Jamie Centrino clearly remembers her mother's advice when her teething daughter was wailing in pain.
"She told me to put whiskey on her gums," Centrino said. "I remember thinking she was totally nuts."
When Centrino questioned her mother on where the off-landish advice came from, her mother couldn't remember.
"She said, 'It's just something every mother knows.'" Centrino said, adding that she skipped the advice.
Whether it's waiting 20 minutes -- or an hour -- after eating before swimming, or not swallowing your gum in fear of it sticking to your ribs for seven years, old wives tales have been floating around for ages.
Food Myths
Tom Craughwell's book, “Do Blue Bedsheets Bring Babies: The Truth Behind Old Wives Tales,” works to debunk some of those rumors and provide people with a resource before they overload themselves on carrots, hoping to obtain perfect night vision.
His advice? Don't overdo it on the carrots. "There is nothing in carrots that will improve eyesight," he said.
He also had a few other food-related truths behind old wives tales.
If your drop a French fry on the floor, Craughwell doesn't recommend picking it up. "Forget the five-second rule about food falling on the floor. E. coli and other bacteria cling to food the moment it hits the floor," he said.
And don't think that fried food or chocolate is causing your skin to break out. "Clogged skin pores cause acne," he said. "Chocolate has no influence one way or the other."
Starved at the BBQ but don't want to wait to take a dip in the pool? Go ahead and fill your tummy and jump right in.
"It is not necessary to wait to digest your lunch before you go swimming," he said. "Swimming on a full stomach does not produce incapacitating cramps that cause swimmers to drown."
One of the most popular wives tales is an apple a day will keep the doctor away.
While it's not totally true, Craughwell said it's not a horrible idea to eat apples.
"The citric acid helps a tired body recover faster after a tough workout. Apples boost the body's good cholesterol and even apple juice is packed with antioxidants," he said.
Feed A Cold?
When it comes to health, one of the most well-known old wives tales is to feed a cold and starve a fever.
According to KidsHealth.org, skipped meals are never healthy and missing nutrients may only make a person sicker.
If you are in a rush and don't have time to blow-dry your hair, don't think you are a shoo-in for the flu. Cold weather and wet hair doesn't cause colds, viruses do, according to KidsHealth.
"People tend to catch colds more often in the winter because these viruses are spread more easily indoors, where there may be more contact with dry air and people with colds," their Web site states.
When it comes time to pick out colors for your new bundle of joy, don't go buying pink just because you have more weight in the belly area or you are carrying high.
If a woman has a longer torso, there is more room for the baby to grow, making a woman's belly less likely to bulge outward, according to KidsHealth. And when a woman carries high, it can mean it is her first pregnancy or her body is in good shape.
Outlandish Tales
Some old wives tales can be a little outlandish.
One thing you shouldn't do this holiday season is grab your mistletoe if you've been poisoned. "A mistletoe is not an antidote to poison," Craughwell said. "In fact, every part of the mistletoe is itself extremely toxic."
If your tree house was already struck by lightning once, don't think you can wear tin foil and sit on top.
Lightning does strike the same place twice.
"In fact, it can strike the same place many times-the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building get hit by lightning about 25 times a year," he said.
And go ahead and cross your eyes, you won't get stuck that way. According to the site, eye crossing does not lead to strabismus, a disorder in which the eyes are misaligned.
Some Good Advice
Craughwell said in very rare and selected cases old wives tales do offer sound advice.
"For example, it is dangerous to walk under a ladder -- you could jostle it, causing the person on the ladder to fall, or the guy up there could inadvertently drop something on you."
Craughwell doesn't think old wive's tales will fade anytime soon. In fact, he said, new ones are popping up all the time and that most people believe in one or two.
"It's commonplace these days to hear college students assert that the can have unprotected sex in a hot tub because the temperature in the water will kill the viruses of sexually transmitted diseases," he said. "They are wrong. Very, very wrong."
He said there is a difference between urban legends and old wives tales. He said urban legends are stories about alligators in the sewer and the lady who dried her poodle in the microwave. He said those are false.
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