Alicia Silverstone has come up with a whole new method of feeding her 11-month-old baby son, Bear Blu. The ‘Clueless’ star posted a video of herself feeding her son like a bird on her popular health food website, The Kind Life. The actress takes a spoonful of food, chews it and passes it open-mouthed to her son.
On her website, Alicia wrote: “I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup…from my mouth to his. It’s his favorite…and mine. He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I’m eating. This video was taken about a month or 2 ago when he was a bit wobbly. Now he is grabbing my mouth to get the food!”
Take a look:
Alicia in her Clueless days
Comments
68 Comments so far
This isn’t something I’d do with my son. I can’t imagine a situation where I wouldn’t have a fork or some other utensil handy to mash a bit of food for him.
The video looks like a sweet moment between a mother and son but why why why would she publish it on the internet for the world to see? Anyone would know that a video like this from someone with fame would get all kinds of negative attention so why not post some OTHER sweet moment that isn’t going to attract ridicule? Or, better, keep these special moments sacred between mother and child (and family) – is there really a need for the entire world to see it?
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It truly baffles me that the vast majority of comments here are focusing on the germ factor as the reason why this practice is possibly harmful, rather than the possible psychological implications for the child.
If she feels the need to chew for him, why not then spit it out and feed it to him from a bowl? Is there really a need to deliver the food mouth to mouth? If it’s not a culturally accepted practice, the kid will prob gonna grow up with vague early memories of something quite odd happening here.
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Ithink feeding babies and toddlers junk food is wrong. If it was ongoing and replacing real food, I’d report them for neglect. Before I get called judgemental, I would do that at work and I would be expected to.
Feeding a baby chewed up food is sometimes a necessity. However, studies have shown that babies are born with clean mouths and they are most likely to pick up dental Cary producing germs from their parents. If you don’t pick these germs up as a small child you are far less likely to need fillings in the future. I wouldn’t do it unless I really had to.
I used to push cooked veggies through a sieve for 2 of my kids. Stick mixers became popular after that and I never looked back. I wonder how many women that feed babies pre chewed food would if they didn’t have to.
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yesterday i watched an episode of toddlers and tiaras….the two year old was given a bottle filled with coca cola, and a bag of candy to “try and keep her happy” while she got her gel nails put on….a few episodes ago i saw a special drink they all drink called go go juice which is a mix of red bull and mountain dew…..I may not bird feed my kids like Alicia, but honestly, calling her vile when mothers are out there giving their 2 year olds red bull is kind of harsh!
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My first thought when reading this was to judge, then I started reading all the comments and remembered how I am trying not to judge other people, especially other mothers. I wouldn’t do it, but then I’m sure there’s lots of things I do with/for my 2yr old son others would cringe at. So really, does it matter. Let her be and accept there are many many ways to raise a child, and if a child’s being raised with love and not being harmed, then isn’t that great?
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There is nothing wrong with this.
We chew up nuts and give them to our daughter. Alicia Silverstone is a health mad, environmentalist who gives a crap about the future we leave for our kids.
Maybe have a go at the parents abusing their children by feeding them Macca’s and junk food as a foundation to their diet.
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Who cares? It’s only marginally different from giving your kid something to eat you have bitten or squished a little for them already.
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Yeah….No.
Makes me feel sick. Attention seeking much?
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Pureed vegetable with a dash of herpes.
Yummo.
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At least she’s not feeding him like a wolf, ie. swallowing it and vomitting it back up.
I remember an Insight episode from a few years ago, where they had an allergy specialist who was theorising that the bacteria passed from a mother’s mouth to her children’s through this practice, could help prevent allergies. It’s not something that I ever did, but thinking back I did occasionally bite chunks out of apples to give to my kids, when they were too small to do it themselves.
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I think the average child is at far more risk from the type of parenting behaviour that involves obsessive use of antibacterial products that are laden with chemicals than they are of being exposed to bacteria from their own mother’s mouth (providing the mother doesn’t have a communicable illness and doesn’t have periodontal disease). As others have pointed out, this practice of pre-digesting food is common in many parts of the world, and I would imagine that as saliva contains enzymes that help to break food down to make it more easily digestible, it would have benefits for a baby who might not be able to chew the food him/herself because of age / lack of teeth / potential for choking of said food etc.
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It looks like they’re just having some fun! Each to their own.
