Swaddling - good or bad?

Yes it used to be quite normal in wednesbury when I was young.

So many people on this thread are doing exactly what I hated as a young mother i.e. people telling me what they did in their day, and implying it was better. As I said earlier in this thread, it is all about learning, and research and progress. I loved my Silver Cross pram, but I prefer the fabulous light buggy my DD uses. I loved my twin tub washing machine, but I prefer my present all singing all dancing one, I loved listening to the radio but I prefer watching the amazing programs there are now, and I love the fact that our babies can be immunized against measles and mumps etc. Things change and I feel we must embrace change and do our best to learn about it and understand it.

dahlia There is a thread which was running not to long ago about "churching" but I can't remember under which topic it was if you put it into "search" it will come up for you .
nanapug I agree with all the up to date appliances and anything which will make for an easy life and ofcourse to make your kitchen nice and streamlined,but I cannot and have never have been able to get to grips with buggies,I have had some really bad experiences with them trying to fold them you sometimes need a science degree.I loved my Silver Cross and walked for miles with it hail rain and shine,its over 40yrs old now and has been religated to DDs loft still in good condition abet having two new sets of tyres and one new storm apron.

My daughter have both had beautiful twin stroller/travel systems, which were hugely expensive and look fabulous - so streamlined, and the car seats are ideal for clicking on to the frame to go shopping BUT.....when a baby needs an afternoon nap, you can't beat those lovely coach built prams we had - so much room and comfort. I had a Marmet for my first and second born, then a Silver Cross twin pram for my girls. As my younger son was only 19 months old when they arrived, I had two prams in the dining room to put my sleeping babies in. My daughters did look longingly at the prams when we went to choose the baby travel systems, but very few people buy them nowadays.

I am surprised by your post, nanapug. I don't see anyone saying that what we did was better - we are just reminiscing, as older people do!

I think my daughter can claim to be a champion breast-feeder - six children, all breast fed until they were nearly two, sometimes meaning she had two on the go at once as they were born so close together. I don't think she gave them extra fluids until they started taking solids.

I was baby-mad as a child (perhaps it is hereditary) and when I was about nine I would ask neighbours if I could take their babies out in their prams. Most of them agreed. When I was 10, my oldest sister had a baby out of wedlock - my mother defied my father for the first time in their marriage, by insisting mother and baby lived with us. I would pick the baby up from the child-minder (our aunt) and look after her until my mother and sister got home from work at 5.30. I think one of the reasons I got married at 18 was because I wanted my own baby. I don't think I was especially mature- it was common in our poor part of Salford to see young girls (never boys) pushing baby siblings out in their prams.

Did your daughter find that there was a period towards the end of pregnancy when what had been toddler milk reverted to colostrum, greatnan, in readiness for the baby about to be born?

Greatnan I think you've made a valid point there. One of the charms of Gransnet is the facility for us to reminisce and enjoy again the lovely times we had with our own cildren. The arrival of your own baby is such a wonderful thing, so why shouldn't we go back and look at what we did that enhanced that wonderful time.

Yes, we should keep up with the times, and current day circumstances dictate how we look after our children. We didn't all have cars 30 or 40 years ago, so prams were ideal for babies and shopping. I do like the notion that milk should be made fresh for babies at each feed - the thought of milk hanging round, having been made and cooled, then needing to be warmed again, was a bind - that was why breast-feeding was so much more convenient. Many babies don't even have warm milk now - it's given to them with the chill taken off. I think of the baby's comfort and breast milk being body temperature.

I am sure today's mums will be looking back fondly at the methods they used and seeing the pros and cons of what they did, but it's how things are passed down from one generation to another, and so enjoyable to take part in