Thai Baby Customs

Friday, February 12th, 2010 - Day 56

So my mom was born and raised in Thailand and came over to the US when she was 21 years old. Before coming to the US, she has 3 daughters and 1 son already. Once she was here, she then had my brother, myself and my little sister. Yep, 7 kids in all and the age span is about 26 years from oldest to youngest (I'm the 6th youngest and Sam is 15 years younger than me). So let's say my mom has had her share of making babies and raising them as newborns.

Of course the traditions and customs are quite different from those that we have today. Co-sleeping was the way it was here in the US up until they decided that SIDS was less risky having babies sleeping on their backs, so some traditions are what they did back in the day and when I was born. However, there are some customs that are very different than what we do over here. My mom seems to fill me in on a few things here and there on how she'd handle situations, since that is the way they did it in Thailand. For instance, what they do when you have engorged breasts and they need to get the milk out quickly. I won't explain what they do because it is VERY unique but let's just say my eyeballs popped out when she was explaining it. Another thing she said they do to get the milk stain off of a baby's tongue is to dip your finger in the babies wet diaper and rub it on the baby's tongue. Now, this also made my eyes pop out a bit because I couldn't imagine my doctor telling me to do this. Now, my mom did say that it was mainly because they didn't have money for medicines and these are traditions they were raised with. She has told me many other things that amaze me and often I think silently to myself that I hope she doesn't try these things when I'm not looking, lol. But I do find hearing some of the things very entertaining to say the least. You can look up some of the traditions that they do like newborn hair shaving which is also common in China. You ever wonder why some Asian babies hair sticks straight out like they were electrocuted? It isn't because of the texture of their hair, it is because many Asian cultures shave their babies heads when they are about a month old.

It is quite fascinating to hear stories of other cultures and how different they are from what our Pediatricians and doctors recommend. For example, my sister-n-law is from the Philippines and she was telling me how they just let their babies go diaperless and when the baby poops or pees on the floor, they just clean it up. She said they save a lot of money on diapers...we'll I guess so. But all very interesting to hear!