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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think many services and professionals infantalise new parents

178 replies

Annacondas · 14/01/2024 11:08

Since becoming a parent for the first time last year (DD is one next week) I’ve been shocked by how often parents are infantalised. Often told information that’s not really true just to make them feel better.

Things such as
‘fed is best’ - no fed is the bare minimum expected of a caregiver. Factually breast milk is better for your child than formula - and I say this as someone who chose to formula feed because I like my sleep Grin This also spills into weaning, with parents who gave their 10 month old nothing but chips for dinner told ‘well he went to bed with a full tummy, remember fed is best’ no no no.

Food before one is just for fun - again a total myth, food before one is essential for oral development and nutrition as there are a fair few nutrients that aren’t passed well through breast milk or formula (Iron is the main one) but many doctors, health visitors etc. keep telling parents this to stop them worrying about their child’s eating, but it’s simply not true. It then leads to those parents telling others this myth making whole swathes of parents not consider food before one as important.

‘You can’t do anything to help kids meet their milestones faster’ - again, factually incorrect. There are many exercises that parents can do with their child to help them roll, crawl, walk, talk etc. a lot faster. Yes it’s not necessary to do those things and most children will hit their milestones eventually, but it doesn’t make it any less inaccurate that parents ‘can’t’ do anything to speed this process along.

Those are just the ones I’ve seen and heard over the last few months but there are many more I’ve forgotten along the way.

AIBU go get annoyed about new parents being treated like idiots, or is it maybe the case that many new parents are idiots and this kind of nonsense is necessary

OP posts:
JudgeJ · 16/01/2024 12:31

It was decided babies couldn't sleep in their own rooms for 6 months to prevent cot death. Putting babies on their backs and at the end of the cot have all brought cot death rates down.
You totally miss my point, this 6 month 'rule' is the current advice, in 20 years it may be 'proven' to be wrong, as putting babies to sleep on their front was but at the time we thought we were doing the best thing. New parents seem to behave like sheep in not doing what they think is best, from reading this site it seems that having a baby in with parents until 6 months causes problems where neither the baby nor parents get a good nights sleep. 'Co-sleeping' would have been a great no-no for safety reasons, ideas change.

KatnissNeverdone · 16/01/2024 13:40

I'm just wondering how many posters are going to be cringing at their comments in 18 months time when their pfb is screaming the place down in asda and eats nothing but quavers and a very specific size of blueberry. It'll definitely be "fed is best" then!

(Edited to say mine are now 26, 18 and 11 and I can safely say those first 12 months of completely different "rules and guidelines" for each child has made fuck all difference in the long run.)

LolaSmiles · 16/01/2024 13:58

KatnissNeverdone
Some posts seem that that, though I'm past that pfb stage too but never liked some of the soundbites even when I was at that stage.

DC went through a fussy eating phase, most children do. I'd have rolled my eyes so hard if someone told me 'fed is best mama". No, fed is the bare minimum and if I wasn't feeding them we'd have a serious problem. We got through it and continued to value a broad nutritional diet as a goal. They didn't die by having beans on toast several lunchtimes a week or me putting a safe food on their plate as well as things we wanted them to try (that they left 50% of the time). Was it "best"? Of course not and I'd have found it patronising to be told it was.

DC are good eaters now but I can see how a parent who's told "fed is best" and that it doesn't matter what they give their children at a young age could drift into offering a poor quality diet for ease because all that matters is they're eating. That's especially the case if everyone around them is pushing that message too

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