Tuesday, 24 April 2012
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Alicia Silverstone Parenting Controversy
Has Alicia Silverstone become clueless? Alicia Silverstone is known for many things; actress, vegan, author, environmentalist. wife, and mom, but bird? Alicia posted a video of herself chewing up food and feeding it mouth to mouth to her 11 month old son, Bear Blu. She has many people wondering if she has morphed into her Clueless character, Cher Horowitz.
“But like, the spoon was just too far away. The kitchen totally clashes with my outfit.”
Is this a publicity stunt or does she really feed little Bear Blu like this?
Most of us think this practice of masticating your food and spiting it into your child’s mouth is just gross. Others think it is a beautiful thing. I personally think it is disgusting. We live in a world of electronics. There are food processors, blenders, ultra blends, magic bullets, and the list goes on. Mash those big pieces of food up. You can still share with your baby. You really don’t have to chew up their food yourself.
My son is famous around our house for his mooching. He always wants what I have, and he will throw a tantrum until he gets it, so I give it to him to avoid meltdown mania. (I know…”you need to discipline him.” I pick my battles, and mealtime is not one of them.) I have an ultra blend I put some of my food in a bowl and put that magical mashing stick right in the bowl, and it purees it in seconds. Voila instant baby food.
This is not a new thing. In the early days of America some families did chew up their infants food to keep their children alive. Wet nurses were not as popular of a choice in America as it was in Europe. Mother’s did sense that their breast milk was the healthiest choice for their children, also an available choice. However, sometimes complications could arise, such as a Mother was unable to produce milk, or produce enough milk. A Mother’s nipples could become engorged and breastfeeding was just to painful. Mastication for babies also became popular when weaning a baby off breast milk to the next stage of development. We still have these issues today, but we have alternate solutions now. Remember there was no Gerber or Beechnut back then. There was no way to pump your breast milk and store it. They were limited a little bit more in the 19th century than we are now.
In 2009 an article from the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University entitled Premastication: the second arm of infant and young child feeding for health and survival stated that the practice helped boost a child’s immunity. It’s abandonment in poor communities have placed children at an increased risk of inadequate nutrition and decreased ability to confront infections.
On the flip side of that many doctors have spoken out to the increased chances of passing bacteria and exposing your child to infection. Dentist’s have also spoken out and to the risk of tooth decay. It seems like everybody has an opinion. The question is who’s right?
Some other celebrity moms that are taking some heat right now are:
Mayim Bialik
Mayim is know for being an actress, author, wife, mother, vegan, a PH.D scholar in neuro science, and if you caught that episode on TLC’s What Not to Wear she is a fashion disaster.
Mayim has also received some bad press about her parenting views. She wrote that she and her husband Michael Stone got rid of their beds and sleep on two futons with their boys Miles(7) and Frederick(5). She believes in breastfeeding until the age of 3 and raising her children without diapers.
January Jones
January Jones is an accomplished actress, a non profit activist, vegan, and a single mother.
She admitted to People magazine that she is eating the placenta from the birth of her son Xander. She has had it dried and put into capsule form. She claims it gives her extra energy.
Christina Applegate
Christina has been on our television screens for more than 30 years. She is a wife, mother, cancer advocate, breast cancer survivor, and vegetarian.
Christina’s offense is mild compared to her company in this article. Christina uses a product called Nosefrida. It is a device that she uses on her daughter Sadie Grace that sucks the mucus out of her nose. I know it doesn’t sound strange, but with this aspirator you suck the yuck out of your child’s nose with your mouth and a tube.
I found it interesting that these all of these Mom’s go without meat. Christina Applegate had the least bit of controversy and she is a vegetarian While the other three are vegans. Makes you wonder if there is a link to out of the box parenting and going without animal product. Things that make you go hmmm.
On a serious note: even with all of the chatter of the “weird” parenting approaches these Mom’s are taking care of their children. They obviously love them and would do anything in the world for them. They are not endangering them or being irresponsible. They are just being Mom’s the best way they can. I included a short biography about all of these ladies to show you these are intelligent, strong, amazing women.
They may have unconventional methods of parenting, but who are we to judge what is right and wrong? I am a parent, but I still have a lot to learn. Don’t you?
What strange parenting habits do you or others you know have?
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Comments (39)
The family I nanny for uses Nosefrida. Not so weird, there is a filter in it that prevents any "yuck" from getting to you.
Chewing up your baby's food seems like a good opportunity to give them germs... I understand why people used to do this. But why not just puree your own at home since we have the technology?
When my son was little, I wish I had a Nosefrida. It would have worked better than any of the aspirators we bought from the store and it would have been more aseptic than the hospital strength aspirator we got from the doctor. I also breastfeed John until he was three. I don't think my parenting style is odd, it works for me and that's all that matters.
First: masticating your food for a baby is disgusting.
Second: her son's name is Bear Blu?? That's really sad..
I don't find this all that weird. I've seen weirder parenting, breast feeding way into kindergarten , biting kids nails , showering with kids over the age of 1 , people are strange but they do what works for them.. The only thing strange is her child's name. He has to grow up with that, she's just asking for him to be made fun of .
"Others think it is a beautiful thing. I personally think it is disgusting." hahaha that just made me laugh!
and I have to agree with you on that one!
not to be a grammar nazi, but it should be "moms" not "mom's"...the latter is possessive.
Gross...
but I don't give a shit. She's not a bad mother based off of this.
