Can't tell you about the rules in the late 20s ... I wasn't recording much, in those days, that I can recall currently.

Do you think that I might be able to blame some of my present foibles on that kind of upbringing?

ole joyful

That advice lived well into the 50's. Dr. Spock wrote his very controversial book about babies and their care in 1955 (the year my first-born arrived)and I can tell you that infant care was all over the map in those days. Lucky for me, I was my little brothers' primary caregiver in 1950 and just loved him to death (as a 15 year old. I (sadly) knew nothing about child birth (those dark ages) or the how or why of it(I really was pretty dumb and uninformed). And, I learned most stuff from other military wives living far away from home. It still took me 3 children and 12 years to become a "better" mother and Dr. Spock held my hand along the way. Nanny

Do: Be sure the baby gets at least sixteen hours sleep a day the first year and from twenty to twenty-two hours sleep the first month.

That's unbelievable!!! Never happened at my house.

My mother had her children in the late '30s and early '40s. Her doctor told her how he answered the question of whether he thought the baby would be a girl or a boy. He asked the mother which she wanted, and then he told her she would have the opposite. He explained that if he was right, the mother would remember that he had predicted accurately, and if he was wrong, the mother would be so happy to have what she wanted that she would not remember the physician's prediction.

Just a few thoughts. I had my babies in 1947 and 1951.

I do wonder though what age those rules were meant for; a newborn or a one year old, or even older?

I liked the idea of time schedules, within reason. I agree with "not rock or jounce unnecessarily." I always wonder when I see people holding a baby and swaying back and forth constantly with it, but that doesn't mean not rocking in a rocking chair.

Not picking the baby up every time he cries: I remember my doctor told me that a baby needs a total of about 4 hours of crying each day to develop their lungs.

Neither of my childbirth experiences were terrible. Extremely painful, yes. Of course we didn't have the drugs that are used now. I remember my older sister telling me that childbirth pains were the worst pains you would ever endure. . . but they were also the soonest forgotten. I found that to be true.

Yes, Dr. Spock was my "friend."

Sue

I, too, cringe at the advice not to pick a crying baby up when he/she is crying. That was done to me, my mother proudly stated once. I really think it irreparably hurt me. I never really had a close bond to either parent. Strangely, 24 years later when my daughter was born, I was given the same advice which I totally ignored. In all other ways, I think my pediatrician was a good one, but that advice stunk. I used to talk to girlfriends on the phone holding my baby the whole time. You do NOT spoil a baby by loving it.

Sounds like some of the advice given in the 60's also. Breastmilk was out and formula or Karo syrup was in. I was one of the first people in my family to be born in a hospital. My dad was not allowed in the delivery room. The nurse yelled at him and threatened to have him kicked out of the hospital for trying to pick me up when I was rolled out in a cart.

My mom's family remembers coming to look at me after I got home. My dad made them wash their hands and then he sprayed them with Lysol.

Your mother's doctor's obituary mentioned that he was told he was dying when he was younger but (obviously) it wasn't true. That same thing happened to my uncle. He was going to be a doctor too but that terminal diagnosis derailed his education. He lived to be about 75 but he never became a doctor. Makes me wonder if doctors back then didn't want any competition!

I have a vivid recollection of standing in my crib crying, looking at the doorway, wanting someone to come and no one did. I never let my boys cry for too long. I didn't run it at every whimper but I could never let them scream.

I remember standing in my crib crying and no one came. How I remember is I was there till I was around 4, I think. They were very overprotective. I was an only child. >>>As far as breast feeding in the 60's, when my son was born out of the 25 babies in the nursery, he was the only breast fed one.

Gee I really messed up.I nursed on demand. Slept when they slept. Took them into our bed.

Don't rock or jounce your baby unnecessarily.

LOL My friend and I had just mentioned this tonite. We both had babes with severe colic. I mentioned to her that the only thing that would sooth my DD was to hang her tummy down over my arm and swing her side to side furiously. The more ins tense the motion the more it soothed her. Forget gentle rocking LOL Also forget the whole baby on the back thing they suggest today. She increased her strength tenfold if I held her in the standard cradled arms position except for when she was latched on. Face down happy , face up red,tense and screeching.

I almost forgot...my DH's grandmother born in 1890 gave me my most important advise....along with a rocking chair. Rock your baby and hold it because before you know it she will be grown and gone. I listened. And childhood goes so very quickly. Nanny

When I was expecting my first, in the mid 50's, a childless Aunt had all kinds of advice for me. The one I remember was, if the baby is colicky, she said to lay down and put the babies bare tummy against my bare tummy and the pain will go from the baby to me. LOL. Luckily, I didn't have any colicky babies, so never put that little gem of advice in practice. I too was an, on demand mother. I tried to nurse the first baby, but that didn't work out, so he, his brother and sister were formula fed...and that was formula we made using canned milk, water and karo syrup in sterilized bottles. Didn't have disposable diapers then, either.

We had disposable diapers then, but I couldn't afford them. I had a diaper service given to me for a few months, and then it was back to hanging Curity diapers on the line. In the winter they were like frozen boards.

Milk, water, and Karo syrup.........that's probably what I was fed. No wonder I grew up addicted to sweets! :-)

Actually, seriously, it's a wonder we thrived.

Back in those days the advice books were all written by men who had probably never in their lives taken care of an infant! They chose doctors to be authors and hardly any docs were women then. They gave all kinds of advice and had never raised an infant or been at home with one for any lenght of time. Dr Spock was an exception in that most of his advice wasn't bad.
Joann

I guess most of us turned out half decent ...

... do you figger?

Even the ones born before the 40s.

Actually, in the early 60s, our son and daughter were raised in cloth diapers, except when we were away for a while, travelling, etc.

Son was born in Korea and I remember that Sue had quite a time convincing me that I should bathe him! I guess that I was afraid that he might fall in the tub ... and break?!

He came with us back to Canada when he was about 20 mos. old ... Sue could have told you whether he was "trained" or not ... but I don't remember. No potty chair ... so I imagine that we'd have had to hold him over the "real McCoy" ... don't remember whether we had a reducer chair to sit over the toilet.

He'd just learned to walk unaided by a coffee table, chair, etc. a while before we left and he found the slow movement of the ship's deck under his feet rather unnerving ... or problematic, at least. We had several good laughs out of his attempts to cope with this new thing!

Children born here have a "birth certificate", issued by each province, but son, born abroad, has a "Certificate of Citizenship", issued by the federal government, which sometimes causes some concern at borders when people have been accustomed to the other situation.

ole joyful

My mother was a narcissist & an abuser;
I remember her telling her sister that she had wanted to nurse, but that her doctor had scoffed & told her, "There's no way you can produce enough milk to feed a baby".
He ("he" of course!) gave her something to dry up her milk.

I've wondered in the past if she would have been a better mother, if she would have bonded with us, had she'd been allowed to nurse.

Here's a big salute/cheer/happy face for young mothers today who nurse their babies & hold them & talk back to doctors!

"SALUTE"!

"YAY, MOMMAS!"

Well, I can't do a happy face;
just visualize one right "HERE"!