Alicia silverstone bird feeding her baby
Alicia Silverstone's baby-feeding habits dangerous, experts say
By Rene Lynch
Alicia Silverstone’s new video has much of America saying Ewwwwwww!
The “Clueless” actress who is known for her healthy, vegan cooking and animal rights activism, posted a video on her website Tuesday that shows her feeding her child. The clip has gone viral.
Why? It’s all in her method as she seemingly takes her maternal nesting instinct to a new level.
The video shows her feeding her child Bear Blu like he’s...a baby bird. She chews of his food and then -- how else to say this? -- deposits the masticated morsels in his mouth.
Now, before you chalk this up to some crazy Hollywood mommy trend (like “Mad Men’s” January Jones telling People magazine she dines on her baby’s placenta for strength), know that Sliverstone’s practice is not all that unusual.
Many parents will admit to biting something -- say, a hot dog -- into smaller pieces when a fork and knife aren’t handy to make sure their child won’t choke. And way back when -- long before supermarkets and Gerber and Playtex -- people used premasticated food to transition children from mother’s milk to solids.
In fact, some experts decry the trend away from premasticated food.
In a 2009 research paper entitled “Premastication: the second arm of infant and young child feeding for health and survival?” and published in the journal of “Maternal & Child Nutrition,” experts said the practice helped boost a child’s immunity. “Its abandonment, particularly in poor communities, has placed children at increased risk of inadequate nutrition and decreased ability to confront infections,” researchers wrote.
But others are criticizing Silverstone, calling the practice dangerous. Swapping food from mouth to mouth puts kids at risk of catching a cold and can contribute to tooth decay, or worse.
“Word is Alicia Silverstone chews her food for her child. Don’t follow in her footsteps,” Delta Dental of Iowa tweeted this morning. “You can pass dental disease!”
“Bacteria are passed when items contaminated with saliva go into a child’s mouth,” the insurance company warned in a recent press release. “Most parents don’t know they can pass harmful bacteria from their mouth to their baby’s mouth, which can put their child at an increased risk for cavities.”
Now, there are probably some of you out there wondering, “Why in the world would she post that video online?” Comedy writer Chase Mitchell thought the same, and tweeted thusly:
“We need a bold new strategy to get people talking about you again.” -- Alicia Silverstone’s publicist, yesterday morning
For her part, Silverstone says she loves feeding her 11-month-old this way, and you can see from the video above that he loves it too. “He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I’m eating.
”
Now that may be something that will make much of America say Awwwwww.
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'Clueless' Star Alicia Silverstone Fed Her Son Like Birds By Pre-chewing His Food
There’s no one right way to be a parent. Kids need love, and aside from that, there are many ways to successfully raise a child. Some parents prefer to helicopter, others follow the attachment parenting guide. And then there’s whatever Alicia Silverstone does.
The Clueless star has one child, a son named Bear Blu. Little Bear was born in 2011, and today is 8 years old. Bear and Silverstone are very close. Although she may not do it anymore, she had an unusual way of feeding Bear when he was a little cub.
Alicia Silverstone fed her son Bear like a bird
https://youtu.
be/ZvySMbNA2zc
In 2012, Silverstone revealed she pre-chews Bear’s food like a bird. She posted a video of herself sitting on a couch with Bear, holding a bowl of soup. She then takes a bite of food and chews it, before spitting it back out into Bear’s mouth.
The process is apparently called ‘pre-mastication,’ according to an NBC News health expert. Silverstone posted the video on her own lifestyle blog, which is dedicated to health food.
On her blog, TheKindLife.com, Silverstone wrote that the ritual is very special. Both she and Bear enjoy it. She 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.”
The video sparked controversy and disgust in some, but there were others genuinely wondering if this is a good way to feed a child.
Feeding mouth-to-mouth is normal in some cultures
Alicia Silverstone | Dave Kotinsky/Getty ImagesOne blogger interviewed about the incident pointed out that this practice is likely age-old.
Parents today were grossed out, but they may not be thinking about the course of human history.
Today, parents usually buy their baby food in the supermarket. It comes liquefied already. More intrepid moms and dads may cook their own vegetables and blend them at home. But both of those processes involve modern technology and industry that wasn’t always available and isn’t available in all parts of the world.
In remote areas, parents don’t have access to store bought baby food, or to industrial appliances for puréeing food. So sometimes chewing it manually first is the safest and most effective way to feed a baby.
It’s still common in many parts of the world, even in the United States. Moms in East and South Asia still premasticate for their babies today, although that may be in part out of necessity. In the US, 1 in 7 caregivers says they’ve done it before. So while Silverstone’s video may seem weird and stomach-churning, moms everywhere do the same thing.
Feeding babies like Alicia Silverstone may have some health benefits
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A post shared by Alicia Silverstone (@aliciasilverstone)
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There are health negatives to premastication, according to the CDC. It may be a factor in the spread of HIV from a HIV+ mother to her HIV- child. It could also transfer bacteria that could lead to tooth decay, or other illnesses like strep throat. But there may be positives too.
Just like bacteria in breast milk may boost a baby’s immune system, some scientists theorize that bacteria in premasticated food could do the same. Other scientists think that’s unlikely. Still, others think that it could depend entirely on the food being given to the child.
