Feeding your Baby Unhealthy Food at a Young Age

Warning: This post may contain heated thoughts. Please do not attack me with vicious comments. They will be deleted and I will ask that you do not frequent my blog in the future. Remember EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion, I am sharing mine and I ask for only constructive feedback that can contribute to an educational discussion.

          I don't participate in a lot of online discussions unless they are positive, but I contributed to one on Facebook today where a status was open to several people's opinions on the subject matter of baby fat shaming and it involved a mother giving her 3 month old baby whipped cream. I am FB friends with both people: the person who posted the original status that could be taken as baby fat shaming and with the person who posted a status that was about the original status (hope you are not confused!) My comment involved agreeing that a baby should not be fat shamed, no obesity should be mentioned when it comes to babies anyway! A chunky baby is a happy healthy baby, we want babies to eat!! BUT that no 3-4 month old should be fed whipped cream, that is a lot of sugar and most babies are not even able to eat solid foods at that age. Babies the majority of the time start out with oatmeal and solid foods that are approved by a pediatrician. Babies need a lot of nutrients to grow and whipped cream is unnecessary.

             Anyway, of course I got attacked by several people, a few that were moms and a few that weren't, all stating that I was judging that mom to be a horrible mom and from there it went from one ridiculous comment after the next jumping to topics that I did not even bring up with my original comment. Let me tell you, people can be REALLY mean. I reacted in defense and may not have been so nice myself because it felt like the comments became personal attacks and you add the "ganged up on" effect. well things get ugly. This is exactly the reason why I normally do not join these conversations, no matter how innocent a comment may be, there is a chance you will be attacked by others. Instead of everyone focusing on the more important issue of baby fat shaming, my comment was more focused on. 

            Was I judging that mom? MAYBE, without meaning too! Did I think she was a horrible mom? NO. Truth be told, I felt that the mom could be uneducated. Maybe she hadn't gone to her child's next pediatrician check up for the 3 month mark yet? She could have been given information from a family member that stated the child could eat solids at 3 months old. Perhaps all she was thinking, "I think maybe he/or she would like whipped cream!" We don't know! All I stated were facts that any pediatrician and any nurse would have replied to the fact that a mother fed her very young baby whipped cream. "Most", not all...(let me be clear) moms would probably choose not to feed their baby whipped cream at such a young age. Did the whipped cream kill the baby? No, but people were bringing up comments to that extreme. Thank god that mom wasn't giving her baby soda or even alcohol! Now that would be something to REALLY worry about! 

          Putting it this way, may help people understand my frame of thinking; would you feed your baby something that you find unhealthy for yourself?  My answer is no. I make all of Hailey's food fresh, I am lucky that I get a chance to do this for my baby; this is also a personal choice. I know most moms use baby food from the store, that's okay as long as your baby is getting the nutrients they need to be healthy!

         BABIES CANNOT CHOOSE WHAT THEY EAT AND WHAT GOES INTO THEIR BODIES. As parents or guardians, we decide what our babies eat. We are responsible in making sure they have good food choices and have what they need to be healthy. I was told by my pediatrician a baby's stomach is about as big as their little fist. That is not very big, I would rather fill that tiny little organ up with green beans rather than chocolate, whipped cream, coffee, etc. 

       Now when Hailey is the appropriate age, I cannot wait for her to try whipped cream and chocolate! I know she is going to love it. Keyword: APPROPRIATE AGE. It will be fun to see her enjoy trying these new tastes. I am sure that mom was thinking the same thing about her 3 month old baby. 

          AGAIN this post is not about fat shaming a baby, I would never do that. A bigger baby is a sign that it is healthy. Babies need more fat to use as energy for all that they do and are learning. This post is about giving a baby unhealthy food at a too young age, that is all.