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Some parenting advice is best left back in the arc. Don’t you agree?

Remember great gran telling you to dip bubs dummy in brandy to help with teething? Give him a chicken bone to help ease the discomfort OR even give bub a spoonful of honey or sugar to help settle him. Yeah not the best advice today. I think childhood obesity experts might have something to say about that tip.

Although the Cochrane Collaboration – an international team of experts in various medical fields  –  looked at studies involving more than 1,500 children having immunisations and they agreed that Mary Poppins tip that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down – is actually true!

They found that giving children sugar drops a few moments before they had an injection meant they were less likely to cry – though it’s not yet clear whether sugar reduced the pain of the jab.

Babies given a sugary liquid to suck as they were about to be injected cried far less than those given water.

Dr Manal Kassab of the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irib, Jordan said: ‘Giving babies something sweet to taste before injections may stop them from crying for as long.’

‘Although we can’t confidently say that sugary solutions reduce needle pain, these results do look promising.’

Other not so helpful advice

Mum and Vlogger and That’s Inappropriate has shared the top 5 parenting cliches that drive her nuts.

Including:

1) They grow up so fast – Try to enjoy it!
2) Let them be kids!
3) You’ll sleep again, don’t worry
4) It’s just a phase. They’ll grow out of it.
5) It gets easier, I promise!

We asked the Question on Facebook and here is some of the parenting advice our MoM’s think are outdated.

1) “You’re spoiling them by picking them up.”
2) “Kids should be seen and not heard.”
3) “Time their feeds.”
4) “Bite them back when they bite others.”
5) “Respect your elders. Respect is earnt. Don’t assume you just get it because you are born first.”
6) “Feed them then shut the door you don’t need to go in there if they cry.”
7) “As a kid I got told “don’t speak till spoken too”.
8) “Boys will be boys.”
19) “Honey or alcohol on their dummy.”
10) “Chicken bones for teething.”
11) “alcohol in the bottle for sleeping.”
12) “Give him a spoon of brandy if he’s sick.”
13) “Sleep when the baby sleeps.”

Now the real kicker of course – 14) “A woman’s true place is in the kitchen.”

What ONE piece of advice would you like to never hear ever again?

Share your comments below.

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  • lol i can’t name just one but i do hate it when a certain person who uses the helicopter method tries to tell me things


    • i hate it when i try to look after my child and do something and a certain somebody will visit and literally take over and do it! they try to make me feel like i have never done this before and like i have never raised a child before and they have so therefore their way is the best but in reality, it is a very outdated method of doing things! lol rant done

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  • “You only get given what you can handle”. Such an unhelpful thing to say. I’ve had to say that I think that is a terrible thing to say to lots of my family and older friends.

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  • “It gets easier – I promise.” It doesn’t – no matter what age your children are you will still be worrying about them – it doesn’t get easier, it just gets different.

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  • Ark is spelt with a k, not a c. I l know that’s not on topic but I do think spelling should be correct when your job is as a journalist.

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  • Oh no, I agree with the very last one. My place is in the kitchen-I LOVE cooking and am happiest there when not with my kids!

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  • I disagree with some of those- biting my kids back when they bit us made them grow out of it pretty fast, you don’t need to savagely maul them, just enough to let them know it hurts and that it’s not acceptable that they do it. Also the one about feeding- baby should always be placed into bed awake after a night feed- this is what nurses teach, you can then sooth them while they are in their cot by patting the mattress, humming, etc. if they continue to cry walk out and then come back after 10 minutes if they still cry and repeat the process. This really works to help teach self soothing and is the ground work for a good sleep routine.

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  • Ooh, I have heard pretty much all of these. The one I obviously hate most is that a woman’s place is barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Unfortunately, there are still males in this world (and some women of my mum’s generation) who still think this.

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  • Feed them then shut the door………………..

    What if you baby needs help with wind, is vomitting and choking on it (I know a baby that almost choked in his sleep), has breathing problems etc….

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  • I really hated “sleep when the baby does”. My body just didn’t work that way.

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  • You don’t do it like that, you do it like this. Um, each to their own.

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  • I actually think that “sleep when the baby sleeps” is a good piece of advice. With other words catch the sleep when you can, because on the moment you’re in a deep sleep it might well be interrupted. When my 3,5 year old has a nap, I still go for a nap myself, naptime is holy for me, it keeps me sane :)

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  • A midwife once told a friend, “we don’t burp a baby after a feed anymore”. Meanwhile the poor little poppet is screaming in agony from wind and can’t be helped because it’s not how things are done now. What a joke! There’s no way I was ever going to let my baby suffer in pain. A gentle pat and back rub can be so soothing.

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  • Losing a child to miscarriage or just after birth does not matter. You will have another, not like you have spent any time with the child to really love them. Hopefully never hear that again as a child death is just as hard if when very young or have lived some.


    • That’s so distressful. They told me something similar when I lost my twins. They were “just” 7 and a half weeks old, someone told me. Better now than later.
      :-(
      There is no “better” in those moments. You suffer the same!!!

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  • Not post natal depression….I raised 3 kids on my own….you will be fine

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  • I can’t stand hearing of people putting alcohol on the dummy or in the bottle. I really hope not to hear this again.

    Reply

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