to wonder why eating rusks seems to be a developmental milestone?

[PirateJelly]

I am getting so annoyed with nosey people constantly asking me if I've got DS (6.5 months) on rusks (and jars) yet. When I say I'm not I keep receiving looks and comments as if I'm doing something wrong I mean why? He eats a well varied diet but apparently that isn't enough.
In the last 6 weeks I've had everyone from MIL (several times), to friends,other mums and even a lady in a cafe last week ask me if I'm feeding him them yet!

For example:
Conversation with neighbour a few days ago-
(N)He's getting a big boy.
(ME) Yeah he eats like a horse.
(N) Have you got him on rusks yet?
(ME) No
(N) well our Leah's on them
(ME)Oh right
(N) I can get her to give you a few if you want to try him?
(ME)No it's ok thanks.

MIL (3rd time of asking)
Have you got him on rusks yet?
(ME)No I told you, I'm not giving him them, there full of sugar.
Well Dp had them it's all he would eat
(ME)Well DS eats plenty of other stuff so we haven't got a problem there.
Well you do it your way, who am I too interfere!!(she was in a mood all day after this and kept making snide comments

I mean really am I missing something? I don't get stopped and asked if I've got him on apple yet or toast. I mean why the hell is everyone on my case about it. I feel like ramming a damm rusk down the next person who asks. AIBU? And does anyone else have this problem?

Yeah i always got asked that question too. Stuffed if I know why. None of my babies became Ruskins though. I game them natural soft foods like banana instead. Rusks. Ruskie. Ruskins. Rusky. Not feeling it.

Yep, I get that too!

It is a bit odd, but it seems to be that people are asking if she's on finger foods yet and rusks are the first finger foods lots of babies get iyswim?

I just say, no she hasn't had rusks, but really likes toast/ ricecakes/ breadsticks etc.

mil keeps asking me the same thing. (dd 5 anda half months, on healthy solids.
I don't want to give her rusk because it has too much sugar in it.
I know she will bring some round anyway and try to fed the baby some..
Some people just don't listen.

horrible things - stick to your guns and the healthy food.

I don't understand why people want their babies to develop a taste for fortified biscuits when there's a whole world of natural, nutritious foods for babies to eat.

You I don't think it's a finger food issue, because I've even been asked it while DS was eating a sandwich!

When I've said that they contain too much sugar as a reason to why he doesn't have them, I've been pointed in the direction of the low sugar versions, it's as if I'm holding him back by not giving them to him

I even had a mum at baby group comment that her DD ate 2 whole rusks a day (round of applause) and that her DD was now crawling, as if the two where some how linked. The rusk companies must be laughing all the way to the bank, I must have somehow escaped this ideology cause I just don't get it.

YANBU. I really don't get the rusk thing either. Neither of my boys have had them and they eat just fine. We have managed with other finger foods like bananas, breadsticks, slices of apple, custard etc etc

My MIL gave me a box of them when DS1 was 3 months old, saying he was probably bored of milk!! They went in the bin. Even low sugar rusks are more than 1/5th sugar.

I did buy some for dd(6) for some unknown reason, probably because I was a young inexperienced Mum (who hadn't discovered Mumsnet ) However I think dd had about 1 and Dp ate the rest.

By the time I had ds(3) I had discovered Mn and BLW, which Ds obligingly took to by refusing any food that was offered on a spoon lol.

Same with baby rice, I mean what exactly is the point of it. Don't even get me started on rice cakes, I wouldn't eat something that had the taste and consistency of polystyrene and about as much nutritional value, so why give it to my baby.

There was a woman on a board that I used to frequent who was horrified about a HV's suggestion that she gave her baby higher fat foods such as cheese and custard, because she was feeding him food that she would eat if she was on a diet (veg puree and rice cakes).

Oh no but it contains fat and sugar she said . Plus everyone agreed that custard was evil and should never be offered to babies [hmmm].

Oops I do realise that babies need veg purees etc, I'm just making the point that they need a lot of (good) fat and protein etc in the diet too. I really think the whole fatty/sugary=bad message conveyed by schools etc is getting confused and misinterpreted. My Dd has come home spouting all manner of inaccurate guff from healthy eating lessons at school. I'm sure the data is good but they are not conveying the message in an accurate way.

Yes my MIL brought some round as they helped DH sleep through the night, etc. Best thing for babies and so on. Gave her one as an experiment, which DD loved as it was full of sugar. But I don't want her getting a massive taste for sugar and refusing to eat anything else. So no more.

weird, I love rusks but they're not really suitable for babies! (And yes I know that sounds odd!)
I'd rather have given DS some scone or something like that at that age (for sweet stuff I mean)

Yes people are obsessed with this idea that a baby ain't a baby unless it's got a bottle and a biscuit, aren't they.

Its v v odd.

if it's a development milestone, i developed a lot at university

university, riven

bound to develop in the next year

all three of mine have hated them, my 9 month old eats proper food but still make gagging noises on rusks! My younger two never really had purreed food we just gave them soft or mashed up food. My grandmother was horrified!

My older one had specially made foods lovingly frozen in ice cube trays plus all the organic snacks foods money could buy and she was the fussiest eater of them all

DD (4) has never had them, partly because I know I would pig the lot. I was given them at 2wks mashed into my bottle

I agree that they shouldn't be forced, or used to determine some kind of milestone, but they also aren't the WORST food a kid can eat, either!

I think it's just because they are nostalgic for rusks since that is what practically every baby was weaned on in previous generations, and I think (as an adult) that they taste really nice! When I was a child you always looked forward to going to anyone's house who had a baby/toddler brother or sister so that you could raid the packet of Farley's rusks! I used to look forward to when I had children and would have an excuse to buy them, and when a friend of my mum's had a baby and gave her rice cakes I was so disappointed (I was about 13) - I thought the baby must be missing out.

Then by the time DS arrived of course I was completely PFB about rusks and vowed never to give him so much as a taste of one to protect his poor little baby teeth. TBH I don't think they are any worse than other biscuits, but I don't go overboard with biscuits anyway and rusks just disintegrate and make a lot of mess. (As I found when I let him have one offered by a friend).

It's just parenting fashions. It's the fashion now to wean using baby rice and rice cakes, in 20 years it'll probably all be baby led weaning, but there will always be some kind of product at the forefront - maybe they will start selling little packs of fruit and veg sticks in the baby food aisle