What started as a hilarious Facebook post shining light on a funny parenting situation quickly snowballed into an epic war of differing opinions. And, of course, it all went down in the comment section because, well, the internet.
Tyrese Loyd, a Chicago dad, uploaded a photo to Facebook on November 5th that has since gone viral. The post illustrates how simple instructions can easily be misinterpreted. It depicts a picture of a baby’s bottle filled with colorful cereal and milk with the caption: “So I asked my lil brother to make the baby a bottle last night and put 2 scoops of cereal in it. This is the thanks I get for not doing it myself.”
Funny? Absolutely! Based on the reactions and comments, not everyone agrees.
The post has gained traction as it’s been shared over 56,000 times, and although it was originally intended to be a joke, the internet was not laughing. Amongst the 8,000 comments, it has turned into a battle as people are clapping back and forth over the great ‘putting cereal in baby’s bottle’ debate.
If you’re like me, upon viewing this post in your news feed, you may drop a LMAO emoji and never give it a second thought. Well, as many of us know all too well, all bets are off when it comes to the internet, and everyone has something to say.
Comments ranged from those defending the father’s actions, drawing on their own personal experience, to others who were ready to rage war, pulling out their pitchforks as they spewed shame and judgment.
Some of those comments include:
It’s not recommended to put baby cereal in the baby bottle anymore. It is just empty calories there is no nutritional value. It will cause the baby to gain unnecessary weight. Babies can’t even handle food til 6 months or older.
I have five grown and health adult who all enjoyed cereal in their bottles. Stop being petty over others way of raising their children.
It’s a choking hazard. That’s a fact, you can’t argue with a fact but you can choose to ignore it, that’s your decision to make, what’s not right is advising others that it’s safe to do.
While the practice of putting rice cereal into an infant’s bottle may seem foreign, outdated and ancient to some, this post proves it may not be as antiquated as we thought, as people are still incorporating this into their nighttime routine – just as many of our parents did when we were little.
If you’re not familiar, this age-old ‘trick’ is used by many to get babies to sleep longer stretches at night. If you’re in the sleep-deprived trenches of parenthood, then you also know how desperate you are to get some ZZZs and have your sweet little cherub sleep through the night.
What do the experts say?
According to American Academy of Pediatrics, “A baby’s digestive system is not thought to be well prepared to process cereal until about 6 months of age. When he is old enough to digest cereal, he should also be ready to eat it from a spoon.”
The article further details other reasons against including infant cereal in bottles. “Offering cereal in a bottle (or even on a spoon) before babies are developmentally ready can increase the likelihood of gagging and/or inhaling the thickened mixture into their lungs.”
The biggest argument relates to overfeeding. “Putting cereal in the bottle is considered by some to be a form of force-feeding that can cause babies to “overdose on calories.”
While commenters on this Facebook post are still battling, I think we all can agree on one thing: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Maybe it’s best if everyone CTFD, takes a deep breath and laughs at the expense of Loyd’s brother, who literally put cereal and milk into a baby’s bottle.
If you can’t, keep scrolling on your news feed until you find your sense of humor.