Patricia Grisafi
It’s really fun to start feeding your child solid foods. You get to see their reactions, what foods they love and what foods they hate.
I remember feeding my son mushed up avocado for the first time—he was not pleased. But now, as a toddler, it’s one of his favorite foods.
However, babies cannot eat solid foods until they pass a certain milestone and they should only be fed milk or formula until that time.
On Reddit, one worried father with a two-month-old daughter is concerned about his wife’s insistence that their baby eats solid foods.
This is actually harming their child, as the baby is having stomach problems.
When the father told the doctor, the mother flipped out and accused him of tattling on her.
“My wife and I have a 2 month old daughter. For the past month she’s been feeding our baby mashed potatoes, applesauce, sweet tea, assorted fruit juices and other things. The last time we went to the doctor, our pediatrician told us to not give her anything but formula until she was between 4-6 months old. My wife does not care and says she knows best for our child and our doctor isn’t the parent,” the OP writes.
“Our daughter is always constipated and screams for hours at night that my wife says Is ‘colic’ I’ve asked her numerous times to stop feeding our infant table food and go back to giving her formula. She is only feeding her one or two bottles of formula while I’m at work.”
“The other morning she was cooking scrambled eggs and oatmeal and I was off work so I started to make our daughter a bottle and feed her and she stopped me and told me not to fill her up with that and she wanted her to eat her oatmeal first. I fed her the bottle anyway after a huge argument.”
“Well baby had a doctors appointment and my wife was talking about the colic and screaming fits and when the doctor asked what she was feeding her she only said ‘formula’ nothing else. I was angry because she lied and told her the pediatrician every single thing that she had been giving her and the doctor strongly recommended her to stop and that she was causing stomach upset and more than likely the reason for all her stomach issues. Instead of being apologetic for this, my wife is mad at me and told me I ‘ratted’ her out to the doctor and that she doesn’t have to listen to her and that it’s only a recommendation and that I made her look like a bad parent. I tell her what a selfish little twat she was being and now she wants me to go stay with my parents until she forgives me and asks me to come home.”
It’s really not great to lie to your doctor, especially when it concerns your child. Little ones’ tummies cannot handle solid foods at this stage in their development, so it’s crucial to take a doctors’ advice about infant nutrition if you don’t know what to do.
What do Redditors have to say?
“NTA. What your wife is doing to your daughter can cause long term damage to her digestive system. Not giving her formula can also contribute to her loosing weight and not growing. I would suggest you talk to your pediatrician away from your wife for her to get a full picture. Its abuse,” said Forever_Pancakes.
“I would take your wife up on staying with your parents. Take the baby too because your wife is being reckless and dangerous with her. She’s not fit to parent her and this is abuse. Full stop. If she’ll lie to a doctor what is she lying to you about,” advised lotsofcache.
“I just scrolled down to where op commented that his wife had been super out of it lately. that screams some kind of post partum disorder to me (maybe not depression, but definitely something similar), which is super scary given that a child’s life is literally on the line right now. imo, op needs to get his wife help if he can and get himself+daughter away asap before this escalates to smthg worse. this isn’t something for reddit to debate for entertainment purposes anymore,” said f_hockey_123.
“NTA. But something is going on with your wife. Your doctor is absolutely right your daughter can’t digest the food she is being given. Not only can it cause damage but your daughter is literally screaming in pain from trying to digest it. I’m not a psychologist but I have had a baby before. The first months postpartum are very hard and sometimes postpartum depression comes out in many ways. Paranoia; thinking everyone is out to get you and your baby, rage at feeling that anyone else knows more than you and other strange thoughts. The fact that your wife is lying to the doctor and knowing your daughters pain and constipation is coming from being fed table food and juice is alarming. I would try and talk to her about why she thinks the food is better for the baby. Does she has something against formula? But I also think she’s needs someone to talk to and sort our her feelings see if postpartum depression is something she’s struggling with and how to help right away,” suggested Pleasant_Quantity263.
“NTA. Your wife is harming your child by doing this. I would be so very angry. Your pediatrician may call CPS about this if it doesn’t stop immediately. I kind of hope they do,” said HotWifeJ2021.
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