Children's Health Children's Health Basics

Old Wives' Tales: Things Your Mother Told You. . . That Were Wrong

One does not have to be an old wife to pass along an old wives' tale. In fact, a lot of what people call common sense is not really very sensible at all. As a parent, you must make decisions that affect your children's lives, and yours as well. One of your many jobs as a parent is to filter through the enormous amount of well-meaning advice you receive and decide which of it is useful and effective.

Your pediatrician ought to be of some help here. A large part of pediatric practice is giving advice that helps parents cope with the thousands of small day-to-day challenges that this new young person will bring into their lives. Your doctor should be ready, willing, and able not only to dispense such advice, but to comment on advice given by others and found in the media (including the Internet). My job as the pediatrician is to give you a convincing reason why my advice might be better than your mother's.

Old Wives' Tales About Food

The care and feeding of children is a fertile area for unsolicited advice. Here are a few pieces of advice you ought to ignore:

"Force your child to eat. If you don't force a child to eat, he'll starve."
Not true. Young children generally eat when they are hungry, rarely overeat, and refuse food only when they honestly don't want it, or if it upsets their parents enough to be fun. Never fight with a child over food. You will lose. Another old wives' tale is that the early introduction of solids will make a young infant sleep through the night. Infants generally do not want or need solids prior to around four months of age. They will sleep through the night when they are good and ready. Giving them a few spoonfuls of cereal at bedtime, which contains perhaps 20 calories, will not put them out for the night.

Avoid milk in a child with a cold
Another tale is that you shouldn't give milk to a child who has a cold because it causes excessive phlegm. Unless your child is one of the few who are actually allergic to milk, there is no truth to this one. If your child with a cold wants milk, give it to him. No harm done.

Old Wives' Tales About Fever

Fever and illness is another fertile area for bad advice. Feed a cold, starve a fever-or is it starve a cold and feed a fever? It really doesn't matter, since both are wrong. Good nutrition is important to all children, especially sick ones. Parents should maintain the best nutrition possible, regardless of colds or fever. If a child has a stomach bug, some degree of dietary restriction is often suggested, but a quick return to good nutrition is always the goal.

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