Fun Post...How taking care of babies has changed

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Keyana goes down with her bottle...sometimes. With my physical problems I cannot hold her in the position to feed her the bottle long enough so I propped the bottle. I know...bad bad bad. She is still alive. She learned to hold it.

She never used a pacifier. Likes those fingers. Im sure she has eaten dirt before...lol. You cant keep a babys hands completely clean and her fingers are always in her mouth.

The one thing that drives Cory completely bonkers is her utter adoration for the dog and his love for her. He will lay at her feet when she is sitting and let her pull on him, pat him, pull his ears, stick her fingers in his mouth, and even kiss him. All he does is lick her back. Cory gets irritated as all get out at me if the dog licks her in the face...lol. I keep telling him the dog just kissed her and anyways...he just licked her hand and she just put her fingers in her mouth!
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Have any of you noticed how different it is with your second baby than it was with your first?

I was so afraid of doing something wrong with my daughter! I sterilized everything that came anywhere near her. I was a fanatic about cleanliness and didn't even like other people touching her! Even though we really couldn't afford it, she had more fancy little dresses and shoes than she could ever wear and she outgrew some before she could even wear them! And her shoes were the expensive ones from the Striderite store - I was afraid that anything else might mutilate her delicate little feet and ruin her forever! And I took hundreds of rolls of film of her, several a week through her first few years, plus professional photos every few months.

Five years later, her brother was born! I was careful with him but nowhere near as fanatical as I was with my first one. I was so much more relaxed and confident with him than with his sister ... and considerably poorer with two kids instead of just one! He wore his cousins hand-me-downs and looked adorable in them. He ran barefoot so much I had a hard time getting the bottoms of his feet clean sometimes! By this time, both kids' shoes came from K-Mart and they both walked just fine, no deformities or crippled up feet! Amazing! We still took lots of pictures but nowhere near as many. And when he shared his pacifier with the dog and then popped it back in his own mouth before we could stop him, we just cringed and shook our heads. And when he ate dirt out of the flower pots (thought it was chocolate), we didn't panic. We thought it was cute and we took his picture! And we were secretly kind of proud of him because he used a spoon!

 

Marguerite

Active Member
I was lucky - we lived next door to my oldest sister and her five kids (including two adopted kids). I often was babysitting (unpaid, of course) during my school holidays and got a lot of practice with looking after babies and children. Plus, every time any of my other sisters had babies, they would come to stay with us straight from the hospital so my mother could help them adapt to each other and provide a little more gentle time. One sister in particular as prone to PND and really needed this. Another sister was trying to run an outback pub near some gold mines - rough customers and she was VERY depressed at her life when her second baby arrived. She stayed with us longer, to get her more on her feet emotionally and physically before she went back to running the pub.

So by the time I had easy child, my first baby, I was used to handling babies. All the other new mums were handling their baby like it was Dresden china, while I slung mine around like a bean bag.

Clothing - I had the pick of hand-me-downs, plus my mother (now too frail to have me come and stay, not that I needed it) made some lovely little clothes for each of my babies, covering them with delicate smocked embroidery (grub roses for the girls).

By the time I was expecting difficult child 3 (we knew he was a boy) I'd given away the vast quantity of baby clothes, but the ladies at the local op-shop began to put aside all the baby boy clothes that were coming in. I had a huge stack to sort through and choose from, it was great. My mother made one last, tiny outfit for my boy, her last grandchild. There will be no more. Her great grandchildren had already begun to arrive, although many more have arrived since she died 12 years ago. I bought some seconds quality basics, like little body suits (I never used singlets after easy child) but otherwise bought nothing new for difficult child 3 until he was almost a year old. I made mini-shoes using soft leather or sheepskin soles with crocheted uppers. Great for keeping feet warm as they learn to toddle. (I tended to have summer babies).

I love wandering through baby clothing sections in the stores but rarely have I bought anything there. I indulged occasionally with my girls, buying matching party dresses ONCE, and I bought a lot of second-hand designer clothes for difficult child 1 when he was a baby, keeping a fraction of the best "for grandchildren" but using them for difficult child 3, so I've had to give them away (not worth keeping any more).

Very little of the sort of stuff you keep, is worth keeping now. Interesting tehcnological toys are superseded fast so they can go. A singing bird I bought for easy child 2/difficult child 2 stopped working when I lent it to someone else, but by the time difficult child 3 arrived the technology was so much better. I still have a beating heart that I bought for easy child - it's probably a museum piece now. I used it for difficult child 3 but I don't think there was any point.

Marg
 
K

Kjs

Guest
When my easy child was about 5 or 6, we only had a dial phone. Most people had the push button, but I stuck with the heavy old fashion dial phone..with a BELL that cannot be shut off. Anyway if he had friends over and they needed to call home nobody knew how to use the dial phone!!! I still have it put away. i should take it out just to see difficult child's face when the phone rings.. AND it has a CORD! One you cannot replace to make longer.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
KJS....are you still renting it from the phone company too?.....lol

I can remember my grandmother renting her phone and we had a touch time convincing her that we could buy her one and she'd save $3.00 a month on her bill....over several years....that was a lot of money she was forking out. We rented too, but as soon as we realized that we could buy our own phones, we returned the phone.