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each to their own… we all do weird things that we personally think is quite okay but to others it may not. I don’t see her “snogging” her child which another website implies and I personally can’t see what harm she is doing with “Bear”… think we all need to get off our high horse. I doubt she is doing it to get “media” attention or raise her profile… I think if she was she would be doing a reality show or at least have make up on and her hair done… it seems far from staged!
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Each to their own. I just find it amusing a boy called Bear gets fed like a Bird.
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Haha maybe she’s on that weird diet where you chew your food to get the taste and then spit it out!!
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Personally I thought the shocking thing was naming him Bear. How’s that going to go at school?
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Every parent raises their child differently so lets stop judging, get over it and move on. At least she’s feeding her child real, nutritious food.
People are disgusted by women who breastfeed in public so this video was never going to go down well was it?
But i like it, it does actually seem quite natural and I think people need to read more about Alicia to understand where she is coming from.
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I think people are missing the point. i don’t think this is how she would normally feed her boy… we’ve done it with our boy…
I think it’s lovely and sweet.
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What the?
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All I can think of is how much fun my two girls had at that age with food… the different textures and tastes of different bits and pieces. If she’s chewing it for him, then he’s missing out on those new sensations and that makes me a bit sad, to be honest.
And I don’t get it… the practice may not be new, and they may still do it in third world countries… but the U.S isn’t a third world country, so… why do it? I’m usually pretty open minded and can see people’s reasons behind doing things and try and understand, but this just gets a bit lost on me.
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I agree with you. Children who have a limited intake of textures at that age are at a significantly higher risk of developing feeding issues and texture sensitivities.
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Please. Where in this article or video does Alicia say that this is her sole method of feeding? If people questioned your parenting how would you feel. Have some grace.
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I think this feeding thing is weird, but I like that she is living her life the way she wants, with an obviously thought-out social conscience and method to how she wants to feed and raise her family. I like her.
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Um, sorry, but WHY is she doing that? Especially at 11months – he can certainly chew the food himself, especially some soft cooked soup/vegies. In fact, its important for speech development for kids to know how to properly chew (there is a rise in speech delays caused by kids only eating mush and soft foods for too long). I am all for many aspects of attachment parenting etc but I cannot see any benefit to this, only a hindrance of their natural development. If he was a tiny baby who couldnt chew or something, I could see the point but this.. um, why??! Well, I did Baby led Weaning w my kids so I guess I see them as more than capable of chewing, let alone geitng the food themselves. Poor kid!
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Not necessarily! My 13 month old has no teeth yet, poor little sausage. If she is struggling with something tough she will hand it to me to chew for her! Just practical really. Those little gums can only do so much! Hubby does this with her all the time because the clean up is so much easier when he can pop it straight in her mouth rather than mucking around with self-feeding.
Also totally relate to what she says about bub attacking her mouth when she’s eating something. Our little one is the same, and insists we share!
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I’m a speech pathologist and I have never heard that before. If you know where you got that from, would you mind posting the site or details? I would be very interested to have a look
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I think it’s just one of those cute/lil bit weird things that mums do. Can’t believe people are calling her vile, disturbed and disgusting! Bit harsh… She loves her kid. She’s a bit kooky, who cares? Thought it was cute…
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I hope his future girlfriend is happy to do that on his first date! Haha, that WAS a joke for all the wowsers out there.
Love Lana’s comment the most – lucky to have time cook it, let alone chew it for them!!
As long as Alicia is happy for years of pandering to him as the child is used for his food being chewed for him!
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why dont we talk about something worthwhile here – who really cares how she feeds her baby! Im sure there are woman that do this all the time but because its a celebrity it even makes front page of some websites?! seriously…the kid seems happy, she’s happy…who are we to judge??
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I’m pretty sure this is a dentistry no-no. We had a dentist guest speaker at an ABA meeting who told us that sharing food with our babies would introduce germs from our older mouths into theirs that could cause tooth decay.
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Yes. This is wierd. And i would never do it. Never mind posting it on the Internet.
BUT, this is just mothers judging other mothers… AGAIN!
Bottle vs breast and now Spoon vs mums mouth!!
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“Alicia Silverstone has come up with a whole new method of feeding her 11-month-old baby son”
There’s nothing new about this!
