of sweet treat that was laying around when I was tired, cranky, or didn't feel well. One of my earliest memories is of me being in a bad mood and cranky, and one of my grandmothers saying, "drink your sugar milk."

My mother ruined my kids' diet when they were infants and it set us on a long road of food battles with my sons. She would give then all kinds of food way before they were ready, and it often wasn't even "real" food but junk food. Before I had my first son on cereal, she was giving him suckers, cheetos, and mashed potatoes and gravy. I have a picture of him that my brother took of him in his carrier, sucking on a rib bone with a tiny bit of meat and BBQ sauce before he was able to even sit up on his own. None of this went on when I was there, it always happened when I would leave him for them to watch. When I would ask them not to do that, I would be yelled at because I was insulting them. They knew how to raise babies after all. They did the same with my second son, but not to the same extreme. I was stronger as a person and he had health issues that scared them a little, so they had a little bit more respect, just not quite enough.

Giving my kids all this salty and sweet food ruined them baby foods. It was too bland and they would not eat it, except for the sweet ones that were like desserts. My kids are teenagers now, and it has taken being isolated from my family for 8 years to get them both to be flexible and open to healthy foods. Those early experiences the first two years of life stick with people and are incredibly hard to overcome.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

My parents, and my dad's family, always fed infants foods way before they should. I even had a few relatives who would put tiny amounts of beer in a apple juice or tea to make the babies relax or go to sleep.

When I was an infant I often had low blood sugar, and in the 1970's the doctor's recommendation was to put a teaspoon of sugar in my bottles of formula. As I grew up and still struggled with it, my family would push "sugar milk" and chocolate milk and any kind of sweet treat that was laying around when I was tired, cranky, or didn't feel well. One of my earliest memories is of me being in a bad mood and cranky, and one of my grandmothers saying, "drink your sugar milk."

My mother ruined my kids' diet when they were infants and it set us on a long road of food battles with my sons. She would give then all kinds of food way before they were ready, and it often wasn't even "real" food but junk food. Before I had my first son on cereal, she was giving him suckers, cheetos, and mashed potatoes and gravy. I have a picture of him that my brother took of him in his carrier, sucking on a rib bone with a tiny bit of meat and BBQ sauce before he was able to even sit up on his own. None of this went on when I was there, it always happened when I would leave him for them to watch. When I would ask them not to do that, I would be yelled at because I was insulting them. They knew how to raise babies after all. They did the same with my second son, but not to the same extreme. I was stronger as a person and he had health issues that scared them a little, so they had a little bit more respect, just not quite enough.

Giving my kids all this salty and sweet food ruined them baby foods. It was too bland and they would not eat it, except for the sweet ones that were like desserts. My kids are teenagers now, and it has taken being isolated from my family for 8 years to get them both to be flexible and open to healthy foods. Those early experiences the first two years of life stick with people and are incredibly hard to overcome.

Wow !What a lack of respect.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

I couldn't get past the "give your baby cereal at 2 days old"... wow! Talk about wrecking a newborn's digestive system!

Isn't baby cereal good for babies , that vomit all the time. It was recommended on my sisters twins.

 

[JAM2b]

Wow !What a lack of respect.

Yeah. That's how they are, and that is by far not even the worst things they have done. It's the reason why I don't have contact with hardly any of them, only one of my siblings and only on occasion.

 

[JAM2b]

Isn't baby cereal good for babies , that vomit all the time. It was recommended on my sisters twins.

I think the general recommendation for most babies is to introduce infant cereal at about 4 months of age. There can be special concerns, and everyone should follow the advice of their child's pediatrician.

When my younger siblings were born, our family doctor recommended cereal to fill them up and make them feel more satisfied when they would want more than the amount of formula was in the bottles they were getting. I think the more appropriate thing to do would have been to give more formula, but cost is a real concern.

 

[Dave-W]

We grew up in the 1950s and early 60s with it being common knowledge to rub a teething baby's gums with whisky to ease the pain and calm the child.

 

[JAM2b]

We grew up in the 1950s and early 60s with it being common knowledge to rub a teething baby's gums with whisky to ease the pain and calm the child.

I've heard of that!

 

[*LILAC]

We grew up in the 1950s and early 60s with it being common knowledge to rub a teething baby's gums with whisky to ease the pain and calm the child.

My brother still does that with his teething daughter using wine! Calms her right down and she starts smiling. lol

 

[Dave-W]

My brother still does that with his teething daughter using wine! Calms her right down and she starts smiling. lol

I suppose that may be better than developing a taste for hard liquor. But it is still unwise and illegal.

 

[Poppyseed78]

My mother-in-law also tries to give my son, who is almost 2 years old, sugary treats. I'm leery of having her baby-sit for this reason. When he was six months old she really wanted to give him some Cool Whip on a spoon, and I stopped her. I don't understand why people want to give junk food to babies? It doesn't make sense to me, so strange. And of course, terribly disrespectful to ignore the parents' instructions.

 

[*LILAC]

I suppose that may be better than developing a taste for hard liquor. But it is still unwise and illegal.

I'll tell ya, I'm less worried about organic wine than whatever chemicals they use in those baby teething gels!

 

[*LILAC]

My mother-in-law also tries to give my son, who is almost 2 years old, sugary treats. I'm leery of having her baby-sit for this reason. When he was six months old she really wanted to give him some Cool Whip on a spoon, and I stopped her. I don't understand why people want to give junk food to babies? It doesn't make sense to me, so strange. And of course, terribly disrespectful to ignore the parents' instructions.

My mil is exactly like that. My one sil allowed her 2 month old babies to have full suckers and then she came to me wanting advice for baby's constipation! First response, "get off the sugar and candies". She didn't like that! Seriously, people are destroying their babies' digestive system with pure junk. Guess what? That child now has other health issues. It all starts within the gut!

My inlaws never babysat our kids. I didn't trust them at all.