MIL thinks she knows best

You did EXACTLY the right thing Op your MiL is a dangerous idiot who knows nothing and can't be trusted!!

And I say this as someone who had to perform emergency first aid on a 2 yr old who was eating whole cherries and stopped breathing. She went limp and changed colour. The mother started screaming and thankfully having just done a first aid course that week I knew what to do and thankfully it worked. But it was terrifying to all of us and will stay with me forever.

Never listen to that woman!!

Who in their right mind would feed a 16 month old whole cherries?!? You did exactly the right thing! Definitely don’t leave her alone with your son, she sounds barking!

I’m all for listening to advice, but when it’s constant, it feels like a personal attack!

But my views may be coloured by the fact I have a equally domineering MIL and our relationship has completely and utterly broken down, only seen her once since Christmas and it’s absolute bliss!!

A 16 month old should not have a whole cherry, but why is your MIL around all the time?

You definitely did the right thing. How much time are you spending with MIL? It sounds like too much.

The same rule applies for cherries as it does for grapes, surely? They're sort of the same shape(ish).

Yanbu

It only takes one

My Nan was when she saw I was still chopping grapes up for my 5 year old (at the time)

She knows now not to comment after various past instances but I could see she was barely biting her tongue.

She's being too overbearing. You have my sympathy. Whilst I think most of the time with overbearing MIL's that it's not meant from a bad place, they should not be pushing unsolicited advice on anyone.

You need to ask your husband to have a word and tell her to back off and wind her neck in and a stark warning about food safety, that would make me nervous about leaving your dc alone with her.

Several times I've had to ask my MIL to back off (as had DH) she really upset me by making derogatory comments about breastfeeding (including commenting the reason my newborn was not sleeping through was due to me not formula feeding).

Your child your rules - do not let her make you doubt yourself.

Don't feel bad about slapping her hand, it was pure instinct. I bet you didn't even know you were going to do it until it had already happened!

As for feeding whole cherries to a 16 month old.... completely bonkers and bloody dangerous. bet they're an even worse choking hazard than grapes.

No way would l give a child a whole cherry at that age. She’s being ridiculous and needs to butt out. As someone else said: your child = your rules. Yeah she might have opinions about stuff but there is no need for her to force them onto you. The not speaking English thing is rude and interfering. What does your husband / partner think of all this?

My DS is same age and everything is cut appropriately whether it's grapes, Strawberries, melon, Bananna...

Locally to us a 2 Yr old and 3 Yr old have died in past few years one from Grape one from a Raisin. It terrifies me.

Christ on a bike. You most certainly did the right thing. Don't feel bad about it at all.
Not much experience with Mils but loads with children.
Poster who asked about grapes, advice is usually not for under 5s but if you do give them then cut them up, reason for this is the skin on them can make them get stuck if not chewed properly.
Well done to the poster who saved the child.
Back to OP, sorry if I've missed a bit, did you say why MIL was around so much ?
You are doing fine and please don't let her ridiculous ideas get you down.
Keep repeating Thank you for your opinion but my child my rules.

Oh and rant about her as much as you like.

How many languages does MIL speak, hopefully just the one and you state "there is a reason why I am bilingual and you are not"

Depends on the size of the cherry but if it’s a large and pitted cherry I would probably give the one by holding it. However if your son is only used to eating small chunks of fruit then she shouldn’t have even tried.

I'm currently pregnant and living with my MIL untill our house has finished being renovated. I feel my MIL has compared my pregnancy etc to hers and the clothes I've bought for the baby in comparison to how she used to dress her children. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I think they struggle to back off so it's important to be blunt if you need to so she gets the message