Horrific.
Anyone who has ever had young children has no doubt had nights where sleep was scarce.
Most of us just make it through by rocking our babies and, you know, drinking a lot of coffee the following day.
However, clearly this is not the case for all mums, as recently, the internet exploded when a couple of mums shared images on social media of so-called ‘knockout-bottles they had made for their babies to make them sleep through the night.
In an image supplied to Australian parenting site, Kidspot, a New York mum was seen sharing a picture of a gross-looking baby bottle with the following caption:
“Y’all parents today!! Don’t know these knockout bottles! S**t worked every time. Especially when [the baby] is sick, add some Tylenol. Awww man out like the kite.”
It would appear that the mother has mixed some type of cereal or baby rice into her baby’s bottle of milk – obviously in an attempt to make the child not wake from hunger?
Needless to say, the image gained a lot of attention online, with the image being reposted on several other profiles, and most parents slamming the mother for endangering her child – as feeding children food like this through a bottle is clearly a choking hazard.
A fellow mum hit back over the resurfaced concoction on Facebook, arguing: “Cereal is NOT made to be bottle-fed!”
Another wrote: “I’ve never used rice cereal in or out of the bottle. There’s no nutritional value. Learn to love the babies’ cries at night because one day you will look back and miss it and wish you could have that back.”
A third person branded parents “idiots” for using “knockout bottles”, writing: “That is disgusting, and very dangerous to any child!!! Who let these idiots ever take a baby home from the hospital!?! This goes far beyond bad parenting.”
However, other mums admitted to having done the same thing, even sharing images of their own ‘knockout’ bottles:
Puts babies at risk of choking
Clearly sold food is not designed to be fed through a bottle, and speaking to The Sun newspaper, nutrition consultant Charlotte Stirling-Reed, who specialises in maternal, infant and childhood nutrition, explains why this is a bad idea:
“It’s not ideal and not recommended to offer babies solid foods from bottles. The action of drinking milk is very different to the action of swallowing solid foods, and therefore this could potentially put babies at risk of choking,” she explained.
“Additionally, formula milks need to be made using very specific measurements and so it’s not ideal to alter the proportions of milk/water in a baby’s bottle.”
What do YOU think, mums? Have you ever heard of anyone giving their children ‘knockout’ bottles? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @herfamilydotie