This method has been used since the dawn of time. More commonly it was the grandmother – or other older ladies of the tribe/community/family – who would feed the child when it was ready to eat solids but couldn’t chew for itself yet.
That is still done today in many many communities across the planet.
It’s unusual for Alicia to practice this method – but I don’t see anything wrong with it whatsoever, if she has the time and the desire – why not?!
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Surely if you have to chew it for them then you’re not feeding the appropriate food?
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What’s the difference in the texture of the food whether it’s been pureed by a stick blender or Mum’s (or Grandma’s, as Alyssa mentions) teeth?
Kids learn to chew on the mushy stuff.
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So nothing you need to put in the blender is “appropriate food”?
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What’s the benefit in feeding someone like that?
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just ‘wow’ …………..as a parent to a toddler, I don’t even know how to process this
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Get over it germaphobes. There is a special bond between Mum & bub, we share plenty of germs in different ways. It’s not something I would do, but there have been many time I have eaten my daughters half chewed food and she eaten mine. What ever works for you.
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WEIRD! & MESSY! …..WHY feed him like that?????
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Ha ha!! This is hilarious! Golly, I’m sure she doesn’t feed him like this all the time! I appriciate the comments about it being a very old method of feeding babies when you don’t have a knife (or blender, for those pureé babies). As a mum of a baby around the same age, I kind of get it. Not that I’ve done it, nor am I planning to (her hands work just fine to get food to her own mouth!), but all the germy comments aside, there is a closeness between mum and cub where this doesn’t gross you out: its just letting baby share your meal, and have a bit of fun, too!!
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I don’t take much notice of all this crap about passing bacteria from our mouths to theirs.
Anyone dares to tell me to stop giving junior big, open mouthed slobbery kisses that we both love so much, and I’ll headbutt them and then possibly lick the split I’ve left on their forehead. How do you like that bacteria, bitch!
Not sure about anyone else, but i don’t sanitise my boobs every time I pop them in his mouth and to be honest, they can get pretty sweaty and festy in summer. Particularly after the gym or mowing the lawn.
Now, back on topic….
Parents and babies share an awesome bond which unfortunately is tainted way too much by what the Jonses might think.
If it works, doesn’t endanger anyone and all parties involved are happy, then how can it be wrong?
I wonder if she tweeted pics of herself feeding like this?
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THANK YOU for actually being honest. Her son is her own creation, she held him in her tummy for 9 months and for ppl to be reacting like this is ridiculous! She can do what she wants. Its not like she’s giving a complete stranger to eat that way!
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This made me laugh!
so true about the sweaty boobs/nipples!
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Periodontal disease-causing and cavity-causing bacteria are transferred to youngsters through spit though. Once these are in their mouth they are colonised there forever. Dental cavities is the most common disease in Australia at the moment, with health costs comparable to diabetes and heart disease. Your child can’t get cavities without these bacteria so it’s best not to give them your spit! This is totally different from bacteria on your skin that inoculate the child through breast feeding.
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I’ve never heard of this method before, but find it rather interesting! I suppose is a great way of making sure they don’t choke, and as a mother I sometimes feel like I would try anything to get my fussy eater to eat something nutritious lol
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That’s what I was thinking too, maybe Bear is a fussy eater and this is the only way to get some food into him.
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For someone so concerned with living healthy, I find it odd that she is seemingly unaware of the bacteria and germs that live in ones mouth as she passes them on to her baby son…
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Surely though by 11 months old he has been exposed to many germs and bacteria from crawling, licking the floor, puting everything in his mouth, etc. So a bit of germs from his mum wouldn’t be detremental. It would probably boost his immunity too.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it is strange and is not something I would do, but I’m a firm believer of “whatever works for you”.
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Please see my comment below. The germs he picks up from the ground are very different from the bacteria that cause dental caries. These are picked up from comtamination from other people. Go ask your own dentist what they recommend.
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A child that age probably only has 2 baby teeth that will only last several years before falling out to make room for adult teeth. Surely a bit of his mum’s saliva in a meal here or there won’t make or break his dental health for life!?!
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I can understand why you feel this way, but it’s an overly simplistic way of viewing it. The problem with these specific bacteria is, once they have colonised your mouth, you don’t ever get rid of them. So they will be there, doing their best to cause decay and gum disease for the rest of that child’s life. Those same bacteria, through causing gum imflammation and entering the bloodstream, are now strongly associated with causing cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke). I’m not trying to cause an avalanche of guilt trips. This information isn’t conveyed well enough to pregnant women. By the time you take your kid to the dentist for the first time it’s too late.
