• Tips shared are not the gospel truth but one worked wonders in my case
The Internet is a great resource for pregnancy and child-rearing content. I learnt first-hand as I immersed myself in this vast pool of knowledge from the very beginning of my motherhood journey. I changed my social media algorithm to highlight parenting content. I also started following a lot of mums, doctors and midwives on TikTok.
To be honest, TikTok became my teacher all throughout my pregnancy. I learnt a lot from the app as I followed the journeys of new mothers or experienced mothers or took notes from maternity nurses and midwives. Although I am the last in my family to have a baby and there is so much wisdom to be imparted from my older siblings, I felt that what I learnt from social media resonated with me more.
The good thing about social media is that it allows creators to share their knowledge, experience or expertise in their own voice. We learn from these people as they share their experiences with a situation we might be facing. As I said last week, there is no manual to parenting; it is all just a hit-and-miss situation. That said, we should not take what we see on social media and the Internet as the gospel truth. Rather, these are just suggestions and tips that may or may not apply to you and your baby.
For instance, the biggest and most effective tip I learnt from TikTok that blew everyone’s minds when I did it was spring onions for teething. Teething is the most testing time for a growing baby; it is a period of fussy babies, short-tempers and sleepless nights. As always, there are a lot of tricks and tips for teething babies, but the one that I tried and actually worked was the green onion trick. I saw mums on TikTok handing their babies the tip of the spring onion and swearing by it. I tried it and it works wonders! Even my old school parents were surprised!
Another thing that I find myself going through that my siblings or parents did not experience at an early stage is the introduction of technology to young ones at a very early age. Through my thorough research, I found out that there were benefits to exposing newborns to sensory television. My baby started watching sensory bear on TV within the first month. However, we were careful and paid attention to the type of stimuli and the baby’s reaction.
Since my husband works and lives away from us for most of the year, our son was exposed to video calls since infancy. Sometimes I see his tiny eyes confused at the concept of an audio call, from what he understands he knows to place a face and the audio during a phone call.
Exposing our baby to technology at a very young age was essential to us because of our situation. However, it might not be the ideal situation for everyone. Personally, the newer methods of parenting that I learnt through various digital platforms resonated with my own intended parenting style.