Grace Walters grew up in the Congo before moving to New York, so when it came time to cook real food for her 13-month-old daughter, Zuri, she went back to the comforting African and Caribbean-inspired recipes she loved as a child. But when the 31-year-old mom shared her nostalgic cooking on TikTok, she never expected intense backlash for feeding her little girl these homemade meals. As the hate has escalated online, she’s speaking out to set the record straight and hopefully raise awareness to those who are so quick to judge other cultures.
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Walters, a stay-at-home mom to 13-month-old Zuri, regularly features parenting hacks as well as cooking and cleaning tutorials on her TikTok page.
By far, she gets the most flack for the recipes she prepares for Zuri.
“Where I come from we don’t have baby food in containers and jars,” the mom, who goes by @Texykitchen1 on TikTok, explained to Today.
“I’m giving Zuri what my mother gave me,” she continued. “She likes curry. She likes lamb. She likes Jamaican food too."
But of course, try explaining that to narrow-minded trolls online, who immediately picked apart what this mom feeds her child
"Disgusting," one person wrote on a video from November 24. This followed a previous comment the person left on one of Walter’s videos that read, "Who would ever feed their kid that disgusting food."
"What in the dog-cat food?" wrote another user on a video of Walters spooning some delicious-looking chicken curry into her daughter’s bowl.
"I’m calling CPS. Who feeds [their] child that," another commenter wrote on one of Walter’s videos, before adding an angry emoji.
When we say people picked on everything she fed Zuri, we mean EVERYTHING.
Things people have gotten angry at Walters for: giving her daughter water, giving her daughter milk, giving her daughter ice, and some veggie-inclined parents even tried to take her to task for giving her daughter meat.
"It hurt my feelings a lot in the beginning," Walters admitted to Today. She told the news outlet that she’s "not doing anything wrong."
As harsh as the backlash has been, more than a few people were willing to stick up for Walters.
"The best mom," one commenter wrote on her video from November 20.
"I am VERY confused as to why anyone would say they would call CPS on you," another person commented on that same video.
"This is a good woman," another commenter chimed in. "Anyone who thinks different doesn’t understand what it is to be a GOOD MOM."
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For what it’s worth, Today spoke with Dr. Tobi Amosun, who also saw no issues with what Walters was doing.
Amosun, a primary care pediatrician and medical director in Nashville, Tennessee, told the news outlet that “The only food I limit before a child is a year old is honey because of botulism, and milk because they don’t need it,” she said.
"I don’t give kids food restrictions after a year as long as they don’t have food allergies," she added.
This is definitely one of those times when we all need to remember the other golden rule we learned in kindergarten: "If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t open your mouth."
