Swaddling - good or bad?

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Harrigran, no-one picked up your mention of being "churched". My own gran told me she had to stay in until six weeks following the baby's birth, when she was churched and therefore ritually cleansed of the birth procedure. Sounds so archaic now, but it probably had a practical as well as spiritual purpose e.g. were sexual relations prohibited until after the six weeks? Would it prevent new mum from tiring herself out with social obligations? Does anyone else have experience of this, and does a similar rule exist in other religions?

whenim64.....ah yes I remember the bit about the fontanella now......ooer it comes flooding back, but I still would not like to have full time care of a new born now.........you sort of just get on with it when they are your own....but when they are someone elses, even your own GC - its too scary for words.

DD1 always does curry from scratch too. As she says: three hours to make it and five minutes to eat it!

That's what I found Hilda - breast milk is sufficient. If a baby is dehydrated, their fontanella becomes depressed, but a thirsty baby will just carry on nursing till they're no longer thirsty, and demand more within an hour or so if they just need another drink. You get to know your own baby and breast milk meets all their needs, fluid-wise in the first few months.

My gd is only just starting to have water. She is ten months old and still on breast + whatever mum is having! I have instructions not to make the chicken curry for sat when they visit too hot or salty because dgd might want some! I think I'll make two currys, I like mine HOT. I make it from my own , not bought, spice mix and fresh chillies!

My daughter is a champion breast feeder and she tells me the consistency of the milk changes .....explains why I can remember offering her water during her first summer when I thought she might need more fluids....she would always refuse and then take what seemed like gallons off me!

How does one tell they are thirsty though? If mine cried I stuck a nipple in their mouth. It worked. Breast milk is not always the same consistency. It thins as the feed progresses. I'd always understood that that supplied the 'watery' part. In any case, it did with mine. Evidence, in the form of my experience of three healthy babies who were not given water, suggests that breast milk is all they need while it is their sole source of sustenance. Once they're on solids, it's different. Anyway, milk is largely water so the baby is getting fluids.

So, I repeat, how does one tell if a baby is thirsty if it seems just fine and dandy on breast milk?

All babies need water, breastfed or not. Milk is food not liquid and babies get thirsty the same as the rest of us.

How does one tell if a tiny baby is thirsty? I don't think breast-fed babies need water. Mine never got any anyway and they were all (and still are) healthy.

When my daughter had my GD she was right into swaddling and I thought it was a bit strange, but it did settle the GD down, and even when she was older (a year old or so) if she was unsettled out would come the blanket and she'd settle immediately.

This has brought back many happy memories.I had a coachbuilt Marmet pram which lasted through both my two babies.DS1 was a winter baby and he was often tucked up in the pram outside in the garden, and came to no harm.DS2 was a summer baby and he would lie outside in the pram with the canopy and cat net on.Trouble was he was a screamer and I would often have to bring him in as people would knock on the door to tell me the baby was crying after 15 minutes.You could leave them outside shops in complete safety then.Where I live in the north east it was the custom to give new born babies silver coins for luck and I would often find a small collection in the pram!.
I can remember swaddling them they were born 1969 and 1972.My mother who had five children, must not have swaddled us as she said we all lay with our hands above our heads and my grandmother told her this was a healthy sign.
I never used pillows for mine either, they just lay flat.

Went out with baby in pram after a few weeks but did not visit anyones house until I had been churched 6 weeks after the birth.

I had my two before prams were phased out in favour of car-friendly buggies. The lovely feeling as I tucked in the baby, adjusted the cat net and the canopy, and left him under the tree in the garden. He is now a county forestry officer! We were always advised to get fresh air for babies every day, and with a pram it was easy to get the shopping in the empty space under the "boards", too.
Did we always take babies out as soon as they were born, though? I often see fairly new-born babies being wheeled around Asda in the trolley, exposed to all those germs, and can't remember what I used to do about shopping.

I seem to remember that one laid a baby on its side (changing sides periodically) Safer if it vomited. This was sixty years ago. Babies had proper prams and were put outside to sleep or watch the world go by. Fresh air was important. My daughter had to rturn to hospital for a short spell and I stayed home going back to the hospital every four hours to feed her. When she came home I think it worked out about every three hours. In between feeds one gave them spoonfuls of boiled water if they were thirsty. Never had a bottle. Interesting how thery all seem to survive whatever the in thing is.

all my children had afternoon naps outside in the pram even when it was quite cold and all of then have been fantastic sleepers with very few coughs and colds. What is the difference between them falling asleep while you push the pram around the shops or being put out in the pram (in a secure space) for a nap?

My dear old sadly departed Mum used to love to tell me the story of how, when I was a baby in the deepest, coldest winter of 46/47, she would put me out in my pram when the snow was so deep it reached the top of the gas lamps. She advised me to do the same with my wintertime babies, so I did! Also, who remembers those lines of whiter than white nappies, stiff with frost? And they smelled so lovely and felt so soft when finally we aired and folded them. Would we swap that for shed loads of Pampers and centrally heated daytime naps? I don't think so.

You should have seen the look on my DIL'S face when I innocently asked if she'd got a cat net! I have learned to button my lip!

Greatnan, DS's problem was/is he is a worrier - and still is. He was born worrying about whether he was loved and wanted. When DD arrived, he wasnt jealous but terrified that now she was there he would have no place in our affections, but I didnt get off easily. DD was born believing that all the world was smiling - and revolved round her - and if it didnt she would make it. I used to say that only one of us would reach her 18th birthday. She is nearly 40 and I am still here. However she has chosen to remain single because she says she is too uncompromising to ever successfully live with anyone, and she is right. - maybe I should have swaddled her after all.

I lived with my Gran and aunt before the war, and just into the war, and I was responsible for taking my young cousins out in their pram(s) Not something advocated today, but that is the way it was. My gran always insisted on swaddling the infants, and told me to make sure the back of their necks were nicely covered, as in that way they would always be warm - that does work, as if I am chilly, I often find a scarf round my neck solves the problem. My children (1950's) were swaddled, and put in their pram out in the fresh air. We lived in a downstair flat, and had a small balcony giving a lovely view of the oak tree on the small green. Both my children love trees, and I wonder if the reason for that is they watched the leaves and shadows through the seasons.