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Ummm.
Not something I would be into….
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Lord, Some days I don’t even have time to cook proper meals for my child let alone chew them for him
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I think the poor kids name says it all….
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I know nothing about children, but surely this is only a problem if it becomes a habit that he continues when he’s old enough to chew himself…?
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Dentists recommend that parents do not ‘clean’ a child’s dummy in their mouth, or share eating utensils with their children ( eg testing the food to check it’s not too hot, using the child’s spoon). Children are not born with the bacteria in their mouths that cause dental caries – they only get them through contamination, usually from their own parents. This feeding practice is not only unecessary, it is harmful.
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And who actually does this? Every mum I know ‘cleans’ dummies by popping them in their mouths and tastes the food/bottle. It’s ridiculous overprotective overanalysed rubish like that which leads to super intense over sterilisation, leading to allergies and multiple resistant bacteria.
Maybe SOME dentists say not to contaminate a childs mouth with adult spit that but SOME dentists say don’t use a dummy or a bottle at all. She isn’t giving him sugary food, coke in his bottle and as long as she cleans the child’s teeth once a day she isn’t doing anything wrong
I wouldn’t do it myself, because I like swallowing the food I chew, but ultimately it’s her kid and who cares how she feeds him?
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If we all worried about the germs in our mouths as parents, then none of us would be here. I still steal my mums food now off her fork and im in my 20s!
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Do you even have children? The facts may be the facts but as a mother of two small children I can honestly say that I can not imagine never sharing these germs with my kids. From open mouthed kisses, to biting pieces off food to share, to sucking on a dummy… the germs get passed. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Imagine being so sterile that you couldn’t bite off a piece of food to give to your small child when a knife isn’t practical. Sad.
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I have three children. I never put their dummies in my mouth, but of course we have shared food. But I knew to avoid it as much as possible, and Alicia’s technique of feeding her child is at the other end of the spectrum. And Nik, it’s not ridiculous, overprotective, overanalysed rubbish. It is a formal recommendation from dentists (who are, you know, highly educated in this field). It is based on fact and high grade scientific evidence. The fact that it may not be very practical in the real world doesn’t make it rubbish. The fact that dentists may recommend not using a dummy is a separate issue, and doesn’t have anything to do with bacterial contamination. As for ‘over-sterilisation’ – who said anything about that? Current guidelines do not recommend sterilisation of baby bottles and dummies, but just washing them in hot, soapy water. I never sterilised a thing. I don’t see how avoiding spreading bacteria that cause dental and cardiovascular disease into your child’s mouth has anything whatsoever to do with over-sterilisation or allergies and multi-resistant bacteria. I didn’t say you had to sterilise the dummy, just clean it with soapy water – not your mouth.
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I love you and your voice of reason Feline
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Ummmm…….
It sort of looks like they are making out….
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Its actually not a new way of feeding an infant at all. It was standard practice in many cultures in the past and likely still is, particularly where the use of cutlery, sieves and blenders is not the norm. Its a very good way to ensure an infant doesnt get a chunk that chokes them.
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Actually I agree with @Kate! … it’s probably the oldest method out there, still widely used in developing countries.
I’ve read a range of advantages/disadvantages about the method – eg, advantages = can possibly prevent allergies. Disadvantages of course = spread some diseases.
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There is plenty of evidence that this practice is harmful. There is no evidence that this practice prevents allergies. Just because something is done in a third world country, does not mean it is better or more healthy. Many third world practices are quickly abandoned when people have safer, better options available to them. Like a food processor.
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Agreed!!
What a bunch of germaphobe wowsers!!!
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For a 3 or 4 month old, maybe (as many ppl here and in developing countries introduce solids that early) but for an 11month old? They actually should and need to be doing the chewing themselves as it aids lots of things like dexterity and speech development. For an infant perhaps, but I can think of no reason for an 11month old (or plus 1yr old as she said the vid was 2 months old). He should be chewing chunks of food of all textures, not mush. Sorry but I can only see this being detrimental and not helpful to the child in any way. (not concerned about the germs, just development).
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Absolutely, all these reasons too.
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