to be angry that my MIL started to wean my 2.5 month old on a chocolate doughnut?!

[thisxgirl]

I imagine I'm not.

He was 3 weeks early so I don't plan to wean him until he is 5 months at least but, while holding him this evening, she reached over to grab one of my DP's chocolate iced doughnuts and encouraged my baby to lick the chocolate off!

DP went mad at her - his first food should be carrot or pear not artificial chocolate-flavoured icing - and she was saying to my baby, "oh daddy's mean, isn't it! You enjoyed that didn't you? I'll have to get you some chocolate buttons. It didn't do your daddy any harm!"

Yeah, great idea, wean a 10 weeks old baby on sugar

arrgghh Who and NHS do not recommend starting weaning till at least 6 months. not 5 months or thereabout....

WHO and NHS recommend that because a tiny minority of babies might have problems - and of course you can never tell for certain which babies will. For the vast majority, there will be no problems. You can either choose to be extra careful - which is your prerogative, of course - or you can believe that "it didn't do us much harm" - which it didn't. For most of us.

I would be more worried about her doing that passive aggressive crap. This stuff:

"oh daddy's mean, isn't it! You enjoyed that didn't you? I'll have to get you some chocolate buttons. It didn't do your daddy any harm!"

You need to nip that in the bud right now - if she's got something to say to you, she should say it to you directly, not 'pretend' to say it to the baby.

Scottishmummy - you are soooo funny! Thanks for making me laugh at this slightly barmy debate!

"Virgin gut"? So what do FF babies have - fucked guts?

YANBU but don't go mad. Be firm and you'd rather your DS didn't have chocolate.

Grannies have rules of their own, do they? So they are entitled to stick two fingers up at the parents and what they want for their child? Bollocks to that.

I'm very amused by the "I'm such a chilled out parent I let my MIL wean my baby on dog food and keep him up all night for as long as she wants," approach that's emerging on MN.

I meant and say you'd rather your DS didn't have chocolate yet. She's obviously a little bit ignorant your MIL.

I just find it that anyone would think a 2.5 month baby needs/wants anything other than milk.

I would be careful of making this instance too much of an issue, but would look out in case MIL is deliberately undermining/completely clueless.

Weird thing to do, imo. And stupid. Why alert the kid to refined sugar from the off? It's enough of a battle to keep them eating loads of the stuff when they're older.

But don't shout and scream about it. Just make sure he only gets choc etc when you think he's ready. When he's older, I'm sure he and his gran will have a great time conspiring about how to eat more choc behind your back!

I hope you get on with your mil otherwise?

OOOh look at him, he really wants that chocolate covered, champagne infused fois gras

he might not, but i bloody do.

Hi,

I can understand why you were upset. I would have been too.

But what is your relationship with your MIL like normally?

If it is a good relationship I wouldn't let this ruin it, however if she has a habit of undermining you that is another story.

My MIL insisted that she must give my children honey before they were 1. The "must" was basically because we asked her not to. If we had said to her she must give them honey she would have adamently argued the other way.

If she likes to undermine you nip it in the bud now, otherwise for the sake of harmony I would try to forget about it.

I suspect the OP is worried about what sort of rubbish Granny will shovel down once DC is 6 months old if licking choc donuts is fine at 2.5 months!

I would have been livid. But I would try a scientifically based chat if possible on why you want to minimise giving DC a sweet tooth as far as possible(and remind her that smoking used to be considered healthy to help you clear your lungs in the early 20th century so it doesn't matter what she 'used' to do a few decades ago to her own kids, things change!).

Some MIL and mothers are just old bags and do stuff like this just to piss us off. I can see them at tescos cackling like old witches saying " guess what I said to my daughter/ DIL today"

leonie Hiya just read your virgin gut link - do you reckon this could be the reason dc4 has horrible foaming poo and keeps vomming? Just to recap to save you hunting for my post yesterday dc3 decided to give dc4 who is 7 weeks blackcurrant juice I know you can't be angry at a 22 mnth old who is trying to be nice but I am feeling a bit grrrr....Ultimatly my own fault for turning my back.

well, it IS silly & undermining of MIL to do & SAY what she did, although the chances of it doing any harm are v v low.

however, the 'virgin gut' theory is relatively modern. my MIL is PROUD that she gave dh solids as early as 10 weeks. in those days, it was GOOD to give a baby solids & get them sleeping through the night asap. it was seen as progress & something good that the baby achieved. so proud mums would be all boasty & say, yes, he sat up at x weeks, took solids at x weeks. so MIL & her age prob do think it's a bit cruel to deny the baby, and are prob desperate to be on the phone to their mate ethel with 'oh, and he's so advanced, he has chocolate now' type stuff.

so stand your ground, but try to do it nicely & remember that you are trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

Hiya, Was kind of hoping that it was coincidental. Haven't been able to put him down all day - he's finally fallen asleep on my lap, but he's been pretty cheerful inbetween the scary nappies and vomming, very alert, just wailing if put down for a second... Will keep an eye on him - sorry for the hijack op

I dont think its a good idea to start weaning a baby this young BUT I wouldnt class a lick of choclate as weaning either. he probably didnt actually swallow very much of it and your MIL probably didnt mean any harm by it.

I wouldnt worry too much about what his first taste is - my first baby had a perfect homecooked diet (you know little ice cube trays filled with incredibly expensive food etc). My next two had whatever was going. My oldest is the pickiest eater of all three of them lol

sophie

We'll never know, will we about what early weaning does to people. There's no scientific proof, only anecdotal.

For example, DH was weaned at two weeks on soft boiled eggs. I don't know if it's coincidence but his alimentary canal is stuffed now. He can't eat wheat or dairy. We keep finding out more and more stuff he's allergic to like the other day I put capers in a salad, he couldn't breathe and his nose just blew up so fat, it split down the side. Can you imagine?

So, I became very wary and firm when MIL said to me about ds, "We're going to wean him at four months," but like I said, it's not scientific proof that DH's being weaned at two weeks has caused all this hoo ha with his digestion. It's a royal pita though.