Now, we have cell phones! Amazing isn't it?
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Wanted to add my two cents to the conversation, not only from the perspective of being a mother, but also from remembering back to my younger years when baby siblings were being raised (yes, I helped a lot), and, all of the standard babysitting I did for countless mothers in and around the neighbourhood.

We also prepared baby formula using evaporated milk and Karo Syrup. Remember sterilizing bottles and nipples, and heating bottles on the stove in a pot of water, then testing by shaking a few drops of milk onto the inside of my wrist to test the temperature.

Both plastic and glass baby bottles in our house... did the same with my own kids, too.

Of course when my siblings were babies, it was cloth diapers and rubber pants (used the same for my own kids). I put in lots of time stooped over the railings of their cribs changing their diapers. My mom double diapered day and night, meaning we always used two diapers every time we changed a bottom, and as the old saying goes, like mother, like daughter. I did the same when it came to diapering, always two diapers used when doing a change.

Then there was all the folding of the diapers. One fold for little ones, a different fold for older ones, and yet another different fold for those that wore diapers at nighttime. I walked many-a dirty diaper down the hall and to the bathroom after changing someone, where I'd rinse the diaper in the toilet before putting it in the plastic diaper pail. Up and down you'd dunk the diaper while flushing the toilet. The swirling water helped pull the poop out of the diaper.

Need I mention how nasty the diaper pail smelled? And how heavy and awkward it was to lift, carry, and empty on diaper-wash day?

I remember the routine when checking diapers when they were cloth. Finger inside the elastic leg-hole of rubber pants was my usual method, or pulling back the elastic waistband of rubber pants and taking a peek inside. You knew long beforehand when baby did a number from the smell! Those rubber pants used to stink so bad!

And trying to stick those pins through double diapers, what a chore that used to be when pins were dull! Wiggling and working said diaper pins through all of the layers of folded fabric. Also remember how I used to hold open diaper pins in my mouth when changing diapers.

I remember how I used to powder the inside of rubber pants to help them pull-on and off easier when changing diapers, though if a kid had sopping-wet diapers and the leg hole elastics of the rubber pants were wet, pulling the rubber pants off could (at times) be a chore, especially on a hot summer day when rubber pants acted like a greenhouse.

And when it came to toilet training, it was reusable thick-padded, cotton waffle-knit training pants (soakers we called them). A pair of soakers with rubber pants over was the daytime routine, then back to diapers with rubber pants for bedtime until said kid showed signs of staying dry.

How many bottles I warmed and diapers I pinned in my day!

As for disposable diapers, I've changed very few in my day, but do remember occasionally babysitting for mothers that used them, but never did learn to like them. Always felt more at home changing the cloth ones. All but one or two of all of my babysitting jobs I ever had was cloth diapers. Everyone used cloth diapers. Changed a few baby cousins along the way, too, and they too wore cloth diapers.
 
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Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Forgot to mention, diapers in our house (both when I was growing up and with my own kids), were washed at home. Into the washing machine they'd go. When wash-cycle was finished, I'd transfer the load of diapers into said laundry basket, then out the back porch door I'd go to pin them up on the line.

Rubber pants were hung on the line with the diapers.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Bet there's not many young girls (even moms) today that know how to fold and pin a diaper!

Looking forward to hearing from others on this topic!

Fun thread indeed!
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Another thing I just remembered about baby care today, as compared to yesteryear, drop-side baby cribs.

Drop-side cribs are all that I remember being an older generation woman. Baby sibs had drop-side cribs, baby cousins, kids I babysat, and even my own children's cribs were drop-sided.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
And while we're on the topic of, how about those old baby exersaucers from the 70's? Anyone else remember those?

You say baby down on a suspended vinyl seat, and from there, 4 legs with casters under was all that the wheeled-walker consisted of. Baby had free will around the house. So very dangerous around stairs.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Well, life is sure different for three year old little Princess than itiwas for my daughter. At 18 months she could navigate a tablet and had her own. We took her a kids museum and she saw our old fashion dial phones for the first time. Kid TV is learning. Toys are very different and talk, sing, do cartwheels and are often interactive. Most kids are in daycare very early. My grandson, now ten, was in daycare at six weeks. Princess is a stay at home mom, very unusual but I think it is good for baby that her mother is raising her lol. Halloween is on a timed schedule and lots of it is just trick or treating at shopping malls. Paper diapers are the rule, probably everywhere. That's all either of my grands wore. I don't think there are high high chairs anymore. Chairs with tray on the ground.

It's a whole new world for our grandbabies vs. their mothers, our own babies. Technology changed the world.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
The post on poop reminded me of diapers but I have also been talking to other moms recently about how much better the products have become in the baby care arena.

