Ny maha-reny any Polonina: Fijoroana vavolombelona nataon'i Ania

“Hello, do you have any baby alcohol?” ” The pharmacist looks at me strangely. “In France, we do not give alcohol to babies, madam! », She answers horrified. I explain that in Poland, when the child is sick, it is massaged with a fatty cream on which we tap 90% alcohol (“spirytus salicylowy”). It makes him sweat a lot and his body warms up. But she is not convinced and very quickly, I realize that with me, everything is different.

“Water is useless! “, my grandmother said when I told her about French babies who are given water. In Poland, they serve more fresh juices (carrots for example), chamomile or even diluted tea. We live between Paris and Krakow, so our son Joseph eats his four meals “à la française”, but his afternoon tea can be salty and his dinner sweet. In France, meal times are fixed, with us, children eat when they want. Some say it causes obesity problems.

“Don’t let him cry at night! Put yourself in his shoes. Imagine if someone locked you in a cell: you would scream for three days without anyone coming to help you and you would end up being silent. It’s not human. This was my pediatrician’s first advice. It is therefore common in Poland to see children sleeping with their parents for two or three years (sometimes more). For naps, as for food, it is according to the needs of the little ones. In fact, most of my girlfriends’ children no longer take a nap after 18 months. It is also said that until the age of 2, the child always wakes up at night and that it is our duty to get up to calm him down.

In the maternity ward, 98% of Polish women breastfeed, even if it is painful. But afterwards, the majority of them choose mixed breastfeeding or only powdered milk. Me, on the other hand, I breastfed Joseph for fourteen months and I also know women who did not start weaning until 2 or 3 years old. It must be said that we have 20 weeks of fully paid maternity leave (some take a dim view of this long period and say that it forces women to stay at home). Being in France, I did not take advantage of it, so returning to work was difficult. Joseph wanted to be carried all the time, I was exhausted. If I had the misfortune to complain, my grandmother would answer me: “It’ll make your muscles!” »We have the image of a mother who must be strong, but it is not easy in a country where the social assistance system hardly exists, the nurseries have few places and the nannies cost a fortune.

“37,2 ° C” is a sign that something is brewing in the baby’s body and kept at home. Lest he catch a cold (especially on the feet), we layer the layers of clothes and socks. In parallel with modern medicine, we continue to use “home” remedies: raspberry syrup served with hot water, lime tea with honey (it makes you sweat). For coughs, an onion-based syrup is often prepared (cut the onion, mix it with sugar and let it sweat). When his nose is runny, we let baby breathe fresh garlic that we can even put next to his bed at night.

Even if mother’s life takes precedence over our daily lives, we are also reminded not to forget ourselves as a woman. Before giving birth, my girlfriends advised me to do a manicure and pedicure. In my suitcase to go to the hospital, I put a hair dryer so that I could blow my hair. I gave birth in France and I saw that it was weird here, but my origins quickly caught up with me.