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Miguel Palomares

Nov 3, 2005, 5:20 AM

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Bald babies

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OK, to change it from food a tad to myth, which is what I considered the topic to be in the first place, not food, but ni modo, I understand why it was shifted here to the food forum. Logic happens. But, bald babies? Perhaps someone will shift it back to the General Forum.

It is also believed in Mexico, certainly by my painfully representative Mexican relatives, that it is important to buzz-cut babies a couple of times, in the first year or so, in order to guarantee a full head of hair as an adult. I do not have to ask others about that because I know it to be total nonsense, a myth.

What this boils down to is you gotta good-looking kid on your hands, and then one morning you gotta ugly hairless one. It grows back, and he looks good again, and then one day you see he has turned into an ugly hairless one again. This happens three or four times, and then it is over. The locals are then convinced he will have a good head of hair on him as life progresses.

I am in no way bad-mouthing you bald guys, so do not get miffed. Many of you are quite sexy. I mean look at Yul Brynner and Kojak. There are others. But it is not a good look on a baby.

We need a myth forum. I know a good person for moderator.
From Tzurumutaro, Michoacan, "The Village of the Darned."
_______________________________________

The nuts and bolts of moving to Mexico:
http://michaeldickson.blogspot.com/
The dark side of living in Mexico:
http://mexicopeeks.blogspot.com/
Scintillating life in a Mexican pueblo:
http://tzurumutaro.blogspot.com/
http://tzurumutaro2.blogspot.com/

jennifer rose

Nov 3, 2005, 6:08 AM

Post #2 of 27 (2540 views)

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Miguel Palomares] Bald babies

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My housekeeper's baby wore an ojo de venado around his wrist from the time he was forty days old until just a few weeks ago to ward off the evil eye. And then he came down with what I would've called the flu or a cold. They insisted that these things can be caught just if someone looks at you with a strange look, and the infant had caught the look of someone at the market with bad vibes.

(This post was edited by jennifer rose on Nov 3, 2005, 7:07 PM)

Adrian

Nov 3, 2005, 8:10 AM

Post #3 of 27 (2502 views)

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Re: [jennifer rose] Miguel Palomares] Bald babies

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One of our boys in the store has just become a father. Apparently, cutting baby's fingernails is sure to bring the curses of hell upon the pobrecito and condemn it to a life of ill-health.

In a similar vein, mi suegra's housekeeper swears that the cure for a sore throat is to tie a red thread around the neck. Who knows why...

Folk tales, eh? And who'dathunk western medecine now uses leeches and maggots in surgery.

Adrian

Carron

Nov 3, 2005, 8:19 AM

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Re: [Miguel Palomares] Bald babies

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My son in Houston is married to a Mexican girl whose family migrated north from a small village in Guerrero many years ago. Her parents may have moved to the US illegally for the money but they brouht their Mexican traditions with them.

My son and wife have an adorable boy, now almost 3 years old. He is my Tex-Mex grandbaby and I adore him. But his mother did some strange things to him while he was an infant. For colds? Her mother told her to paint a red spot on his forehead. To keep him healthy? Never let him go barefoot. Even in the summers he ran around, slipping and slidding, in his tiny sock feet. For infections? Apply hot red tomatoes to the soles of his feet. Hey, he has survived and now wears $150 tennis shoes. Maybe I raised my own kids wrong?????

Marta R

Nov 3, 2005, 9:35 AM

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Mi tia Lolita lived in fear of viento en la espalda. It caused colds and arthritis. She was always after us to wear suéteres regardless of the weather.

Marta

julian3345

Nov 3, 2005, 9:49 AM

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Re: [Marta Randall] Bald babies

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The custom that distresses me somewhat is the wrapping of babies with heavy blankets which cover their faces...even on sunny beautiful days and even inside the house!... It's kinda scary to observe and it must have some impact on the baby's natural fear of asfixiation. One young mother told me that her Pediatrician advised not taking the baby outside for his first 4 weeks! Joan

gpk

Nov 3, 2005, 11:37 AM

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I have a friend from Michoacan and he talks about all kinds of superstitions there that don't apply here in Guanajuato. The hair-cutting is probably health based (like many taboos) and kept lice from being a problem back before there were medicines for such things. Another one of his stories--new mothers must eat only chicken for 40 days after the birth.