Premasticating processed food, for example, probably is not protective. Although Silverstone’s video seems gross, it is important to understand that people have been pre-chewing food for centuries.
The first recorded mention of it is in 1025 A.D. No matter how a parent chooses to feed a child, mom-shaming is never okay. In the 1940s and 1950s, breastfeeding was often shamed. Now it’s recognized as a fine way to feed a baby. Maybe Silverstone is just ahead of her time.
Alicia Silverstone feeds her son like a bird
Alicia Silverstone, who we expect to see in the film "God Games", received an immediate reaction to her recently published method of feeding a child. The 35-year-old actress recently shared how she feeds Sharon Stone's pet son, Bear Blue, on health food website TheKindLife.com. She accompanied her post with a video in which she personally chews food before sending it to her 10-month-old baby from mouth to mouth. nine0004 "I feed Bear mochi and small pieces of vegetables from the soup... out of my mouth. It's his favorite... and mine. It literally crawls across the room and attacks my mouth if I eat," writes the former movie star "Clueless" and "Blast from the Past" in his post.
She also elaborates: "This video was made about a month or two ago when he was a little clumsy. Now he's grabbing my mouth to get food!" Most of her fans reacted positively to the post. "I've never thought about this before but this is the cutest way to feed my baby! Mine is 7 months old and I think I'll try this method," wrote one. Another said: "I think this approach to feeding is incredible. Alicia, you are amazing. Raise your boy how you see fit and don't think what others will say. I applaud you!" nine0004 However, some did not share these sentiments. "I don't think this is a healthy way to feed a child. Children should learn to eat with a spoon. We are not birds, we are people." Another fan commented: "What happens when he gets a little older and sees someone eating? It will be quite embarrassing if Bear comes up to them and tries to eat what they are already chewing." Nutritionist JJ Virgine weighed the information carefully and told Fox News, "It looks like she's going to the extreme of trying to feed him like a bird.
" The Freaky Eaters star added, "While this could help start the digestion process in her mouth, it's also a way of transferring bacteria, which is full of her mouth. I think it's better to put it on a food processor and a spoon!" nine0004
06:26, 29 March 2012
Author: ylsyls
Comments starting on behalf of the son.
vredinko
of course you will forgive me I myself had a toothless child myself but it’s just buee Yes, and all familiar mothers do this for small toothless children. I don't see anything wrong. And then I read the comments and I am in shock - everyone is so progressive, my mother is dorahaya
Any doctor will say that the oral cavity is the "dirtiest" place, even in the ass and on the hands there is not such a quantity and variety of bacteria. Never understood moms licking nipples on bottles, pacifiers and chewing (fu).
I didn’t have a blender yet, I pounded soups and borscht for the child with a fork.
IlonaSnarski
The 21st century is full of blenders and nibblers and all sorts of other auxiliary devices, why do this? She would have given him chewed bread in a rag instead of a pacifier, as in the 18th century. nine0013
Alicia Silverstone chews her son's food!
Komsomolskaya Pravda
StarsShowbizStars: family , like a mother is a bird, “from beak to beak,” writes celebrityhealthfitness.com.
“I just had a wonderful breakfast: miso soup, crispy lettuce, steamed radish with flaxseed oil, grated daikon rice balls - mmm... Delicious!” - the actress writes on her culinary and vegetarian website "Good Diet". nine0013
“I feed Bear from mouth to mouth. I gave him mochi (Japanese rice cakes - ed.) and some vegetables from the soup - these are our favorite treats with him. The video was filmed a couple of months ago, when the son was still having difficulty moving independently.
Now he is crawling all over the room and when I eat, he strives to steal something right out of my mouth,” 35-year-old vegetarian Silverstone comments on her home video.
Feeding babies chewed food for a civilized society - an unusual phenomenon. Doctors don't approve of this. There are cases when mothers infected their children with HIV, hepatitis B and intestinal infections in this way. Some studies have shown that bacteria that cause cavities are transmitted through chewed food. nine0013
Mouth-to-mouth feeding of infants, now widespread only in underdeveloped countries, was commonplace in antiquity. In fact, this is a forced measure: if a mother runs out of breast milk early, then in the absence of adapted baby food, pre-chewing food is a way to feed a baby who is still unadapted to adult food.
"In poor countries, the lack of mother's milk substitutes and the need to introduce "chewed" foods often lead to malnutrition and reduce the ability of the child's body to resist infections," writes a study from Cornell University (USA), published in 2010.
nine0013
Researchers found that 63% of Chinese students at this university ate food chewed by their parents as infants. As studies and personal experience of actress Silverstone show, “bird” feeding, even in the most developed countries, still has adherents. They believe that along with the chewed food, the mother passes on beneficial enzymes to the baby that promote digestion and strengthen the immune system.
According to Fox News specialist in hormone therapy and healthy nutrition, head of the medical center "BodyLogicMD" Dr. Jennifer Landa : "There are people who believe that a mother who chews food for a child passes useful enzymes to him, but this opinion is not scientifically confirmed, and the practice of mouth-to-mouth feeding does not fit into any sanitary and hygienic norms!!! So you can reward your children with a bunch of diseases caused by viruses and bacteria - and the most harmless of them - herpes! - Dr. Lando exclaims - Such unusual feeding experiences are a real challenge for the baby's fragile immune system.
nine0013
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