By SHAUNA ANDERSON
My first-born son cried so much when I put him in his car seat I was convinced there was something wrong with him. So much so, once I drove him to emergency when he would not stop screaming and asked them to do X-rays to check for some kind of pain he was in.
They checked him out (without the X-Rays) comforted me and sent me politely on my way.
Turns out the diagnosis they should have given me was Precious Firstborn Syndrome.
Are you guilty of it too? We are so wrapped up with our brand new bundle of baby-ness that we don’t see just how ridiculous we become.
It seems to be only years later that we can look back and laugh, albeit with a slightly embarrassed tinge, at the temporary insanity we suffered.
From making visitors wash their hands before handling our 6-month-old to sterilising the toys each week, a forum of mums in the UK discussing their own cases of Precious Firstborn Syndrome has gone viral.
One mum says she put sticky tape on the floorboards to help visitors avoid the creaky one, so as to not wake up her sleeping bub. She wrote, “My stepmum babysat one night and I explained to her the correct way to walk down the hallway as to not make any noise and wake the prince”.
Another says she warmed the cucumber sticks in her microwave before she gave them to her baby.
One of my favourites is the mum who says, “I was so paranoid of giving her formula or cows’ milk I would pour her cornflakes then get my boob out and spend a good half hour squeezing my milk directly on to her cereal. Weird and gross. Not to be repeated”.
Top Comments
I know a mum whom has taken her precious firstborn to the hospital several times (ie at least more than 4 times) for reasons such as a cold that lasted more than a couple of days to a time when he fell but was up and running with seconds.
As a mum of one myself, I try not to judge but it's very hard to keep a straight face when I am hearing yet another story as to why her previous firstborn had to go to the ER again.
Surely everybody sterilised their baby's bottles along with the home brew bottles? And hung them on the bottle tree until required.