[skinkestek]

Also you were a bit lucky. Over the years there has been an insane amount of bad advise from "health specialists".

I was born in a time when kids were supposed to sleep with their backs up and mothers were supposed to wash their nipples using antibacterial before breastfeeding...!

Sometime before that there was a time (at least around here) were kids were supposed to eat sour cream porridge from early life.

Of course kids died left and right, but the logic was, if so many died following the best practices, how many wouldn't have died if babies were left drinking only milk! (Retold as best I can describe it from what an older person in the family told me.)

All this is before we start talking about parenting fads like "no rules parenting" (not sure about the exact English term) which must have caused untold harm.

So creds to your dad for finding the correct advice and sticking with it.

[folli]

I'm not at all disagreeing with you, but your examples also demonstrate that a lot of parental advice rely and reflect the era's zeitgeist.

How do we make sure that what you call 'correct advice' is not again a reflection of today's zeitgeist and 50 years from now will make fun of these suggestions in a similar way as of applying antibacterial before breastfeeding?

[thriftwy]

We don't, and that's why we should encourage parents to diversify their approach as opposed to doing the same set of things mandated from the above.

[hgomersall]

We're currently undergoing a mass experiment in what happens to children if they are denied sun exposure. I guess we'll discover the outcomes in a few years.

[KptMarchewa]

Nordic countries are regularly denied sun.

[hgomersall]

That's simply untrue: https://www.ndsc.ncep.noaa.gov/uvspect_web/Polar/

Moreover, people of Nordic ancestry tend to have paler skin, which is arguably an adaptation to the low levels of UV.