TlxcalaClaudia

Nov 3, 2005, 3:18 PM

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Re: [julian3345] Bald babies

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My mother and I witnessed that in MExico when we visited in 2000. We kept one eye on the baby the entire week because we were certain she was going to collapse from heat exhaustion. She didn't. The baby was warmly dressed, even on a sunny day and then wrapped in a nice fuzzy blanket with a zipper...the baby was kept in it zipped up so you had to ask to unzip before taking a peek at her face.

Claudine

Cynthia7

Nov 3, 2005, 3:27 PM

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There is a new study out that states that wrapping up babies like they do in Mexico stunts their development..going so far as to say that many of the learning disabilities in Mexico-(which is much higher than in other countries)are attributed to the fact that the lack of visual stimulae causes many problems. I always thought lead from the pottery could be a factor,also.

TlxcalaClaudia

Nov 3, 2005, 3:35 PM

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Re: [Adrian] Miguel Palomares] Bald babies

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Mi amor has this thing about ice is the cause of sicknesses. So he drank lukewarm water and I sipped iced tea in the summers (this is Atlanta..gotta have my tea). After he witnessed no sicknesses on my part, my pitcher of tea was getting lower and lower each week...he yielded to having ice in summer and I yielded to buying tea bags in bulk ( he still avoids ice in winter so I get full pitchers of tea all to myself again). Every Christmas I'll have a glass of something with ice and his brothers here look at me in horror as if I am going to fall ill. Last Christmas I really did but because the kids were passing around a strange cold virus that made each person lose their voice the first 3 days. Despite us knowing full well it was already going around, when I got this virus, the family had a lenghty discussion about 'La Guera needs to stop taking ice, she doesn't understand the ice is giving her gripa.' So I listened to them and got better.

:)

Claudine
ps they also warn me if they catch me barefooted. Still not sure why.

TlxcalaClaudia

Nov 3, 2005, 3:39 PM

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Re: [Cynthia7] Bald babies

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Cynthia-
Wow. So sad if true. Never heard that one. By chance you remember who did the study or where you read of it? Would like to see it in length.
I don't know much about the lead use there and have been reading lately on it. I'm still squeamish on it and don't want to eat from the pottery but it is commonly used in hubby's fam.

Claudine

Rolly

Nov 3, 2005, 4:08 PM

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In Manzanillo I was told that I mustn't eat fish after dark. My friend Doña Martha insists that one must not eat pork and cantaloupe in the same meal. She also turns off the ceiling fan at meal time no matter how hot the day. In the winter she refuses to use heaters in the rooms; she says heated rooms make you sick,

Rolly Pirate

Pimienta

Nov 3, 2005, 4:31 PM

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Also, do not eat watermelon when you are angry, or you will fall ill.

Cynthia7

Nov 3, 2005, 7:03 PM

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An Indian superstion is that light and air bring disesase ..therefore no windows and not much light in the house..In a way they might have had a point..with open sewers air does carry infection..I don't know about the light thing. I know in the kitchens the Episcopal church run every weekday for the 39 or so schools they have to cook the food and let it cool because the children and mothers won't eat it warm. I think when they cook it in their homes, then eat it up that day. The report on the children being denied stimulae..I read it in the newspaper ..Wall Street Journal..maybe. I'll check. I know the lead pottery and cooking in those terra cotta pots ..they get lead from the time they are in utero and while they are growing. US kids have to eat the painted woodwork!!

waltw

Nov 3, 2005, 7:31 PM

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A good cleansing with a raw egg over the head, throat, stomach, arms and legs is supposed to help clear up what ails you. Afterwards, you crack the egg in a glass of water and place it below the bed. In the morning, you look into the yoke of the egg. Sometimes, it's said, you can see the profile of the person who "echo mal de ojo".

