7 x test your knowledge: baby bullshit or not?
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Cabbage leaves for sore breasts, eating placenta for depression, bottle feeding for a good night’s sleep. From the moment you hold that positive test in your hands, you’ll be bombarded with wild stories about pregnancy and babyhood. Do you know the difference between wise advice and baby bullshit?
Jojanneke Bastiaansen does. The researcher collected all the bold claims: from true classics such as ‘being pregnant makes your feet bigger’ to ‘the rubber duck is a danger to your child’s health’. In a light-hearted way, but always scientifically substantiated, she makes short work of the sense and nonsense surrounding pregnancy and babyhood once and for all.
And now you. Do you know the difference between fact and fiction? Test your knowledge here with seven quiz questions from Jojanneke’s book.
True or False?
1. Stimulating the nipples is an old proven technique to induce labour
wake up.
2. The shape of the pregnant belly can tell something about the sex of the baby.
3. Research shows that children with siblings are more social and happier.
4. Children who go to the nursery at an early age get sick more often during that period, but
later (during the school period) less often.
5. Cold cabbage leaves on your breasts helps if they are painfully swollen from giving
of breastfeeding.
6. Breastfed babies can absorb the nutrients that the mother eats
taste.
7. Babies sleep better after formula feeding because it’s harder to
digest and therefore the baby does not feel hungry for longer.
Answer
1. Stimulating the nipples is an old proven technique to induce labour.
Yes, this technique has been used since medieval times and it actually has effect if you are already (almost) due.
2. The shape of the pregnant belly can tell something about the sex of the baby.
No, there are no external characteristics that determine the sex of an unborn child
can reveal.
3. Research shows that children with siblings are more social and happier.
No, an only child is no different or less happy on average. Fortunately, because the number of families with one child is increasing in the Netherlands.
4. Children who go to day care at an early age become ill more often during that period, but less often later (during the school period).
Yes that’s right. Daycare children are initially more often ill than stay-at-home children, although the do not differ greatly. On average, for example, it saves one stomach flu in three years. After a few years, as soon as the children enter primary school, the roles turn
to.
5. Cold cabbage leaves on your breasts helps if they are painfully swollen from breastfeeding.
Yes, cold cabbage works. But a cold gel pack too. And it smells less.
6. Breastfed babies can absorb the nutrients that the mother eats
taste.
Yes, there is some evidence that strong aromas such as garlic end up in the
breast milk. Babies seem to like it. For example, they suck more often and longer at the chest.
7. Babies sleep better after formula feeding, because it is more difficult to digest and therefore the baby does not feel hungry for longer.
No, babies do not respond differently than to breastfeeding. It’s the mothers who
bottle-feeding who themselves overestimate their baby’s sleep.
Baby bullshit and how it really works by Jojanneke Bastiaansen is now available at (online) bookshops.
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