21 Weird Things You Won't Know Unless You're A Parent

Having kids is even weirder than you think.

1. There are many unusual things women do to try to induce labor — including dancing to "Thriller."

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Other ways women try to induce labor include having sex, eating spicy food, drinking castor oil, and acupuncture.

2. Many women experience uncontrollable shaking when giving birth.

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"Labor shakes" are normal and a result of increased hormones during labor.

3. It is very common for women to poop on the table when pushing during labor.

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This sounds mortifying, but moms rarely care too much when it happens because they're busy, you know, giving life. The doctors and nurses don't care either — they see it every day.

4. Speaking of pushing, a mom has more pushing to do after she's given birth to her baby.

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Once the baby is born, a mom must push out the placenta (also known as afterbirth).

5. Some moms choose to eat their placenta.

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Some fry it up with onions, some eat it raw, and some — like Mad Men actress January Jones — eat it in pill form. Those who do this believe ingesting the placenta has benefits like boosting milk supply and lowering the chances of postpartum depression. A new study, however, finds no evidence of these claims.

6. When a woman's vagina tears after childbirth, the obstetrician might opt to give her an extra suture questionably called the "husband stitch."

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This highly dubious (and thankfully less and less common practice) is done to tighten the entrance of a woman’s vagina.

7. "Rusty pipe syndrome" is when a first-time mother's breast milk is orange or pink because it has blood in it.

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This happens because there is increased blood flow to the breast, but it's nothing to worry about. It's safe for a baby to drink, and usually clears up in a week.

8. Breast milk is often referred to as "the miracle cure" because it can be used as an effective home remedy for all kinds of ailments.

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If a baby has a clogged tear duct or pink eye, squeezing breast milk into their eye will help. Some parents also use breast milk to help treat eczema, cradle cap, diaper rash, ear infections, and more.

9. When babies are congested their parents often suck the snot out of their noses.

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The NoseFrida Snotsucker nasal aspirator allows parents to remove mucus from their congested baby's nose. It's not quite as crazy as it sounds — the baby's mucus is trapped in a tube and doesn't come anywhere near the parent's mouth.

10. Babies are born with "soft spots" on their head that are not protected by skull.

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These open spaces in the bones of the skull have a purpose — to make fitting through the vaginal canal easier and to help the brain grow safely. They close in time and are sturdier than they look even if they do stress the heck out of most parents.

11. Car seats can actually expire.

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The expiration date — found in the user guide — is usually between five and nine years. These expiration dates ensure that kids aren't being carted around in seats that are worn out or have outdated technology.

12. Baby boys get erections.

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It can be a shock the first time you see one, but it's normal and nothing to worry about.

13. A baby's first stools are dark, thick, and tar-like, and made up of the stuff the baby ingested in the womb.

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This nasty stuff — called meconium — is very hard to clean up. Thankfully, it only takes a few days before a baby's stools become more typical.

14. Babies go through 3,360 diapers in their first year.

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That is a lot of poo and pee.

15. New babies are famous for keeping parents up at night, but they actually sleep 16–17 hours a day.

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Despite doing all that sleeping, new babies nonetheless wake every two to three hours in order to be fed or changed.

16. Many parents believe that if their baby wears an amber stone necklace it will stop them from teething.

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Amber beads contain succinic acid, which has pain-relieving properties. According to those who promote the necklaces, these pain-relieving properties are released into the body when warmed against a baby’s skin. According to experts, however, they are potentially dangerous and highly unlikely to work.

17. Tim Gunn performs the voice of "Baileywick" on the hit children's show Sofia the First.

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Parents quickly get used to hearing all kinds of surprising celebrities (Justin Timberlake in Yogi Bear? Vin Diesel in The Iron GIant?) voicing characters in kids films and television shows.

18. In some restrooms there are seats for kids to chill out in as their parent uses the facilities.

Any parent who has tried to juggle a baby while doing their business knows these aren't weird — they're a godsend!

19. Parents who keep their kids on leashes in public don't do it because they're bad parents or think their kid is a dog — they do it to keep their kids safe.

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Kids on leashes may be "runners" or have special needs, to give just a couple explanations.

20. Many kids have no trouble learning to pee in the toilet, but are deathly afraid of going No. 2 in it.

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Even weirder than that is a trick parents sometimes use to convince their kids to go No. 2 in the toilet — they tell them that their No. 2 goes to the ocean when we flush, and if they don't go in the toilet the fish will starve. This often encourages kids to do the deed in the toilet because they want to "save the fish."

21. But the weirdest parenting fact of all is that once you become a parent none of this stuff seems quite so weird.

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