julian3345

Nov 3, 2005, 9:22 PM

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Re: [Cynthia7] Bald babies

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I'm not surprised to hear about this study concerning lack of visual stimuli in those early months of a baby's life...and the LEAD..just before I left California a year and a half ago, there was a sizable scandal and recall of cheap Mexican hard candy that was found to have lead as an ingredient..probably to make it appear shiny? Joan

macmember

Nov 3, 2005, 9:43 PM

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As I have mentioned before, I am a Gringa that married into a Mexican family 40 years ago. I have seen more than my share of strange remedies!!! The first thing my Mother in Law tried to force on me was breaking an egg over my son's head when he had his first fever. She warned me NOT to give him the vitamins that the Doctor gave me (can't remember why). She always wanted to shove Vicks vapor rub up his nose and make him SWALLOW it too when he had a cold. The Medical community warns us against that now. They report that particles of Vicks gets sucked into the lungs and can cause a bad infection that you can die from.

I will have to admit that there is one cure she was phobic about, that really works well. It is a linament called "McLeans Volcanic Oil". I know it must be available in Mexico because I have to buy it in Mexican neighborhoods in Texas. It is an Orange box with a picture of a man leading a horse. I would never try it until I tore ligaments in an ankle and spent 6 weeks without getting much better. She hounded me until I was desperate and finally tried it. It was marvelous. The trick is rubbing it in real well. If you have any ache/pain/sprain/etc I suggest you try it. A friend of mine bought it for his wife's foot, in rubbing it on her foot everyday, he almost cured his arthritis in his hands.

Beverly

Marta R

Nov 4, 2005, 9:16 AM

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jennifer rose

Nov 4, 2005, 9:34 AM

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You mean there's something wrong with downing Vicks Vap-O-Rub, rubbing it on your chest, on your upper lip and nose? Vicks Vap-O-Rub cures everything, even cracked heels. I didn't know that Mexicans had the franchise for all its uses.

Bubba

Nov 4, 2005, 10:23 AM

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Ms Rose:

Vick's does not cure everything. Fifty years ago, in a childish act of self- aggrandizement, I used this ointment for my personal private pleasure and I still vividly remember the following hour or so as if it happened yesterday.

Ed and Fran

Nov 4, 2005, 11:56 AM

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Oh Lord, Vicks Vap-O-Rub! I still shudder at the very name. My Mexican mother used to put pounds of it on my upper lip when I had a cold, and rub the rest of the jar on my chest, where it burned like blazes.

I was born and raised about as far from Mexico as possible, both physically and culturally, and still be in North America. And my mother used Vick's Vap-o-rub on me when I had a cold. On the chest, on the upper lip, and once or twice, Vicks in hot water and with a towel over my head to inhale the vapors. I didn't think it was all that bad. Maybe my skin wasn't as sensitive. And I thought it worked pretty well.

I think we have a jar around here. Fran still uses it with junior.

Regards

E&F

Gringal

Nov 4, 2005, 12:00 PM

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That stuff actually works on "foot fungus" at least as well as the expensive tube of goo.

song_of_joy

Nov 4, 2005, 7:47 PM

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My German grandmother swore by Vicks -- in the nose, rubbed on the chest and swallowed. Sure seemed to work....

thriftqueen

Nov 5, 2005, 7:58 AM

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In my NOB days of reading the hometown newspaper once a week they printed a column by the Graedons called Peoples Pharmacy. One week they featured uses for Vicks Vaporub. I just did a search and unearthed the article. Fun reading, be sure to read the guy's comments about Vicks and hemorrhoids (about 1/2 through the article).

www.healthcentral.com/peoplespharmacy/ 408/guides/vicks02/Unique%20Uses%20for%20Vicks.html

lakechapaladreamer

Nov 5, 2005, 5:06 PM

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Fun article!

For some reason, the link wasn't working for me, so I did a search and came up with this link. Try this link if the 1st link doesn't work. http://www.healthcentral.com/...f_guides/vicks02.pdf

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