Word of Advice...Don't Give Any!

People love babies – to the point that it’s hard to navigate a grocery store with a baby in your cart. Complete strangers will stop to admire and talk to little ones. It makes complete sense – we’re hard-wired to love them. Unfortunately, people also love to make comments and give advice…really stupid advice.

Now picture me walking through a grocery store with baby Ryan in my cart. The photos I posted of Ryan were on his good days – we didn’t take pictures of him on the bad days. Anyone peeking into Ryan’s infant carrier was surprised to see his face – which sadly looked like ground beef with eyes and a nose on some days.

We heard a lot of advice – I don’t really remember most of it. What I do remember, unfortunately, is the advice that had undertones of “you’re a terrible mother”. This was a good one: “You should bring that baby to a doctor!” Seriously… Not only were we on first name basis with our beloved paediatrician, we were also funding our pharmacist’s trip to Bermuda with all of the creams and ointments Ryan needed.

Here’s another question that I loved: “Did you roll your baby in poison ivy?” Oh yes…life with a toddler and a newborn is not nearly exciting enough. Let’s roll the baby in groundcover to spice things up a bit! Please…

I think the most interesting advice was this: “Have you tried rubbing pee on your baby’s skin?” Ummm….NO. Apparently, there used to be some urea-based creams that had some effect on eczema. Maybe it’s me, but it just sounds wrong to pee on a baby.

I hope I don’t sound too bitter. Please remember that I was hearing all of these comments under the haze of sleeplessness. This could also account for the fact that I remember these advice-givers as having crazy hair, red irises, and really sharp teeth. But, they were probably just regular folk trying to help.

Do you want to hear the comment that finally made me cry? One older man looked at Ryan and said, “Oh…you look familiar. My son had eczema like that when he was a baby. He’s fine now.” And for one split second I saw some light at the end of our tunnel.