Actress Alicia Silverstone first got a lot of attention for her unusual taste in baby names.
Best known for her movie roles in “Clueless” (Cher) and “Batman” (Batgirl), actress Alicia Silverstone is now feeding an endless amount of watercooler chatter surrounding her parenting philosophy.
On her blog, “The Kind Life,” the actress recently posted this silent home video of herself feeding her baby son, Bear Blu, by first chewing the food and then regurgitating it into his mouth like a bird.
Writes Silverstone:
“I just had a delicious breakfast of miso soup, collards and radish steamed and drizzled with flax oil, cast iron mochi with nori wrapped outside, and some grated daikon. Yum! 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!”
The pop culture icon, well known for her public endorsement of the vegan lifestyle, certainly has eclectic tastes. No Gerber squash or peas for little Baby Bear!
Baby Bear or Baby Bird? (Source: TheKindLife.com)
Pre-masticating or pre-chewing food for babies, also known as “kiss feeding,” is a practice that spans across cultures. One recent study reported that 63 percent of Chinese university students were fed this way when they were infants.
Regardless of how widely accepted the method is, Alicia Silverstone’s video was instantly met with wide ridicule.
The irreverent women’s blog Jezebel chastised the Hollywood star for “making out” with her son.
Comedian and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel suggested parents everywhere get a laugh by pretending to adopt the technique for their older children. His YouTube Challenge is called “Hey Jimmy Kimmel, I Silverstone My Kid.”
What do you think: Can humans learn from the birds?
Here’s how the NY Daily News reported on Kimmel’s offbeat challenge, or should we say, dare:
“You can use any food. And tell your kids a doctor named Alicia Silverstone said it is healthy for parents to chew the food first. And explain this is how eating is going to work in the house from now on,” Kimmel said, while holding a plate of pre-chewed pizza, in a video uploaded to YouTube.
Kimmel tells parents to avoid actually chewing the food in what he calls, “one more step towards a real life hunger games.
“I don’t want you to spit food into your kid’s mouth, even I have limits.”
Kimmel amassed a series of hilarious videos during past challenges including “I told My Kids I ate All Their Halloween Candy” and “Unplug the TV During Super Bowl!”
And comedian Joan Rivers took it one step further by taking a bite out of her sandwich on the TV show “Fashion Police” and passing the food to the lips of her co-host, Kelly Osbourne.
On a more serious note, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention warn that the premastication technique NOT be used by caregivers who have the HIV virus because of potential spread of the disease through saliva.
If that issue is not a concern, then how you feed your baby really comes down to personal preference. There are many different parenting styles out there and the challenge of finding the perfect nanny is matching up with one who naturally shares your childcare philosophy.
At eNannySource.com, we’re proud to have connected more than 450,000 nannies and families over the past decade. Our Safe Nanny Hiring Kits, Nanny Background Checks and Nanny Learning Center make us the logical and affordable alternative to pricey nanny agencies.
Whether you prefer to pulverize solid food in a blender or seek alternative methods for your infant, no one knows your parenting preferences better than you — and you should be at the forefront of choosing your nanny!
That being said, what do YOU think about feeding your child pre-chewed food?
