Infant Sedative used in 70s. Thorazine? - Page 3

[velochic]

This would have been a little early that the 70's, but my mother says (I just asked her) that kids *were* given both Thorazine and paragoric, but they scared her, so she just "walked the floor" with her colicky babies.  They did still, back then, rub whiskey on babies' gums to help soothe them.  You know, they were just doing what they knew best to do, though.  I don't think they were out to make their lives easier, even if it meant harm to their children.  As we advance in science, we become more knowledgeable.

Our kids will probably look back on our time and say, "OMG!!  My mother actually gave me Hyland's teething tablets!!!  What was she thinking???" 

[KempsMama]

Originally Posted by velochic 

This would have been a little early that the 70's, but my mother says (I just asked her) that kids *were* given both Thorazine and paragoric, but they scared her, so she just "walked the floor" with her colicky babies.  They did still, back then, rub whiskey on babies' gums to help soothe them.  You know, they were just doing what they knew best to do, though.  I don't think they were out to make their lives easier, even if it meant harm to their children.  As we advance in science, we become more knowledgeable.

Our kids will probably look back on our time and say, "OMG!!  My mother actually gave me Hyland's teething tablets!!!  What was she thinking???" 

LOL, I've already had people chastize me for using them. 

[Lisa1970]

I guess that makes a lot of sense. MIL would brag about how her kids would sleep through the night, 12 hrs straight, every night, once they got home from the children's home (they were both adopted and in the early 70's, they kept the newborns at a children's home until the court stuff was done). My MIL was always telling me to give the kids whiskey and such when they were newborns. I am certain she likely drugged her kids (or got them drunk) to get them to sleep so long. She claimed I was letting my children control me by feeding them at night. DH was almost 10 pounds when he was born, but only about 15 when he turned one. No wonder...if he was being drugged every night and sleeping that long!

[elanorh]

Sometimes it wasn't the mom requesting things, it was the doctor pushing it.  Dh's grandma had two children ten years apart, and with her second she was in her 40's.  The doctor told her at the 1 or 2 week visit, that she was "too old" to be getting up with a baby all night, so he was going to just give her some drops to give the baby every night, and from then on, baby slept through the night.  He also told her, with both babies, that her milk was "blue" and to switch to formula at the 6 week appointments.  GMIL is very supportive of breastfeeding, and really wishes she'd been able to nurse (among other things, it would have helped them out a lot financially not to have to make formula!).  She's very APish, low-interventionish in the way she does things .... I know she didn't ask for the drug, but she is also very meek with authority figures and has told me she was more so as a younger woman.  So, the doctor just patronizingly decided what she could 'handle,' and she went along with it. 

[Storm Bride]

I don't get the drugging babies thing, and never have. I once had a mom at a party tell me I should give ds1 something-or-other to make him sleep. He didn't have any sleep issues, but he was running around at the party (totally okay with the hosts - it was very much an all ages party, and ds1 wasn't the only child around that age...2.5 or so), and she told me I should give him whatever it was, so that I could have a break. I told her I didn't think drugging my toddler was a great idea, and she said that it wasn't really drugging them - just settling them down, and that she gave it to her dd a lot. *sigh*

[milkybean]

My dad has recently starting going ON about paragoric!  It was never used with us, my mom would never have allowed it, but he's been talking about how HIS mom used to use it.  He was born in around '42, and he's the third youngest in a family of 7 kids (the oldest was about to be married when my dad was born, to give the range of ages!).  He said that if they had a long car trip, she'd dose up all the younger kids and have a peaceful drive. 
 

Originally Posted by sewchris2642 

 

Not that I'm aware of. My brother was born in 1960. My first was born in 1978. I have never heard of drugging babies so they will sleep. Joy's ped. did suggest Benadryl for Joy so that she could sleep when her coughing was keeping her awake after being sick. But she was over 6 (can't remember her age but she was elementary school age and Angela was no longer an infant) at the time.

That sort of thing is hard to really track, depending on where you are.  So much baby stuff from a certain timeframe is incredibly dependent on the area.  Many will say "in 1969 they did births in xyz ways", but then my mom had as close to a homebirth as she possibly could, while at the hospital, and then roomed in with me as well, even though "that wasn't done then".  But she was in San Francisco and things were a little different at the time, especially with the doctor she managed to find.

Originally Posted by elanorh 

He also told her, with both babies, that her milk was "blue" and to switch to formula at the 6 week appointments.  GMIL is very supportive of breastfeeding, and really wishes she'd been able to nurse (among other things, it would have helped them out a lot financially not to have to make formula!).

Oh man, one wonders how on earth he knew?  And why he thought that was bad...my milk when pumped was sometimes different shades, and I read that so is cow's milk...what you eat makes different things happen...

Poor GMIL...

[lindberg99]

Originally Posted by dairy2dogs 

hmm, weird, I typed out a reply under the paragraph I quoted above but it only posted the quote.  Trying again...

That is happening to me all the time when I use Internet Explorer 9.0. It doesn't happen with Chrome or Firefox.