Finger food

[Pfriend]

This is a bit of a MIL rant I am afraid.

I had my MIL staying for a few days. DS has a mixture of spoon feeding and finger foods. My SIL has only just started letting her DS self-feed at 14 months. My DS has been self feeding since 6 months. So, every time he had finger food e.g. carrot stick, broccoli stick, courgette stick, organix carrot stick etc she went on about how he would choke, how her daughter would never do anything so irresponsible etc etc. He was eating a rice cake and I put her in charge for a minute and she removed some rice cake from his mouth saying he was going to choke - it was less than 1/6th of the rice cake!
Personally I can't believe someone would not let their baby handle their own food until 14 months! AIBU?

Pick your battles.

Nod and ignore :)

How old is your DS now Pfriend?

Annoyingly, I think you will have to keep your comments to "I have been taught exactly what to do if he does choke," (I never needed it, but if you havent been to one, I think a kids first aid course is a great idea) and "I promise this is totally safe and lots of people do this now."

She is interferring because she is worried, and when she sees he isn't choking and eating fine she may well relax.

DH's mum and grandma bit their tongues and didn't say much but were SO worried about DD choking because it was a completely new concept to them. Now DD is 2 and eats really well they think it was a fantastic idea and tell everyone about it.

8 months

YANBU but, you wrote in the past tense - I had my MiL staying.........she's gone and as someone else said, pick your battles or don't let her come again. I'd go for the latter but I am not someone known for my love of my dead MiL

My SIL was exactly the same and I was/am the same as you.
I have to confess my DS2 has choked (999 call choked) but I am always careful, knew what to do to try and dislodge it etc and I never leave him alone when eating.
Although I was nervous after that incident I had to keep my cool and not let it put me off and it certainly never out him off. [cgrin]

People think that if you don't let them do it until they are older then they will suddenly know what to do but they still need to learn to eat and actually leaving it too long can have the opposite thatn desired effect.

People who panic about choking have never actually seen someone choke and think that a little cough is choking and believe me if they are coughing they aren't choking.
SO YANBU

I agree with LaWeasel. Luckily, my mum was quite accepting of finger foods, on the basis that he couldn't chew anything OFF without teeth

i did the same with my dcs, finger foods from the minute they could put hand to mouth and it was fantastic, they are both brilliant eaters and did boak at the taste of lumps like every other 12mnth old i knew. just nod and ignore.

you will see the benefits soon then you can be quietly smug

Yadnbu

Some people can think the baby just gagging is actually them choking.

I think I was told the difference is the noise, ie no noise means they're seriously choking, coughing etc and they're just having trouble swallowing but the noise is them getting it back out.

The advice to nod and 'mmmm' given above is best I think, nowt to do with her and what her daughter does is irrelevant.

You are right to pick your battles and to nod and ignore, which is what I did. Still irritated about it though!

GiddyPickle, You are right that I sounded a bit judgey about SIL in the OP, but I am not really, I am an 'each to their own' type person and wouldn't try and tell her what she should be doing with her own child. The reverse is not true though, she thinks that having a slightly older baby makes her a child rearing expert. Nod and ignore time again.