Just uneducated here. When there was an ecoli outbreak some time ago, researchers couldn't find it in the formula, nor could they find it in the bottles. We are capable of carrying germs, and I'm not saying necessarily ecoli, that our babies haven't been exposed to yet. I doubt anything bad comes from this, but hope it doesn't last very long. I'd hate to have that be one of my major memories of my mother bonding time, her sticking food in my mouth like I'm a bird, because children aren't birds, and being old enough to lift up her shirt to breast feed. Some things don't need to be carried over in our minds as we mature. Mothers who breast feed into kindergarten don't do it for health reasons. They do it because they have "letting go" issues of their own, and it's mentally unhealthy.
wow. talk about judgmental. you are seriously getting on people for using a nosefrida? (which i have and use because it is the BEST snot sucker on the market) and studies have been shown that consuming your placenta can really reduce the amount of postpartum depression a woman suffers. it would be different if she was cooking it like a steak but she had it processed and is taking it as a pill. Co Sleeping? most other countries find that this is the best way to sleep, we are one of the few countries that dont co sleep.. mostly because we all think every one should have separate bedrooms from the get go. i have so much more to say, but this article just pisses me off with how openly judgmental it is.. so i am going to go parent my children in a way that im sure you would think is terrible.
@totay@xanga - what's wrong with showering with your kids over the age of one? :-/ How is a two year old supposed to shower themselves?
@daydreams_nightmares@xanga - it's called a bathtub.
Man, the parenting world is so full of JUDGEMENT! Everyone chill out. The feeding thing seems a little odd to me, but mainly because it seems annoying for the parent. I think there are way worse things you can do, like constantly cover your kids in hand sanitizer and never let them build up their own immunities, and no one ever writes blog posts about that (way more common) parenting choice.
But co-sleeping is really pretty common, placenta encapsulation has tons of health benefits (and it's in PILL form, she's not EATING her placenta in a soup or something), Nosefridas are pretty commonplace. And what's the problem with showering together? My husband always showers with my (3 year old) son- it saves water and time, and my son is learning by example how to clean himself. As for breastfeeding, kids are able to "lift up up her shirt" by like, 9 months old. They can ask for it, with baby signs, at that age as well. And that is LONG before the World Health Organizations' recommended 2 years for breastfeeding.
Conventions around parenting change constantly, so obviously there aren't many strictly "right" and "wrong" ways to do it.
@corporatecrow@xanga - This whole thing is filled with mistakes. It's kind of the norm on these blogs, it seems.
I co-slept until I was three, I breastfed until then too. I was a cloth diaper baby-- and I don't see an issue with chewing food for your child-- or the nose thing that you were talking about.
Also, I have MANY friends who encapsulated their placentas for ingestion-- and I fully support the idea.
My, how much the world has to learn.
well his name is Bear Blu, what else did you expect???
@totay@xanga - None of that seems odd except the breastfeeding part. Since when do toddlers not take showers with their parents?
Everyone who has kids has done some weird shit for them at one point or another. I don't think it's normal, but I don't have to think it's normal. That's their relationship, not mine.
My niece is instructed to throw her used toilet paper in the garbage instead of flushing it, so every time I use the bathroom at their place, there's a pile of shit-covered toilet paper in the garbage by the toilet. I don't know what the fuck that's about, but I'm not gonna tell them how to live.
@DontTurnAway@xanga - yeah, and not everyone has one, especially if they live in a small flat or apartment. There's NOTHING wrong with showering with your same-sex parent until you're capable of doing it yourself. Hell, up until a certain age there's nothing wrong with showering with an opposite-sex parent either. It's not as though you're aware of it when you're two.
think outside the box. your brain is gonna rot if you keep leaving it cooped up like that.
I don't think everyone is going to agree on one right way to raise
children. There's no all-knowing perfect mother and just because you get
pregnant doesn't make you automatically this wise person that can dole
out advice to everyone else.
I don't see what's so wrong about the way Mayim is raising her children
and being a "fashion disaster" has nothing to do with parenting. The
parents want to be close to their children when they sleep. That's
rather nice. How many times have we, as children, climbed into our
parents' beds just to feel that comfort and safety as we dozed off?
Also, not using diapers is a good thing. It helps reduce waste in the
environment and it encourages potty training at an earlier age.
As for January Jones eating her placenta... Well, it's hers so...
What's the problem? She can do what she wants with it. Heck, I'd eat my
placenta too if it tastes good and gives me extra energy... Too bad I
can only do that if I'm giving birth to someone...
Would Christina Applegate rather suck mucus out of her kid using a vacuum-like machine that
can hardly be controlled on such a delicate area of a child or use her
own mouth? Personally, I think sucking mucus out of anyone using one's
mouth is disgusting but she is willing to do it for her kid and that's
saying that she's willing to do a lot for someone she loves. Also, she's certainly not forcing everyone to do it.
Finally, for Alicia Silverstone... At first, I thought it was
disgusting but now that I see the reason for it... It makes some sense
to me. I'm sure it sucks to have to mash food up all the time. Also,
baby food in jars are processed and I can understand a mother's
hesitation to feed her children too much of it.
@daydreams_nightmares@xanga - you put them in the bath and wash them from the outside.
Get over it, people. Damn.
@totay@xanga - yeah, but not everyone HAS a bathtub.
OMG! She killed her kid?!?!? O.O Wait...no? He's fine and appears to healthy and happy (or at least willing to amble up to her for more food)? Then why do we care?? Why would anyone ever possibly care?
More over, who cares what she named her kid? I have a fairly common name that I hated as a kid (now it's more of an acceptance than it is what it is and has been this way for 28 years than a "like". I have a friend with a very common, very vanilla name that she is planning on changing ASAP for a whole list of reasons. A unique name hardly seems like a big deal.