Top 5 Cute Myths about Babies

Chances are, your little bundle of joy is still reeling from the trauma of being forcefully evicted from the womb and thrust into this big, scary, and all-around super overwhelming world. There will be plenty of time to teach your child about the arts and develop impressive skills to secure them a spot at the city’s BEST pre-kindergarten, but until then, just focus on making them happy. If classical music helps your baby relax, then keep the Bach coming. But studies have yet to produce any concrete evidence linking exposure to music and increased cognitive development in infants. That being said, getting an instrument into the hands of a child at a young age has been linked with an increased IQ.

#4: Your Newborn Should Be On a Strict Feeding Schedule

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For generations, it was the opinion of doctors and parents alike that a feeding schedule was in a baby’s best interest. But modern medicine has changed it’s tune, and the new thinking... makes a lot of sense. Interval feeding serves no physiological purpose, while feedings based on the newborn’s needs maximises its nutrient intake. If a baby is hungry, it will wake up, and the faster you feed it, rather than waiting for the next interval-allotted time, the faster your baby can return to getting its much needed rest. Until they’re 3 months old, babies appear to be driven almost entirely by hunger and fatigue, meaning that try as you might to get them on a schedule, they’re not likely to follow it.

Baby formula has been around since the mid-1800s, but historically was used as a backup when a mother was unable to breastfeed. As of the 1950s however, formula makers were marketing their product as the superior choice for healthy infants. Doctors, armed with a lack of understanding of just how essential breast milk is to the development of a child, signed off. What we now understand is that in addition to the many essential vitamins and nutrients found in breast milk, which formula CAN provide, breast milk also helps prevent illness through immune boosting substances, reduces the risk of allergies in infants, and can significantly reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. No judgement here, of course, busy mums may have no choice but to formula feed.

It’s an argument everyone has heard before: “Your baby needs to learn to self-soothe”. Well… no. Your two year old might need to learn to self-soothe, but when a newborn cries, it is signalling to you that it needs your attention, the only way it knows how. In fact, interacting with the baby when it cries goes a long way to forming a crucial sense of trust, affection, and familiarity between you and your child. An infant is driven by basic needs, needs they simply cannot address themselves. Be it hunger, fatigue, gassiness, physical discomfort, or simply craving physical touch - there is no benefit to depriving your child of attention. A newborn isn’t capable of being spoiled... or manipulating you just quite yet.

To anyone out there guilty of this error… don’t beat yourself up. It was THE official recommended position for putting your newborn to bed safely for a very long time. This was based on the logic that babies were more likely to asphyxiate on spit-up if left unattended on their backs. But research has shown that an infant will automatically clear these fluids via coughing or swallowing. The American Academy of Pediatrics has made it their official stance as of 1992 that babies should exclusively be placed on their backs to sleep. Since the “Back To Sleep” campaign was launched in 1994, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome has been reduced by a staggering 50%. So which of these myths did you believe? For more Baby-friendly top 10s and mollycoddling Top 5s, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.