Better Homes and Gardens Baby Book (c) 1969 - Page 2

[jempd]

I wonder how many women got mastitis from not letting the baby empty her breasts.

[elsanne]

WOW---in-freakin-credible! Thanks for sharing.

[sapphire_chan]

Wow the idiotic advice people get from the older women in their lives finally makes sense! All this time I was wondering what the heck some people's mums and MILs were smoking when I should have been wondering what they had been reading.

[sapphire_chan]

Toilet Training

“Some mothers boast that their child was trained to have his bowel movement in the potty by the time he was 1 year old. Actually this means that the baby had a fairly regular bowel movement, and the mother was trained to catch it in the potty.”


Umm.... so they still didn't have to deal with a poopy diaper. I certainly would be 'boasting' about that too.

Yeesh, it's no wonder things were so ugly in the 70's everyone was so exhausted from following stupid advice about moving their baby out of their room that they couldn't actually see the colors the interior designers were trying to foist off on them.

[Verity]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Yeesh, it's no wonder things were so ugly in the 70's everyone was so exhausted from following stupid advice about moving their baby out of their room that they couldn't actually see the colors the interior designers were trying to foist off on them.

[leximom]

wow, what crazy advice :

[earthgirl]

Oh, man. My DH's grandma just sent me a "current" edition of this book. (1999 is the copyright date.) I'm afraid it's not much better. It tells you why it's so crazy to have a homebirth, and that birth centers aren't neccessary- just go to the hospital. Co-sleeping is crazy, etc. My favorite part is how it tells you that "any bleeding in pregnancy is ALWAYS an emergency".

She sent me this b/c she "used this book for all of her pregnancies and to raise all of her kids". Of course, this is the woman who freaked out that I'm using a midwife. She is also convinced that I lost weight during my first trimester b/c I'm a vegetarian. Nevermind that I was 20 pound overweight when I got pregnant, or that I was barfing for two weeks. :

[Past_VNE]

Unbelievable.

No, wait....perfectly believable. Sad and horrifying on all points, though.

[Viola]

Originally Posted by shayinme

It does kind of make you wonder if in 40-50 years our grandkids and whoever else will be reading our books/manuals (Sears, Kohn, etc) and shaking their heads at us.

Honestly, I don't see how anything in Sears or Kohn could compare to some of the stuff here. I mean I like to think I find this appalling because on and objective level it really is.

“If your doctor elects to circumcise your boy, it will probably be done between the 1st and 4th day. In circumcision, the movable fold of skin which covers the end of the penis is clipped away. There are several reasons for this.

Yikes!

[A&A]

Originally Posted by minkajane

Care of the Penis

“If the baby is not circumcised, your doctor may tell you to retract the foreskin with each bath. Be sure you pull it forward again after washing the head of the penis. If you can’t pull the foreskin forward again, and the penis begins to swell, call the doctor immediately.”

: Why would I want to do something that would potentially become a medical emergency?????????

[bamamom]

Let me tell you.

My dh was born in '69. That all sounds pretty exact.

Here's the saddest thing about it all...

My mil had her first baby in 65 or so....and she went in with broken water, was "prepped" , laid in a bed, and then given 2 pills and a shot . No one talked to her or anything. She woke up and remembers asking for water...She hears her mom's voice saying" I dont think they'll let her have water after a section, will they?"

she remembers reaching down to her belly in horror, and her belly is covered in bandages. No one asked her if she wanted a section. No danger for either mom or baby....just did it.

Then, the next day, when she got to see her baby, they handed her the baby and an alcohol pad and said "here", and expected her to nurse her baby.

She had NO CLUE. She swabbed her nipples off with Alcohol, and tried to get the poor drugged baby to latch . Well, of course she couldnt, that alcohol tasted nasty, so she had to give her bottles, b/c of course they told her that her milk was no good.:

She was doomed to a lifetime of repeat csections and homeade formula feeding.

What a freaking nightmare.

I read that section of that book...It is horrific how they allowed the Dr's to do anything they wanted.

I always scream at familiy gatherings when people start yammering about the "Dr. said this, Dr. said do that"....I always yell" DOCTORS ARE NOT GOD!!!!!!!!! THEY DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING!!!"

Rant over.

[MelanieMC]

Originally Posted by bamamom

I read that section of that book...It is horrific how they allowed the Dr's to do anything they wanted.

I always scream at familiy gatherings when people start yammering about the "Dr. said this, Dr. said do that"....I always yell" DOCTORS ARE NOT GOD!!!!!!!!! THEY DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING!!!"

bolding mine

This is my moto! I cannot stand how so many people assume that doctors are always right and everything they do is "for your own good".

I remember reading this thread back when it was started. It's really sad when I think of how my grandparents raised their kids. They thought they were doing everything right by following doctors orders and reading books like this (my grandma has the same book and several others like it).

[dubfam]

Unbelievable...

I know this is an old thread, but how about a

BUMP

BC I bet there are a lot of people that missed it the first time!!

[kapatasana]

Wow. That would have been enough to scare me away from ever having children!

[columbusmomma]

Holy blankety blank!!!!!!!!!!!!:

[bjorker]

um, yeah. WOW!!!!!!!!

Makes you wonder what "we" are doing "wrong" now!
I found the remarks about doing exactly what the doctor says to be particularly disturbing. Now we can really see where that attitude comes from. Although it appears that we are going in the right direction. I do think those general ideas are still going strong. It's just more of an unwritten rule, and in the form of pressure directly from the docs.

Wow. I would kind of like a copy of that book, though.
I have one from the early 80's that I thought was bad enough!
EDIT: I grabbed it, and I was wrong. It's from 1971. I haven't spent much time looking at it, but it's probably not much better.


(oh wow, this is a really old thread, isn't it. hadn't noticed until just now...)

[HappyFox05]

I looked it up on Amazon & they have it from several different years, all the way back to the '40's.

DH & I were thinking how crazy some of this advice is considering that it's not yesterday that the human race started reproducing. You think we'd know better by now.

[amberskyfire]

Originally Posted by minkajane

Toilet Training

“Some mothers boast that their child was trained to have his bowel movement in the potty by the time he was 1 year old. Actually this means that the baby had a fairly regular bowel movement, and the mother was trained to catch it in the potty.”

Hehe, I wonder what the book would say to EC. My baby was "potty trained" from about 4 or 5 weeks old and she CERTAINLY does not have bowel movements that can be considered at all regular

[elizaveta]

Wow, that is just bananas.

[thixle]

Yep, and just think...
The doctor that "delivered" my kiddo was actively practicing medicine in 1969... and gave out MOST of that advice *shudder*