in thinking feeding a 3.5mth old baby chocolate isn't a spectator sport???

[glaskhamhasoneintheoven]

I was picking DS up from nursery today, one of the mums was there with her friends (parents of other nursery children) and she pulled out a bag of milkybar buttons and started feeding them to her baby... Her and her 3 friends were all stood round the pram laughing and poking them back in when she spat them out... At one point she was holding her lips closed saying 'come on just eat it'. In the 5mins we were waiting a few other parents gathered around the pram to watch, all laughing and giggling about feeding a baby chocolate... One mum asked the babies mum how old she was, the mother replied '3.5mths, I've been giving them to her since xmas, she loves them' so at 3mths she was feeding her baby buttons!!!!

I was horrified!! Seeing this... I was also horrified to see so many other parents thinking it was highly amusing!! So AIBU??? I just couldn't go on the rest of the day without ranting about this, and DH is at work so I can't rant to him!!

sausagenmash (great name btw- but making me want sausage n mash now)- i saw that- its funny that all the programmes like that (all i've sen being american) they are so massive already, and they are still eating chips and burgers and wonder why they are so big!!?? erm.... common sence?? stop eating the crap and you may be able to get up and walk again with any luck!!

Oh thats terrible, poor poor baby

My friend went to a christening recently and sat in the pew in front of her was a baby with wait for it ........ coke in its bottle!! How horrendous is that!!

My daughter is 16 months, my mum and family think I'm 'cruel' because I wouldn't allow her to have a treat ie chocolate when she was six months old, how the hell does she know what a treat is!! She was six months old!! They also said I was 'starving' her because I wouldn't wean her until six months!!

She does have some occasionally now but she really isn't fussed by it!!

{shock] and at these stories. Poor babies.

That's horrible I have also seen babies being force fed

I think it partly comes from our parents generation I know my Mum and her friends are like this, they have this idea that you must spoon fed everything and anything into a babies mouth and that a baby finishing everything it is given is a good thing. Apparently I was eating potatoes and mince followed by a jar of custard at 6 weeks and I was a 34 week premmie. These are also the people who made the holes in bottles bigger with nails in order to get mashed up rusk through it from 2 weeks old.

I have also been told I was depriving my DC not giving them proper food at 3 months old and not giving them chocolate for a year was also terrible. People seem obsessed with trying to feed them too "oh just let me give her half a button I want to see her face"

If a baby is getting solids from an early age from a parent who is practically force feeding it down them they probably do learn quickly just to swallow it.

I think some believe the earlier a baby is weaned the more advanced it is.

I thought babies had to have milk exclusively for the first six months?

Back onto the OP's horror tale. This has been bugging me ever since I read it. I think I would tell the nursery. "This is what I saw, I don't know the mother's name, etc., so I can't take it any further but could you please be aware and keep an eye open."

I don't think it is right to "force feed" a baby but if the baby wants something you have whats wrong with letting try if of course it is not too hard/big for them?

I did this with both of mine, ds1 was having baby rice at a few weeks as he was a very hungry baby. Ds2 was 10 or 12 weeks i think as by then he was very hungry. ds1 is now 10 and nothing wrong with him and ds2 is 15m and there is nothing wrong with him either.

I do agree that every child is different but if a baby is hungry they need feeding. However I would never force them to eat anything, they didn't like or want.

ds2 has just shared a pkt of white buttons with me. He drinks shed loads of milk, doesn't like juice or water but loves milkshake....what should i do not give him what he likes for fear of being told i am a bad mother? But neither one of my ds are obese.

Ignorance is a very destructive thing. Poor kids with bad parents and poor parents who try so hard to protect their kids from bad influences.

HYSTERICAL

MIDDLE

CLASS

OVERREACTION

Would you like to be force fed then?

I think I would probably have had to say something but then I am prone to middle class hysteria...

I'd also probably have got lamped.

You can force feed me buttons any day.

But TLE, what is wrong is that if you give a baby food before 26 weeks there is a possibilty that this food will make it's way into their blood stream and cause issues.
End of.

???!!??

Ok, maybe my comment was flippant earlier, but I don't think its necessarily a middle class reaction to think force feeding a 3 and a half month old baby chocolate buttons a bit, well, wrong. Have relayed this thread to a bunch of paediatric nurses and paediatricians... most of the reactions are verging on the "wtf?!!" And as for the coke in the bottle.....!

Well, my personal weaning believes aside ...forceffeeding by holding lips together is simply wrong...and no matter what ones personal believes off weaning are, surely that is something MOST people would agree with?

And all for a few good larfs....great

I don't think that is a middle class issue

Can I just say I DO NOT agree in anyway with what that 'parent' did! Sounds horrible

BUT just wanted to point out to Eizabethanfilth that my DS is 2.5YO and I was told that I HAD to feed him pures and baby rice at around 15 weeks (tiny, tiny amounts) because he refused milk for days and cried constantly with hunger, he has no medical issues why he should have been doing that,tests were done for several things but that was the best thing they could help me to do. So in some cases it's notalways a case of guidelines yes they are there for a reason but there is also a reason that they keep changing.

I'm not saying that is what happened with this it was just in relation to the last comment.

Oh and nowadays DS still doesn't eat for days, doesn't sleep for days, when he does it's hassle too because he is extremely fussy, and will only drink cows milk or mildly diluted juice.

So yeah that's where early weaning got us

And agreed that lip holding to me is the most horrid bit, I would say something to nursery TBH.

I bet the doctors and nurses had a good laugh at the 'mini chav' and her 'pikey' mother!!!!

FAIRLADY, I didn't bring class into this thread, read the earlier posts. Most of them are implying that the mother is a bad parent because of her social class.

mamadiva, it's VictorianSqualor here.
I know all about the guidelines, do we really need to argue about this?
Guidelines have changed once in about 20 years.
There is no DEFINITE result from early weaning, just EXTRA RISK.
Any child fed before 26 weeks is at risk, yours, mine, the pope's. The only reason someone in the medical profession that knows what they are talking about would suggest early weaning is because the other option (malnutrition in your case) is worse than the risk.

well, OP did mention that this was in a bad area...

Yeah have to say I did find the Pikey bit offensive, and the chavvy stereotype people were making out, I am not one but have been labelled as such by some older people who seem to think because I am young that I am a daft littl;e girl sitting about on my own with my DS pisses me off, when I am far from it.

admittedly that chavlet comment was off....

Oh HI VS!!! Am etting very confused by all the bloody name changes around here

I wasn't arguing it was just because you said about early weaning to LE that was all, was just pointing out that some children actually do need it.

Apologies re chavlet comment I was being very tongue in cheek. I didn't say pikey though. Still. At the end of the day, I firmly believe what she did was wrong. End of. And I am appalled still by the coke in the bottle. Just get thoroughly fed up sometimes when these obesity issues crop up. (and incidentally, they did laugh, because they know me and knew I wasn't being serious. Its quite hard to convey humour / sarcasm sometimes on email. Sorry if it offends)