I dont consider myself that ancient (LOL) but when my oldest was born disposable diapers were awful! They were around but people made a conscious choice between cloth and disposables. And then when you made that choice...you had to decide on if you were going to wash them yourself or have a diaper service. I remember watching the trucks delivering diapers. It was a great baby shower gift!

The disposable diapers were so thin back then and they gapped and leaked badly.

By the time the next two came along disposables had improved but they were now really thick but they still leaked and didnt fit well. And they had tape that stuck on there permanently so if you missed, you either lived with it or used a new diaper.

I remember buying these huge boxes of diapers for a weeks worth. Today you can fit the same amount into a package the size of 2 loaves of bread.

Todays diapers are so thin and they have velcro tabs so you can take a peak and reseal them! Unreal...lol.

And then there are the sippy cups. OMG! I remember the cups where the juice just poured out when the baby tipped the cup upside down. No more. Now they are spillproof. Not only that, they have various textures of spouts so that baby can adjust to going off the bottle with no problem. I love it! No leaks, no fuss, no mess!

I love bringing up baby in the 21st Century!
I totally remember how the diaper tapes stuck to the plastic! You often tore the plastic to smithereens undoing those sticky tapes.

I remember taking my cigarette to a few diapers back in the day, to put an abrupt end to all of the pulling and tearing and the plastic stretching. A quick zip on each side through plastic and tapes with my cigarette, and diaper was open.
 
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Triedntrue

Well-Known Member
My kids were 5 years apart in age and the rules for when they ate what changed between each. My first ate cereal at a couple months. They wanted me to hold the middle one off till 6 months (didn't happen) and the youngest 4. Also during pregnancy first 2 i continued to dye my hair last one they told me not to.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Paper diapers are the rule, probably everywhere. That's all either of my grands wore. I don't think there are high high chairs anymore. Chairs with tray on the ground.
I can totally see why disposable diapers are so popular nowadays... i.e. double income family needs, our busy world, etc. Definitely not like it used to be when mothers stayed at home raising their children.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Out of curiosity...

When was the last time you seen (or dealt with) a baby wearing old-fashioned cloth diapers?

In my case it was when I was raising my oldest grandchildren. I diapered both the old-fashioned way while in my care. Glass bottles were also part of their routine, as were drop-sided cribs (my own children's old ones I kept from their baby days).

Before using cloth diapers on the grandkids, I occasionally babysat for a neighbour (late 80's - early 90's), and it was cloth diapers and rubber pants at her house.
 
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BusynMember

Well-Known Member
For me, I remember my brother and sister wearing them but not since paper diapers were invented. Myself personally, I stayed at home with my kids often, but I felt paper diapers absorbed the urine better and smelled better. I didn't think of using the cloth diapers and rubber pants. I don't even recall seeing them in stores but maybe I just didn't notice them. I can be pretty spacy!
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
For me, I remember my brother and sister wearing them but not since paper diapers were invented. Myself personally, I stayed at home with my kids often, but I felt paper diapers absorbed the urine better and smelled better. I didn't think of using the cloth diapers and rubber pants. I don't even recall seeing them in stores but maybe I just didn't notice them. I can be pretty spacy!
Awww... you're not spacy at all, SOT. Quite the opposite, I think you're brilliant! Your posts and replies are always genius! :)

Economics, the environment, the health of my children, none of that truly figured in when I chose cloth diapers as a mom. I think for me the selling point stemmed from changing baby siblings cloth diapers when I was growing up. That early experience really stuck with me. It was always cloth diapers and rubber pants in our house, and so when my kids came along, using the same somehow just felt right.

No doubt, disposable diapers keep wetness away from a child's bottom than a cloth diaper, but for me, using the old always made me feel good inside. A sense of self-satisfaction always washed over me when folding and pinning a diaper at change-time. Loved the old-fashioned tradition of using real diapers.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Cloth diapers became such a trendy thing, at least when I had my youngest. I never used them myself, but I knew plenty of people who did. A lot of people used diaper services instead of washing, though, so I don’t think there were any cost savings there.

Many homeschoolers (and others) are environmentally conscious and self-sufficient, so a lot of cloth diapers there, without the diaper service a lot of times.

Breastfeeding—were you? Did you?
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Cloth diapers became such a trendy thing, at least when I had my youngest. I never used them myself, but I knew plenty of people who did. A lot of people used diaper services instead of washing, though, so I don’t think there were any cost savings there.

Many homeschoolers (and others) are environmentally conscious and self-sufficient, so a lot of cloth diapers there, without the diaper service a lot of times.

Breastfeeding—were you? Did you?
So true, Apple. When my kids were little, everyone I knew used cloth diapers, then it seemed to disappear for a time before once again coming back strong. Seems to be a really popular movement today again.

As for breastfeeding, I wasn't, but my oldest kids were, but not for long. I won't go as far as to say I was lazy, but I did find the bottle easier... more convenient.

How about you as well as your children? Yes/no?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Just curious and you don't have to answer but what part of the country are you guys in? I don't see that here at all. Now this part of the country is not particularly enlightened or environmentally conscious. I'm sure Californians would find us quite out of it :)
 
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