Advice from elders reveals crazy traditions
Published: 1/17/2013 8:35 AM
Last Modified: 1/16/2013 8:35 PM
I’ve always appreciated parenting advice from my family members. I have a huge family, and if one of my kids is sick, hurting or going through a phase, chances are, some member of my family has had a similar experience with one of their own children.
Without my cousin Lizz, there’s no way I’d still be breastfeeding; and the tips my grandmother offered on dealing with respiratory problems has gotten me through some tough nights.
But not all the advice I’ve gotten has been golden … some of it has been downright crazy!
Here are some of the strangest parenting tidbits I’ve been exposed to:
Head shaping: My oldest child, Collette, was born in Mississippi, so the advice I got dealing with her was definitely colored with Southern charm. My favorite, were offers from a few friends and a few friends’ grandmothers, to school me in head-shaping.
Yeah, that’s a thing.
After the first offer, my mind starting swimming with images of wooden planks being tied to my daughter’s head. But I later learned that it’s more like a nightly head massage, aimed at keeping a baby’s head from developing flat spots.
Still, it was a little too weird for me. Collette’s head is fine, so I guess I made the right choice.
Always an innie: Apparently, outie belly buttons are unattractive. I don’t have one myself, but the older women warned against it from the beginning. When Collette’s doctor told us she had a hernia, causing her belly button to poke out, he winked and told us not to break out the silver dollars just yet.
What?
But it didn’t take long for my grandmother to clue me in on the old practice of taping a silver dollar to your baby’s navel to push it back in.
Another tip ignored, Collette ended up with neither an innie, nor an outie, but rather, a rather adorable in-betweenie.
The sinus blaster: This lesson came courtesy of my cousin Robin, who always had a word of friendly advice for me.
One day when Collette was very congested and doing a great job of batting away the nasal aspirator (my little blue snot-sucker), Robin suggested that I let her handle the situation.
She then took Collette, put her mouth over my baby’s face and blew until all the snot came up.
It was probably the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen, but it worked.
Turns out there’s a method to this procedure. You have to wait until the baby is crying, then blow gently into their mouth.
I Googled it. It’s a thing. A gross thing I’d never try on my own, but a thing nonetheless.
So there, you have it. The wackiest parenting advice, I ever received. Think you've got me beat? Feel free to send in your craziest tips to june.straight@tulsaworld.com
Written by
June Straight
Staff Writer
