Old Wives' Tales

[Bluenomi]

If it doesn't rain on Good Friday, it's going to be a dry summer.  I've kept an eye on this one the past few years.  It isn't 100% but it seems to be right more than 50%.

I suspect that only works in the Northern hemisphere  Good Friday is Autumn down south so a looooong time before summer

[Bluenomi]

More of a fun one, but a friend of mine is currently swearing by the Chinese Baby Calendar.  Everyone she knows that got pregnant last year (including me) lined up with the calendar.  I played along because it was fun, but laughed when I found out that her prediction was right!

I broke it  I had a birthday the month I concieved DD and one age said one sex and the other age was the other!  So it was both right and wrong for me

[mmswm]

Mustard for leg cramps. My two aunts swear by it.... ick! Also, banana for the same thing, that's what my mom uses.

I don't know if it is an old wives' tale but when I start getting leg cramps, I drink chocolate milk!

I take a calcium/magnesium/zinc supplement.  It improves potassium absorption in the body, which cures the leg cramps.

I think your soluction is tastier!  But being diabetic, it's kinda hard to find sugar-free chocolate milk these days.

Muscle tissue contracts and releases through a cellular "pump" that moves calcium and potassium in and out of the cell.  If either of those two elements are in short supply you can wind up with muscle cramps.

While the advise to drink milk or eat a banana might have started out as old wives tales, but the fact that they work are soundly based in physiology.

[drzim]

Boiling water and mint for congestion (used it.. works!)

I love mint tea for congestion.  I usually only drink it at home though because I have a habit of sniffing my mug

More of a fun one, but a friend of mine is currently swearing by the Chinese Baby Calendar.  Everyone she knows that got pregnant last year (including me) lined up with the calendar.  I played along because it was fun, but laughed when I found out that her prediction was right!

The Chinese gender predictor calendar!  It was correct for my entire Mommies group ( 12 moms) except for one.  The calendar said "boy" and she actually had twins: a girl and a boy.  The secret is that you have to convert your age to lunar age (like the Chinese calendar).

[JenJay]

Boiling water and mint for congestion (used it.. works!)

I love mint tea for congestion.  I usually only drink it at home though because I have a habit of sniffing my mug

More of a fun one, but a friend of mine is currently swearing by the Chinese Baby Calendar.  Everyone she knows that got pregnant last year (including me) lined up with the calendar.  I played along because it was fun, but laughed when I found out that her prediction was right!

The Chinese gender predictor calendar!  It was correct for my entire Mommies group ( 12 moms) except for one.  The calendar said "boy" and she actually had twins: a girl and a boy.  The secret is that you have to convert your age to lunar age (like the Chinese calendar).

It was accurate for all 3 of my babies!

[Kimblee]

When a laboring woman is having trouble, untie all knots in the room she's laying in.

We did it for my cousin when she was trying for a pain med free birth, and the doctors and nurses were kind enough to play along. Cousin swears when we untied the last knot the pain got much more manageable and she got into a good rhythm and had the cutest first cousin once removed ever.

ladyknight: Yup, she had a boy and it was a LONG labor(If I remember right, he was born just before the start of the 4th day of labor, starting from her first "pain" cramp). Would've been shorter but she refused the offered c-section and the doctor supported her since the kiddo wasn't in distress, the mom was.

[Nikko-chan]

Just thought of another one! Vicks vaporub. Instead of rubbing it on your chest, you rub it on your feet and put socks on... someone I know (I think my aunt?) swears by this.

[KitKat]

KitKat, are those things you know to actually work, though*?  Or just superstitions in a general sense?





*  Not saying you don't know that they do - maybe you do!

Sorry!  I went back and reread your OP.  Don't know how I missed the part about the OWT actually working but I did. 

I did switch to decaf this week...

[stkatie00]

More of a fun one, but a friend of mine is currently swearing by the Chinese Baby Calendar.  Everyone she knows that got pregnant last year (including me) lined up with the calendar.  I played along because it was fun, but laughed when I found out that her prediction was right!

Any old wives tale predicting gender for pregnant women amuses me-I have boy/girl twins, so for this one, either way it would be right! I didn't try any of some of the more common ones while pregnant (like the ring on the string), but I totally should have, just to see what it would show!

[CuriousParty]

Just thought of another one! Vicks vaporub. Instead of rubbing it on your chest, you rub it on your feet and put socks on... someone I know (I think my aunt?) swears by this.

Totally works, and thank God, otherwise both DH and the three year old, both of whom can give Typhoid Mary a run for her money, would never sleep when they're sick.

[JoW]

For hiccups - hold your breath and count to 10.  It almost works.  I have discovered that if I hold my breath as long as I can, until I simply must breathe, that usually cures hiccups.

[Nikko-chan]

For hiccups - hold your breath and count to 10.  It almost works.  I have discovered that if I hold my breath as long as I can, until I simply must breathe, that usually cures hiccups.

That's my cure too! One couple I know, the wife gets hiccups and cures them by drinking a full glass of water... while her husband holds his hands over her ears!

[DottyG]

I've cured hiccups by drinking something (doesn't even have to be water) with a spoon in it.

OWT are so weird! They sound like bizarre things, but they work!

Does anyone know some for cleaning?

[redsfan]

Fatty meat pulls out splinters.  Not sure it's sanitary, but it does work.  I wore bacon to bed more than once growing up (under a bandaid).

[Softly Spoken]

Ooo ooo! *waves hand*
I've got one but I don't know how old it is. (A Young Wives Tale? )

I think we have a new wave of "OWTs" in the form of all the alternative medicine and natural cures...maybe they've been around forever but they have been repackaged for the New Agey or newly health conscious crowd. Some work, some don't. Here's my personal experience:
I had a bad headache sitting at the base of my neck. My friend put a banana peel on my neck ( ) - it turned from yellow to black at the spot where she touched it to me, and my pain went away. Apparently it's the potassium(??).

FWIW, I also recently read an article about a scientific study/explanation for why chicken soup really is good for a cold.