So today my MIL said not to let my baby get fat.

[hannamaren]

Sometimes, my 9mth old gets a little clingy mid morning and mid afternoon. This signal means she wants some milk (formula). I usually give her a bottle and she drinks 1-2 ounces. She also drinks before her naps (2) and before bed and early morning.

Anyway....

Today, she comes to me while I am playing with the baby and she comes over to me and says "hanna, dont let Layla get fat". I laughed and said "oh, dont worry. When she starts moving more, crawling and walking, she will slim down". She replied "i think you give her the bottle too much. You are going to make her fat"

I didnt even know what to say. I am open to ideas from other people on how to raise my child,but I am not open to criticism. And I am not open to hearing people tell me that I am basically harming my kid!
I was mad.
My own Mom has said I should move her to the sippy cup which is helpful. Not insulting.

[bunch]

Eff that. Plenty of babies want milk for comfort. Talking about your daughter's weight is a good way to give her food issues.

I'm very irritated for you.

[Deleted]

Didn't she give you crap about your weight when you were pregnant too or was that your mother? Anyway scew her.

[Deleted]

Your MIL has a complex about her weigh which she projects onto other people. Roll your eyes at this one!

Or duct tape your MIL's mouth shut ;-)

[hannamaren]

My Mom braged to my sister when I was pregnant that she weighed less than me. My sister thought it was hilarious.

My MIL often says that we are too strict with the baby rules (bedtime, certain toys, foods, etc) and we should spoil her more and then she says "you are too easy on her". Today she also was shocked that we give her tiny bites of real food. (pasta, chicken today) and said we should give purees until age 1. At least my .h was there for that one. He basically laughed at her.

[sewpinkgal]

That is a great way to give the poor girl a complex. Brush it off and keep doing what you're doing.

Also, at our 9m appt, our pedi basically gave us the green light to give J whatever we wanted except nuts and honey. He specifically said that if we have dinner for him, but he's looking at our lasagna like, Mmmm I want some of that! to mash it up and give it to him. We still do a mix of purees and table food, but he loves sitting at the table and eating cut up bits of what we're having.

[zeewifeandmama]

Lame! By 9 months Zara was eating both table foods and purees.... just let her comments roll off your back, she is an idiot.

[GailGoldie]

your child is 9mo - it makes me sick to think that anyone would be worrying about them being FAT at that age - chunky babies are HEALTHY.

next time she says something (and i'm guessing she will - she sounds like a peach) i would let her know that talking about weight in front of children give them issues- and you do not want it mentioned again. Period.

screw her.

[Ashley&Scott]

Your MIL needs to back off.

And you should tell her some babies never even eat purees, I bet she'd fall over.

[Deleted]

Oh also, old people are weird and I don't even think they remember parenting their own kids. My dad recently told my sister that it was too hot to give her baby milk. Oh ok, let me just get her a lemonaide then. LOL

[Deleted]

My grandma, she's 75, has made the comment about not to let my son get fat several times. She hates that we give him whole milk and wish that we would just give him fat free like we drink.

My FIL, he's 60, keeps telling us that we are starving him and we need to up his food intake.

ETA: Your MIL needs to back the F off. It's stuff like that that gives little girls a weight complex and may have eating issues later in life.

[kimibrighteyes]

Your MIL is being ridiculous. You should see how chubby my kids were at that age and how much they have slimmed out.

[thedash]

Say "please don't use the word fat about Layla or talk about her weight as if it's a problem. She is normal and healthy and I would never want her to think otherwise."

[hannamaren]

Aug 4, 2012 22:37:20 GMT -5 kimibrighteyes said:

Your MIL is being ridiculous. You should see how chubby my kids were at that age and how much they have slimmed out.

This is the crazy part. My nieces (ages 5,8) were the fattest, chubbiest, cutest babies. Maybe 99.9th percentile.
Now, they are so skinny, she complains to their mother that they must not eat.
So she has seen how it works.

And I told her about baby led weaning with big foods. She almost fainted.

[Willis Jackson]

Your MIL seems like an ignorant worrywart in general.

[Deleted]

I would just smile & nod and then feed your dd on demand as you have been. DS is a like 2 weeks younger than your dd ' he still takes 32-35ozs a day plus 4 large containers of baby food. He is in the 95th for height & the 60th for weight. Your MIL just sounds like a standard grandma. My mother almost died when we tried baby led weaning too ( ds hated it but loves store bought puree oh well! Babies are weird )

[hannamaren]

Aug 5, 2012 7:49:20 GMT -5 @savestheday said:

I would just smile & nod and then feed your dd on demand as you have been. DS is a like 2 weeks younger than your dd ' he still takes 32-35ozs a day plus 4 large containers of baby food. He is in the 95th for height & the 60th for weight. Your MIL just sounds like a standard grandma. My mother almost died when we tried baby led weaning too ( ds hated it but loves store bought puree oh well! Babies are weird )

Good to hear.

I usually just tell her that we are listening to the doctor/experts.

[rubytuesday]

MILs are fun, aren't they? Yours sounds like a complete ass and not only is she an ass but she is also wrong.

I think telling her that you are listenign to the doctors and experts is all you can really do. I would probably say something like, "Her pediatrician says she is right on track with... finger foods/weight/whatever."

Ugg, sorry you have to deal with her.