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Related: About this forumAlicia Silverstone taps long tradition of pre-chewing baby food
Alicia Silverstone taps long tradition of pre-chewing baby food
Alicia Silverstone: Birds do it, our ancestors did it. Pre-chewing baby food is a long human tradition not invented by Alicia Silverstone, whose video of her premasticating her toddler's food is grossing out people on the Internet.
By Stephanie Hanes, Correspondent / March 28, 2012
The Internet community is buzzing about a video of Clueless star Alicia Silverstone pre-chewing food for her 10-month-old son, Bear Blu, and then feeding him out of her own mouth. Ms. Silverstone posted the video on her own site, The Kind Life, and writes about the baby bird-like feeding method for her son.
I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup from my mouth to his, Silverstone wrote on the site. "Its his favorite...and mine. He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if Im 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!
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A few experts, however, have pointed out that pre-chewing food is actually a fairly common technique around the world especially during the weaning process and that until the modern days of commercial baby food and the Cuisinart, most mothers used the technique.
Indeed, premastication is considered a fairly nutritious way of feeding young children, many researchers say, providing iron, increased immunity and improved digestion for infants. In a 2010 issue of the journal Maternal & Child Nutrition, for instance, authors Gretel H. Pelto, Yuanyuan Zhang, and Jean-Pierre Habicht argue that premastication plays a crucial role in infant health, and that its relatively recent abandonment, particularly in poor societies, is a significant threat to infant nutrition.
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Tunkamerica
(4,444 posts)a few weeks ago and remarked that it was somehow dangerous for the baby. Something about germs. Ridiculous.
Ecumenist
(6,086 posts)less than overwhelmed. THIS IS ANCIENT and in my family, IT IS COMMON!! Happens all over the world and PREDATES the gerber baby by MILLENIA! Nothing wrong with this as long as you don't have herpes lesions or anything else communicable that is pathogenic.
Nay
(12,051 posts)Bosso 63
(992 posts)Some cultures also premasticate food for elders who have lost their teeth.
Thanks to modern dentistry, we no longer need help with mastication as we grow older,
after all, who doesn't want to be able to masticate on their own?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124298/
I loved that movie.
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)I understand this is an ancient tradition with regular food that would be hard for babies to handle, but with modern, mushy baby food? Surely that's not necessary at all.
I doubt that it's harmful, but I confess I do find the idea off-putting.
northoftheborder
(7,569 posts)Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)Like with breastfeeding, it might well be true that giving the baby's immune system an early workout would be beneficial. I suspect that over-cleanliness might well be a bigger problem than its opposite these days. We have so many auto-immune disorders in the world (asthma, MS, allergies) and I wonder if it isn't because the immune system wasn't initialised properly. From personal experience, children from the dirtiest households grew up to be the healthiest adults.
Sorry for the unscientific language. I'm a computer programmer, not a medical expert.
Dead_Parrot
(14,478 posts)She's pre-chewing normal food, not "proper" baby food.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Actress Alicia Silverstone said she feeds her baby by spitting in his mouth. I usually pay extra for that!
twitter.com/#!/realgilbert
EvolveOrConvolve
(6,452 posts)That doesn't mean I'm going to shit on the ground too.
Warpy
(111,173 posts)it just means we don't have to do it and we can take our kids to restaurants without grossing out the other patrons.
Yes, it's how women made baby food before there was stuff in the jars. No, it's not necessary in the first world.
MormonReform
(19 posts)This practice also passes on bacteria from the parents mouth, like those that cause tooth decay.
GaYellowDawg
(4,446 posts)I saw her go on to David Letterman one time about how a cow can be a pet just like a dog or a cat. At that point, I knew two things about her: 1) she'd never spent any time on a farm and had no idea that cows are too big, messy, and stupid to be pets; b) she was perfectly willing to parrot anything that her stupid PETA buddies said to her without checking on it. Fucking idiot.