It worked for me ...... (**ADD YOURS )

[Midwesternmomma]

Hey everybody,

A group of friends and I were sitting around recently and discussing the wisdom that we have gotten from one another and our families through the years. We all know, from being less than mainstream in many ways, that we have all gotten that BAD advice that we never followed... but I am sure we have all gotten some good advice that we did choose to follow and that REALLY worked.. lets share some of those.

My first:

My toddler absolutely HATED brushing her teeth. We tried switching toothpastes, trying different times of day, giving her a tooth brush and having a parent toothbrush... nothing worked and we actually approached teeth time with great anxiety. She would kick and scream and throw HORRIBLE temper tantrums no matter what we tried. On many things we compromise or distract, but we weren't giving in (teeth just HAVE to get brushed) and she wasn't being distracted.

My dearest friend called one night while dh was battling the anti-tooth-brushing-devil and she suggested a battery powered toothbrush. I thought it would be a waste of money (and we really prefer no batteries, etc.., etc.) .... but, low and behold, the next day our toothbrushing troubles were OVER. They never have come back....

I don't think I would have ever thought of it....and it worked for us



(Ok, passing the pipe, someone else take it up)

[mamalisa]

When ds was teething a older lady recommended this crazy thing and I thought she was nuts. She said to tighten a nail polish bottle with a wrench and freeze it. The glass would be super smooth and hard and the top was the right size for the baby to hold. I thought it was silly because we had 100 different "teething" things, but it worked so well. Weird and such a better idea than the whisky she offered up before that

[fiddledebi]

This may be more of a "first time parent was clueless" thing, but my dd was a miserable newborn. She was born in late May, and in early July, we were visiting with cousins who had 3 kids already. We mentioned that she was still only sleeping about 2 hours at a time, and one cousin asked if she was sleeping in a hat. I said no, that's nuts, it's JULY. She sleeps in a tshirt, diaper, and a cotton swaddling blanket. Cousin said she felt like new babies were just really sensitive to breezes and chills and had a really hard time keeping warm, and that she suggested we try putting a hat on her and putting her to sleep in a cotton sleeper instead of just a tshirt. We started that night (with the ONLY sleeper we owned) and darned if she didn't sleep 3.5 straight hours!

This baby is due in late July/early August, and you better bet s/he will sleep in a hat and sleeper!

[mommyofshmoo]

I'd heard that the hat thing was because babies' like pressure on their heads- like in the womb.

[KermitMissesJim]

If you end up having to bottle feed, and find yourself in to the middle of rural nowhere with formula but no bottle (and the babe is too young for a cup), and the bottle is coming in 30 minutes but the baby is starving, a handkerchief twisted into a teat-shape and dipped in formula will help immensely.

[emmasmommy]

A teething tip from another board,

Take a bottle and fill it partially in water. Put it upside down in the freezer so the water freezes in the nipple. Baby then chews on the frozen bottle. My dd loved it so much when teething that she expected it every night, even after the teeth came in. This was the only time the bottles we had were ever used!!

[mommyofshmoo]

This is a weird one....


When my dd was around 6-8 months she started at daycare and got sick a lot- she got several ear infections (serious, bacterial otitis media with fever.) Of course, her first teeth were also comming in. and teething can also cause fever as well.

There were a few times when she'd start crying inconsolably and I didn't know if it was teething or an earache. Our health insurance sucked, so it was expensive to see a doc and I didn't want to go if it was just teething.

So this is what I learned: I tried a little decongestant. If it drastically lessened the pain, it's was more likely an ear infection, if it did very little it was more likely just teething pain.

Other thing I learned about ear infections:
Don't let the sinuses get clogged up! The best way to avoid a bad cold turning into an ear infection was to do steam with dd every couple hours, keep her very hydrated, and use a combination of baby decongestant and propping up her head at night (to stop the snot pooling into her eustancian tubes.)

Interestingly, my dd only had that problem the first year. Her colds never go into her ears now, thank goodness!

[LiamnEmma]

For fingernail clipping--we had major issues with this until a friend told me that she cuts her kids' nails just to the very end of one side so that the clipped part is hanging off and then lets her kids finish the job by yanking it off. I tried it (almost four years ago now) and I'm telling you, my kids clamor to have their nails clipped still! They'll elbow each other out of the way to get them clipped. Wonderful!

[kavamamakava]

When my toddlers got to the age where they thought it was fun to run away from diapers, I turned my diapers into "puppets". I would hold them in my hand in a way that I could make them "talk". "I wanna be your diaper. Please can I be on you? I'm soooooo soft and cuddly and cute. Come get me!" It worked like a charm