Another post (about stupid things patients say) made me think about this, I don't know if it's been posted before. But I have an elderly family member who says these things (and will not hear otherwise):
1) Having a baby at 7 months is better than having it at 8 months. My doctor told me something happens in the 8th month and if the process is disturbed it's bad for the baby. (I told her I've learned that every day in the womb is better for the baby, but she insists that's not the case).
2) Her breastmilk turned "to water" when her daughter was 3 months old and it was no longer good for her to breastfeed (I mentioned that babies go through a growth spurt at that time, but she insists, her Dr told her the breastmilk turned to water).
Makes you wonder about these docs back then huh? I know they probably did the best with their knowlege, but some people won't accept any new advice, if their doctor said it in 1940 it must be true huh? Any other favorite wives tales?
ok, this one is a little gross. i had heard a long time ago from my grandmother that the best way to cure an earache was to pour a little bit of "pee" in it!!!
for sunburn, my mom swears by putting either used tea bags or vinegar on it (so not only are you in pain, but you stink like crazy too ).
the vinegar actually works - you will not peel. but you have to dilute it.i believe in this one.
Actually, placing a roll of cotton or gauze under the upper lip compresses the labial artery, which helps stop the bleeding. I suppose bread is handier in most homes.
My husband says to put a penny between your top lip and your gum for a nosebleed and mayonaise for a grease burn.
here are a few I've heard; not necessarily from nurses or at work:
- Drinking coffee as a child will stunt your growth
- Never have surgery during a full moon...it will cause you to bleed excessively (have had ortho patients check the moon's status when scheduling total joint replacements for fear of this). You want to have surgery when the moon is waxing; not waning
- Should never eat or drink dairy products after eating seafood; it will cause the milk to coagulate in your stomach
- To cure ringworm: soak a penny in vinegar overnite and then place the penny on the site
my granma :heartbeat , swore eating the crusts of bread gave you curly hair. As a wee girl with straight hair i always ate them, what do you know! now i'm a whole lot bigger, and i have mad curly hair!!! ( But then so did my Granma, my uncles, my daughter etc!, maybe just a family trait?) NO , it must have been that we all ate the whole of that bread!!!
some of these have a germ of truth - some are yhou can't figure out how they got started
heat from whatever source will ease the pain in an earache [don't use heating pad]
i once found my baby with the cat curled up on his face...he wsa only a couple of months old but he was kicking for all he was worth - cat went to pound
they use to say tht the reason that people had colds and flu during winter was because people were in close quarters more in winter..now with a/c in general use they don't know what to say..
i had always heard that it was feed a fever [ie the f in fever = the f in feed] however if i eat when i have a fever it don't stay down very long
the cold feet making you infertile may make some sense...will be thrown out of bed with your cold feet hence no pregnancy
the cyst in wrist is fluid filled...hit it with a coffee table sized bible and it will burst same result as aspiration
some other OWT women have to wear binders..long strips of cloth bound around their abdomen after giving birth...oh and an enema b/4 birth was an absolute necessity...just before they shaved you bald as an egg
did anyone ever hear of the saying 'walk before you crawl and you will crawl before you die'
the fish and the milk = poison scared me to death until my father told me that it was nonsense i had a lot of faith in what my dad said and after that i ate two of my favorites w/o a thought
a woman in the neighborhood use to wipe her face with her babies wet diapers...you know what years later i was reading the ingrediants on some lotion and one listed was urea. if i had been smart i could have made a pile of money selling pee....
Yes I believe legend has it that 'Rocky Mountain oysters' increase fertility, while regular ol' oysters do wonders for libido. When I was a kid, there was a bumper sticker on my dad's friend's truck:
In my lamaze class in 1977 our instructor told us to take blue liquid draino mix one cup in glass container with one cup of first morning urine and if it stayed blue it was a girl if it turned tea colored it was a boy.. 10 out of the 12 were right...!! but they no longer make blue liquid draino ... it is yellow now.. wonder what chemical it had?
I think you can still do that with the draino crystals. Bob and Tom (the radio guys) used to have instructions for it on their web page.
If you get poison ivy on one part of your body (ie, hand), then it appears the next day on another part of your body (ie, leg), it means that it has gotten into your bloodstream and is now "systemic".
When shingles starts on one side of your body and goes all the way around until both ends meet... you die.
And this one I'm not even sure how to verify... Apparently snakes in Italy have a habit of going down the throats of babies to get the milk they just drank and that's how SIDS is explained. (Got this little tidbit while taking a family history)
nursie-nurse
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the vinegar actually works - you will not peel. but you have to dilute it.i believe in this one.