When we found out we were expecting, I started getting advice from just about everyone. While I know that most of the advice came from a good place, some of it was downright unhelpful. Here is the absolute worst advice I got as a new mom.

Sleep when the baby sleeps.

This is great advice if you have a personal chef, a housekeeper and a dogwalker but for most people this advice isn’t practical. Aside from the fact I am not someone who can nap during the day easily, I had a million other things to do during the precious time baby was asleep (ahem, like shower).

Don’t start a bad habit by holding her for naps.

Maybe down this road this one carries a little more weight, but I promise your six week old infant isn’t going to get spoiled by contact naps. Snuggle away!

Do/Don’t have visitors right away.

This is such a personal decision and nobody can make it for you. Some people love having extra hands around to help, other people want some quiet time enjoying baby before letting people visit.

What you eat is making your baby gassy.

While it is possible (although rare) your baby has an allergy to something, for the most part, what you eat isn’t going to impact your breastfed baby much. All this advice did was add stress to my day about what I could or couldn’t eat during a time it was a luxury to get a meal in at all.

Eat this to increase your supply.

There a million tips and tricks for increasing supply but almost none of them are shown by research to work. Save your money and your sanity by skipping the supplements. In general, pump or nurse more frequently to help with supply or talk to a licensed lactation consultant or doctor if you are concerned.

What is some of the worst advice you got as a new parent? Drop it in the comments below!