Friday, March 13, 2009

worst parenting advice

Apparently lots of people have gotten and given bad advice (100 pages worth), but the big ones include giving babies whisky on the gums to soothe teething pain and that tickling a baby causes stuttering. It amazes me when reading comments to articles such as this one how dumb and uneducated most people who look at the internet are, the spelling and grammar are just awful. A frequent comment on the pregnancy boards (that I no longer read) is how dumb so-and-so's OB doctor is. These are women who couldn't tell you how many bones a human has or answer basic pregnancy questions, but of course they know better than any physician.

My grandmother must tell me every 6 months how a friend of hers got extra sleep when her child was about 9 months old by crunching up bacon and sprinkling it all over the crib. When the baby woke up he would scoot around eating up the bits. Between the grease splotches, choking hazards, and nitrates why would any rational person think this was a good idea?

Do you every been given any completely off-the-wall parenting advice?

3 comments:

Karen said...

LOL @ the bacon! That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard! As far as knowing more than docs, I would never say I know more BUT just because someone has letters after their name does not make them smarter or have more common sense. It does, however, tend to give some of them a "god" complex. For instance, I recently had the displeasure of meeting a new doc at the practice my children go to. I had to go in on a walk-in basis as no immediate appts were available. When this woman learned that I didn't immunize her entire demeanor changed, and she went from "oh, it's prob just such and such.." to "oh my, this boy needs xrays, this, and this". My m-i-l also recently saw this doctor while int he local hospital for a heart-related issue. My m-i-l mentioned her frequent UTI's to this doc who then proceeded to examine her and told her that her uterus was practically falling out and that she needed a hysterectomy asap. Fortunately, my m-i-l saw her OB (who had received a fax marked URGENT regarding her issue) and the OB said her uterus was perfectly high up and not all in need of being removed. In fact, it was her BLADDER needing help. She inserted a pessary and sent her on her way. She said at her age, surgery was the very very LAST resort. I am fortunate that my OB and the FNP I take my children to do not have that god complex.

Milehimama @ Mama Says said...

I've had complete strangers warn me (at Mexican restaurants) that eating spicy food will make my baby hairy.

None of my babies has ever needed a haircut before age 2 - I guess that doesn't work!

I've also heard from MORE THAN ONE source to never cut a babies nails, lest they go blind. I'm supposed to BITE them off (the baby)!

We had a ped. that had a "god complex". I took my baby for a well-checkup (2 months) and asked a question about nursing - she always threw up after nursing on her left side - and was told that FEEDING questions required a separate appt!

That doc lost a lot of business from our family, LOL!

Anonymous said...

I had a nurse tell me, "No baby is ever interested in solids! You just have to force them to eat!" after I told her that my 10 month old was not yet interested in solids.