It seems like you can’t log onto Facebook these days without seeing a new parenting hack.
Between different websites dedicated to helping parents, to mommy bloggers, and celebrities giving their two cents, there are a whole plethora of ideas for new and old parents.
While not every new hack has medical studies to back it up, some of them have gained attention from thousands of parents online.
Apparently, you can put a potato in a sick baby’s sock to help them feel better.
There have been a few articles online about putting potatoes in your sick baby’s sock at night when they have a fever. In a 2014 article from The Mommy Doctor (a blog run by a mom who is not an actual doctor), Lisa writes:
It sounds silly and I’m not really sure how it works but it does! I slice a potato a little smaller than the bottom of my child’s foot and about 1/8 inch thick. I put it in her sock and her temperature starts coming down. I leave them in there while she sleeps, and she rests well! Funny but worth a try!
Her article, filled with other natural remedies for helping sick babies like onions and peppermint, has done the rounds online. Other moms have since seen it and tried the hack out for themselves.
Mom Debbie Vigan shared on her personal Facebook that she’d seen an article about putting potatoes in your baby’s sock and that she decided to try it out for herself.
So I saw an article about putting potatoes in the babies sock when they’re sick. So Deairres had a little cold and i put potatoes in his socks last night around 8-9pm. He didn’t cough through the night..nose isn’t running…isn’t as congested and he slept for 12 hrs. the potatoes out of his sock were black now before people mention “oxidation” i left the other parts of the potato on the counter to see the difference and…
She sliced two potatoes, leaving one set of each out on her sink, while she put the other slices into her baby’s sock overnight. Along with the caption, she shared a photo of how different the potatoes looked after she did this hack.
The potatoes that she’d put in her baby’s sock had started to turn black!
This hack has shown up on a few mommy forums, like the Baby Center and Earth Clinic for reducing fevers. According to Idaho Potato, potatoes turn black after they are cut and then exposed to air.
Even though the potatoes had changed colors, Debbie’s son had gotten better overnight! Many other parents online are also swearing by this potato hack.
Since she posted the photo in early December, it has gone massively viral. The original post has over 326,000 shares and over 155,000 likes on Facebook.
Many commenters replied that they were going to try this out the next time their children ran a fever. Other commenters pointed out that this was an old wive’s tale they’d learned from their mother or grandmother.
Do you know anyone who has ever tried this?
This has not been studied by doctors, so please be advised this isn’t medically proven and has only been tested by moms who’ve seen articles about this hack online.
Please SHARE this incredible hack with your friends and family on Facebook today.
