Is letting your baby eat grass and sand and not wearing sunscreen

Normal? There's this popular young woman on tiktok who has a baby only months old that a lot of people are following and they agree with her parenting methods. Some of her methods are no sunscreen allowed, no food only breastmilk, they can eat rocks, sand and grass and they can crawl wherever they want even if it's in mud because it's "natural parenting"

Is this normal?

Voting Results
19% Normal
Based on 36 votes (7 yes)
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Comments ( 45 )
  • ellnell

    Sounds like your typical dumb tiktok-user

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  • charli.m

    You didn't say the age of the baby...you're not meant to use sunscreen on them under 6months and food other than breastmilk before 6 months isn't necessary.

    Getting dirty is good for the immune system, but I wouldn't be letting them eat grass and definitely not sand and rocks.

    The kid I look after was trying to floss his teeth with dandelion stems at the park and I vetoed it cos animals piss and shit there. Gross.

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    • 10 months old

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      • charli.m

        Yeah unless there's a medical reason, that kid should be at least exploring finger food. Breast milk is nutritionally complete food for under 12mths, but 6-12mths, they need to be exploring tastes and textures of solid food. Plus chewing helps their speech development.

        Sunscreen...depends on a few things. Like, if they're covered with clothes and a hat and it's in the shade on a low UV day...no biggie...but a blanket ban on sunscreen is dumb. There are natural sunscreens, too.

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      • SwickDinging

        I think she's faking it for her fans. There's no way her 10 month old doesn't eat anything other than breastmilk. I call bullshit.

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  • Clunk42

    Anyone who thinks that that is good parenting is an absolute moron who should not have had sex in the first place.

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    • litelander8

      Is that why you don’t have sex?

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      • Clunk42

        I don't have sex because I am unmarried. As to why I am unmarried, I don't talk to people. There are other reasons, as well, but that's a big one.

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  • Boojum

    As with everything else in life, being a good parent is about finding a reasonable balance between extremes. Coming to a conclusion about whether or not another person's decisions about anything requires context. That's lacking here, and I can't be bothered to try to track down the woman in question and spend the time necessary to understand where's she's coming from.

    These days, people are very aware of how much damage UV exposure can cause to pale skin, how it prematurely ages skin, and how sunburns can lead to melanoma decades down the line. A good parent will therefore try to restrict how much sun their children are exposed to, particularly if their skin is very pale and if they live in latitudes where the sun is very intense and the climate is such that the sky is often clear. Since it's possible for kids to have fun and do normal kid-stuff in places other than beaches, deserts and other locations where they're exposed to direct sun for lengthy periods, there's really no need for sunscreen if the parent is willing to put in the effort necessary to limit UV exposure in other ways.

    An interesting effect of parents becoming hyper-vigilant about kids being exposed to UV is that it was discovered a few years ago that many British kids are chronically Vitamin D deficient. Changes in lifestyles, the fact that the climate of the UK means we don't get that many sunny days, and the way parents slather on Factor 200 whenever their kid is exposed to the sun means that a lot of kids just aren't getting enough sun on their skin to produce the Vitamin D they need for good health and development.

    If this woman lives in, say, Australia, her baby has pale skin, she's let the kid crawl around her back garden for so long that the baby has a heavy tan, then she's an utter idiot and a completely irresponsible parent. Her beliefs about the supposed toxicity of sunscreen (which I suspect this is about) have led her to do something which will very likely result in her child suffering physical pain, fear and mental anguish decades from now. If she doesn't use sunscreen but limits the baby's exposure to moderate amounts of UV by other means, then she could be making responsible parental decisions.

    It's a similar situation with the dirt-eating and dirt-wallowing. Studies have strongly suggested that at least part of the reason for the drastic rise in cases of asthma over recent decades is increased levels of hygiene in homes. Children who are not first-born and kids who grow up in rural settings or with pets who are regularly allowed to go outside are much less likely to develop asthma. This suggests that exposure to low levels of non-pathogenic microorganisms and airborne particles of non-human proteins keeps the immune systems of young children active at a healthy, low level, whereas the immune systems of children who grow up in more sterile environments are primed to overreact to things that aren't a threat.

    So it seems that very young children being exposed to some dirt and muck is actually a good thing, and parents do their kids no favours by constantly striving to keep them as spotlessly perfect as the babies seen in advertising.

    But again, a lot depends on context: where the baby is wallowing in mud, what exactly it's putting in its mouth, and what that stuff has been in contact with previously. Dirt is not inert. Something like a quarter of all species we know about live in soil. Soil can contain parasite eggs, as well as protozoa, fungi, bacteria, viruses which cause human diseases.

    It's true that the young of our species have always put all sorts of crap (sometimes literally) in their mouths when they've been bumbling around and exploring the world. We wouldn't be here if quite a few of them hadn't survived to the age when they could produce another generation of mucky kids. But that doesn't mean that it's wise to allow babies to eat whatever they want, and there can't possibly be any negative consequences if a parent decides to permit that.

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    • charli.m

      One of my cousins ate kangaroo shit and a cockroach.

      His mother is the shittest parent in out family...yet technically the highest educated. At the time, she held a masters in environmental biology.

      Then again, she also force breastfed this kid til he was 3.5 and he'd cry because he didn't want to...so maybe the other stuff wasn't the worst thing for him. So much therapy ahead...

