MIL Rant - was this too late for LO to eat?

[CookieDough2017]

Tonight we was out celebrating my BIL’s 30th Birthday.My LO was getting cranky around 7 tonight and my MIL just kept banging on she’s hungry, she’s hungry, she’s hungry non stop arghhh! I told her this is her wind down time before bed at 8:30 and she usually gets grouchy.

My 8 month old DD hasn’t been very well this week and her naps are all over the place. She had just woken up from a nap just before 7. I thought it was a bit late to give her tea and she hasn’t touched her tea when I have offered it to her in all week. I thought she has had 2 bottles, bit of breakfast and lunch she will be fine.

No! MIl wouldn’t shut up I finally gave in just to shut her up and offered her a fruit pot and she ate it all and then started getting grouchy again. MIL starts again ... she is still hungry! ARGHHHH and starts offering her pieces of garlic bread even though I said it’s a bit late for her to eat!!! It did keep LO quiet but when we are at home I don’t need to give her food to keep her quiet.

It gets to bed time at and LO just won’t settle she didn’t go to sleep until around 10. I think it’s down to MIL giving her food just before her bedtime.

Was my MIL wrong or was I? Your opinions on the situation would be very much welcomed.

I just wish my MIL would bloody listen to me!

If she ate the food then she was hungry.
8 month olds don’t eat when they’re not hungry.

Babies eat when they are hungry. Don't make this a you against MIL battle. On this occasion she was right. Children's routines and habits change quickly at this age, she would have thrown the food or played with it if she wasn't hungry.

A baby's routine changes frequently, it happens when they have a developmental stage, weaning and at different stages of milestone achievements, illness can change it up, teething, even the weather can do it.

Your DD sounds like she's going through a small transitional stage and maybe even her appetite is changing, growing and her eating the food offered after MIL made an accurate observation and you didn't doesn't make it less than feasible or true.

Just suck it up a bit and put your pride aside and accept that sometimes outside opinions or ideas aren't the worse thing in the world.

Your MIL was correct this time. It must sting a bit if you don't have a great relationship with her but at least she loves and cares about your DD enough to notice.

When DD has been ill this week she has been waking up from a nap at 7 and going to bed at 8:30 without fail no fussing what so ever. Even when she’s better and had dinner she usually gets fussy around 7 for bedtime.

That's your response to everyone's comments?

Still don't get why you were so adverse to giving her food, especially when she hadn't had dinner, you were at a restaurant, and she was hungry.

I am with your MIL on this.
Thankfully you 'gave in' .
Your child was clearly hungry.
It sounds like you want to do point scoring with your MIL. However she is as expierenced, if not more so than you with babies, yeah I get that you are an expert on your own kid, except this time you called it wrong.

You say she never listens. It sounds like you could do with listening to some advice from time to time as well.

For my dd cranky always means either tired or hungry! As she’d just woken up I’d have thought exactly the same as your MIL. Doesn’t sound like you’re going to accept it though so what’s the point of asking?

Honestly it’s annoying of her but I think I’d find it very hard to listen to a clearly hungry 8mth old, especially one I loved, being withheld food for whatever reason. It sounds like baby was hungry. What you said DD had had so far that day doesn’t sound like nearly enough. I’d have thought by 7 pm another full bottle and a whole dinner would have been needed. Bottles don’t hold more than 9oz so 2 bottles, even completely full and fully drunk, is not enough between 7 and 7.

Also you were in a restaurant, if she was hungry I feel a little sorry for her seeing good and smelling it everywhere.

Maybe she's on her way to recovery,which means a 7pm nap means no bedtime until 10,without adding the extra excitement and stimulation from being out and about.

She ate which means she was indeed hungry. You mention she normally has a bottle at 8pm,but no mention of attempting to give her the bottle at any point or if she drank it at all.

Yabu, end of the day given she has been off her schedule with both food and sleep for days due to being ill it's a bit disingenuous to assume it was MIL's fault straight away.

Another who agrees with the mil. What did she do so wrong?! She saw a hungry baby and gave her food which she ate so obviously did want it. If a baby is not hungry, they won’t eat.

She probably did not settle because she woke late and was out. Once you got it, it took her a while to settle, all normal. Both my boys has eaten close to bedtime and it has had no effect to bed.

Honestly I feel really sorry for mils sometimes. Some dil’s think their mil obviously know nothing about children and can’t do anything right.

She woke up from a nap at 7pm and you are surprised that she didn't go to sleep till 10pm? I think it has very little to do with food and more to do with the fact she just wasn't tired. Although I will say that it sounds like she was hungry, babies don't eat unless they want to. Try not to be too rigid with routines. Sometimes stuff happens and you have to just go with the flow. I doubt one late meal will have any impact in the long run and eating would have probably kept her quiet.

Why are you simply saying the same thing? She was hungry and she ate, there must be a backstory otherwise op I really feel for your mil

I don't think it's too late and if I were MIL, I'd be saying the same thing. It's best not to sweat the small stuff. However, yanbu because it's your call at the end of the day.