What was the worst advice that you ever got as a mom (or dad)?

[sns4063]

My favorite advice was when people told me how I HAD to wake up my sleeping newborn in the middle of the night to feed him every 3 hours. He was sleeping 12 hrs at a time at night when he was 5 weeks old. Umm, hello, he'll definitely let me know when he's hungry, thanks!

[snugglepeas]

Originally Posted by sns4063 My favorite advice was when people told me how I HAD to wake up my sleeping newborn in the middle of the night to feed him every 3 hours. He was sleeping 12 hrs at a time at night when he was 5 weeks old. Umm, hello, he'll definitely let me know when he's hungry, thanks!

I loved that one, I told a nurse at the hospital no I will not wake her up. then I asked the nurse if she knew when she was hungry, she said yes then I said on so you think my child is to stupid to know to wake up if she is hungry.

[VivaciousJewelz]

Originally Posted by sns4063 My favorite advice was when people told me how I HAD to wake up my sleeping newborn in the middle of the night to feed him every 3 hours. He was sleeping 12 hrs at a time at night when he was 5 weeks old. Umm, hello, he'll definitely let me know when he's hungry, thanks!

You mean I don't have to do this?? I have been told the exact same thing- that I have to wake him up every 3 hours to make sure he's getting enough food. I thought I was going to be a bad mom for thinking that if my baby is hungry, wouldn't he/she wake up and cry to tell me?

[snugglepeas]

Originally Posted by regbyandjulie You mean I don't have to do this?? I have been told the exact same thing- that I have to wake him up every 3 hours to make sure he's getting enough food. I thought I was going to be a bad mom for thinking that if my baby is hungry, wouldn't he/she wake up and cry to tell me?

no you dont have to wake them up, you are born with the hunger reflex, your baby will wake up when they are hungry, by waking them every three hours your training them to want to eat like that, but if you let them tell you it could be every 2 hours or every 6 hours during the night.

[MrsPinecone]

Since most babies lose weight after birth, you only need to wake them until they have regained the lost weight.

DD lost 15% of her birth weight by 1 week. I woke her every 2-3 hours to eat, and by 2 weeks she had regained the pound and a half, plus 1.5 oz. So I stopped waking her, and she woke me instead.

[Dengineer]

The worst advice I got was

1) Wake them up every 3 hours to eat and
2) My mother and sister were freaked out because DS wasn't walking at 15 months so they (with all their VAST aka non-existent medical experience--LOL!) recommended that I put him in physical therapy. The child obviously wasn't ready to walk--instead he scooted everywhere on his butt, but he just was not READY physically to get up on his feet. His doctor conceded that he was slow but didn't make a huge deal of it, and agreed with me that he would eventually walk on his own. DS took his first steps one day shy of 20 months. He is now 5 and is outside running around playing with his sister and the neighbors so I guess I was right.

[~~Who,Me?~~]

My stepmother insists that everything you present to a newborn or infant should be only black & white. She even went on and on....to me and my SIL.....that we should do the nurseries in black & white. No matter how many times I explain to her that newborns see contrast, and not necessarily just black & white..........she's relentless. I had an article from a magazine recently that disputed her claim, and now I can't find it! Argh, and I'm expecting soon, so I know it will come up again.

Also, she thinks babies need to cry to exercise their lungs. If she's holding a crying baby, she says "oh that's music to my ears." WTH? Who likes to hear a baby cry?:hectic1: Needless to say, we don't let her hold babies much.

I was buying baby food during a Gerber deal at Acme recently. The woman bagging says to me "boy, baby food sure is expensive, isn't it?" I said yes, you have to look for deals. Then she goes on to tell me how her mom gave her and her sister ground beef, yes ground beef, when they were 1-month old, because you need to have something in their stomachs.

Seriously, I'm going to believe that a 1 month old ate ground beef?

And the waking a baby thing--I heard that one too and was like NO WAY! Let sleeping babies lie.

[RNMommy]

Oh, I could go on and on for days...but the most frustrating was my post partum nurses telling me that I "needed" to make dd take a pacifier. She obviously didn't know I was a nurse in L&D right upstairs..haha.

My MIL tries to tell me crazy things all the time. Like, when dd was 2 months old, she was "too young" to sleep through the night. And, that I needed to give my dd bottles of sugar water to supplement my breastfeeding because there's no way my "little boobies" could supply all her needs! I am a 34DDD, they are NOT little! Most recently, she told me that I was forcing dd to progress too fast; like I can make a 6 month old learn to sit or not sit on her own...

And, as far as waking a baby to eat, I believe UNLESS your pediatrician tells YOU otherwise, only do that during the day! I woke dd every 3 hours during the day to eat, and by 2 months, she was sleeping 8 hours/night...she now sleeps 12/night and has been since she was 3 months old.

[crystal12605]

My MIL told me that after I had my first DD I had to let her cry as often as possible to let her get a voice. She said that is how the get their voice and learn to control it. The first question after birth was, do I really have to let her cry? My doctor was looking at me like I was a crazy person and the nurses came in the room EVERYTIME they heard her cry after that question. The best part was my MIL was sitting right there when I had asked. lol. She also told me after my DS was born that b/c I pointed his "stuff"straight back in the diaper (he kept peeing all over himself )that I was DEFORMING him. Needless to say I called the doctor and she laughed and told me to tell my dear sweet MIL to back off and keep it to herself. Her words not mine. I know, I know really stupid to believe her. Her so called advice never seems to stop. The most recent was to make my DH take antibiotics for a runny nose. I think the womens nuts.

[Mitchell]

If you have a newborn preemie or a baby that otherwise has health/weight problems, then it might help to feed them at night, but you don't have to wake them up to do it - they will eat in their sleep. And of course it is totally unnecessary for a healthy infant.

Oh so much bad advice....

~ When they get teeth you will have to stop nursing (they all got teeth at 3 or 4 months).

~ You have to give them (rice) cereal, either for nutrition or because they are so big that breastmilk can't possibly fill them up.

~ I should feed them less - they are too fat (they were fat, but at 6 mos old, should that really be an issue?).

~ I have had more than one person comment on my "retarded" 5 year old and how to take care of him properly. Except he was just a REALLY tall and perfectly normal 3 year old and spoke/played like a normal 3 year old.

~ Oh lots and lots of "You must be really happy now that you have your girl." Um, no. I am really happy that the third child (who happens to be the first girl) is super healthy and I would have been equally pleased with another boy.

~ I gave a bunch of formula checks to the family down the street with twins. The (very young) grandmother opened the door and wanted to know (a) why wasn't I using that (apparently superior) brand and then (b) was my (4 month old!) baby on whole milk already? Yeah...no. There is actually another option besides formula or cow milk out there. They are called boobs and mommies come standard with them - surely you have noticed those things hanging right above your belly button? Doh.

Why don't they think before they comment?