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      • RoseIsabella

        Oh my God! Force breastfed until the age of three, and a half sounds awful.

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        • charli.m

          She'd yell at him it was time for "breasty" (gag) and drag him away from playing to shove her tit in his mouth.

          Child abuse. No other word for it.

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          • SwickDinging

            That's fucking horrible. That poor kid.

            I really don't get it. I breastfed all of mine and I'm glad I did, but it was very much for their benefit and not mine. For each kid I was counting down until the end. Couldn't wait to get my body back! I hated having to factor it into everything- my entire wardrobe was limited to nursing clothes, my boobs would get engorged so for half of the time my bras didn't fit properly, I couldn't take any effective migraine medication, I couldn't use certain anti-aging creams on my face, I couldn't smoke weed during the only night out I'd had in 6 months, my boobs would leak milk sometimes, I couldn't go anywhere without either my baby or a breast pump... the list is endless

            It was all totally worth it for my kids, but i genuinely don't understand why the fuck anyone would prolong it?

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            • charli.m

              No clue. She lives for attention.

              She's now a midwife. Two classics from her since then:

              "These (particular ethnic group) women are always screaming and making a hugr fuss while they're in labour...then after they act like alls fine."

              Now. I've never given birth. But I have been reliably infomed its FUCKING PAINFUL. Not to mention the casual racism.

              The clincher was, "Babies die, you know."

              About those five babies who died in a Sydney hospital where the deaths are being investigated.

              Yeah...I wouldn't want her by my side while I gave birth...or ever...

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          • S0UNDS_WEIRD

            What the fuck.

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          • RoseIsabella

            Oh, dear God! Yeah, that is terrifying. I can't help, but to wonder if she enjoyed it too much? Eww!

            My mom breastfed my sister, and I, but she let us decide when we wanted to stop.

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  • LloydAsher

    The point of being a parent is so you prevent your baby from doing stupid things and preventing them from getting injured.

    If I tell a 10 year old a pan is hot and they proceed to try to touch it I'm not going to prevent them from burning themselves. That lesson is worth a small burn.

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  • my_life_my_way

    ComingUpFern or whatever it’s called? I’ve seen her and she seems like one of those new age vegan mums who just wants the baby as a tool to push her way of life

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  • litelander8

    I wouldn’t let my kids eat sand Bc then they have to shit it out. We live in a beach area so me and my kids grew up in sand. And as for the burns. My eldest gets super dark but my youngest (I literally call my white son) would just be in pain from a sunburn.

    It’s not the first time a baby put stuff in their mouth they’re not supposed to and it’s definitely not the last. I’m sure the kid will be fine.

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    • Clunk42

      I remember this time my father got a really bad sunburn on his back. It was all peely and it hurt so bad he couldn't even put his back against anything without feeling immense pain.

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    • hauntedbysandwiches

      Lol you are obviously this woman

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      • litelander8

        She’s way hipper than me. And I don’t actually film my kids 24/7. 🤷🏾‍♀️

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  • Meatballsandwich

    She sounds like a terrible parent.

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  • I agree with everything u said in the post except LETTING YOUR BABY RUN WILD AND EAT SAND AND ROCKS? THAT AINT NATURAL PARENTING, THATS CHILD NEGLECT

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  • raisinbran

    The baby should also be eating dog feces and compost for all the health benefits.

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  • olderdude-xx

    Many generations of kids were raised without sunscreen and were allowed to eat grass, sand, and other things...

    Most of them turned out well, and those that didn't had issues likely from other causes.

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    • Clunk42

      Babies sure weren't, though. Babies were kept out of the sun and weren't allowed to eat crud such as that. Kids can eat whatever without massive issue, but babies cannot.

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      • olderdude-xx

        I grew up many decades before sunscreen was even invented. I assure you it was quite common to let babies get a fair amount of sun prior to the invention of sunscreen and the link of sun exposure to skin cancer later in life (and that link did not occur until the 1980's or perhaps 1990's if I recall correctly).

        Many thousands of generation of children were raised in the sun prior to that - and primitive societies have never had the abilities to shield babies and children from the sun.

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      • charli.m

        I was a baby 36 years ago and it was regular practice to stick naked babies in the sun for an hour or so to get vitamin D. And I live in a country with ridiculous UV levels due to ozone holes.

        People did and do dumb shit with babies.

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    • 1WeirdGuy

      Lmao you didnt just say eating grass and sand was ok for a baby did u

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      • olderdude-xx

        It is generally not harmful if its only a small quantity.

        In the last 50 years it seems that most of western society has gone on a "clean freakishness" that does not match the historical record.

        There are all kinds of studies out there on how much dirt, bugs, and other things we eat in our life - even with modern super wash vegetable practices.

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        • lukeuser

          So, are we eating too cleanly or not, you seem to contradict yourself in the last paragraph? Honestly, there's been a bit of a backlash against over-sanitation in the last decade or two.

          I don't think it's a bad thing per se to use methods of cleaning that didn't exist in the past—a lot of people died in the past from infection, you know!

          And while lots of things might be okay in most cases (in small quantities), like eating grass and sand, your baby could just be the unlikely one and get health complications from it, so I don't see how it's worth the risk.

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