Having support from a mother-in-law after welcoming a child can be great. When that support comes with judgment or overstepping, however, things can quickly get pretty rocky. One mom is currently dealing with a MIL who has very strong opinions about what her 6-month-old baby should be eating.
In a post on Reddit, the new mom explained that she and her baby are “definitely exploring a lot” when it comes to food. Since trying solids for the first time, he has had bananas, papaya, strawberries, chicken, squash, and eggs. Given that they “are just starting,” the mom feels like her baby’s diet is totally appropriate, but her MIL disagrees.
The MIL thinks the baby is ‘sugar addicted.’
Though the 6-month-old has only been eating solids for about a week, his grandma is worried that he’s addicted to sugar because of all of the fruit his mom has given him. Instead, she thinks the baby should be eating “pure butter.”
Her reasoning? “According to her he needs the fat (which I do agree) and it will help him sleep longer,” the new mom wrote.
At the same time, the MIL has been pushing a meat-based diet.
A stick of butter is not the only unconventional food option the MIL has pushed on the family. After the new mom sent the MIL some videos of her son eating fruit, the grandmother started sending her videos made by a “meat-based nutritionist.” The content creator claims that babies should adopt a meat-based diet, but the mom doesn’t think this is a good idea. “I completely disagree and think babies should have a healthy broad diet,” she wrote.
She has ‘gently pushed back.’
But apparently, “gently” pushing back has not been enough to stop the MIL from trying to intervene. “I told her that babies tend to like things sweet tasting because breastmilk is sweet,” the mom explained. “And she said ‘I think steak can be pretty sweet.'”
Her MIL’s comments have started making the new mom feel bad about her parenting decisions. “It’s making me feel like I am not doing the best for my baby because I haven’t yet given him lots of meat, which I do plan to introduce but again… we are just starting,” she added in her post.
People generally sided with the new mom.
Redditors urged the mom to be less gentle when interacting with her MIL. “You can go simply to the point,” one person advised. “‘I’ve discussed lo’s diet with the pediatrician. Dr advised against giving a stick of butter and said we don’t need to do anything differently with little ones diet. We are all set!'”
Another person said the MIL is definitely “overstepping” by sharing her “unsolicited advice.”
Other parents have also dealt with loved ones who think butter is a so-called super food for babies. “My mom also sent me so many FB reels about how butter is a ‘complete super food’ for babies,” a third Redditor wrote. “I just would reply that they are ‘interesting’ and keep feeding my baby whatever she would try.”
Many people also reminded the mom that she seems to be “doing the right thing.” As one person wrote, “I had this issue too and by that I mean doubting myself when people made suggestions to me… Your challenge is to try to silence the volume of other people’s voices so you can listen to your own. Yes, getting advice from others is important and how we grow, but that doesn’t (mean) you need to listen to every piece of advice.”
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
