Would You Feed Your Baby Using the Mouth to Mouth Method?
From the archive. This post was first published on the original Green Eggs and Moms blog and is kept here as it was.
A US actress feeds her toddler through what most think is an unusual method.
She would pre-chew food and pass it on to her son from her mouth to his.
For some time now we’ve been coming across this news bit but haven’t really decided to write about it until now.
This is interesting because other parents will judge this mom for what she’s doing. Such is human nature. But before anyone does this, we’d like you to learn a bit more on pre-chewing and mouth-to-mouth feeding or premastication.
Premastication is old news
It’s so old that other species such as birds have been known to do this. Even our ancestors, the crude cavemen, have been suspected to have resorted to this feeding method.
Think about it: How did cave-mommies feed their cave-toddlers meat? Moms had to act as manual food processors since there weren’t any handy kitchen tools at that time.
There are pros and cons on premastication too.
Advantages:
- Other nutrients. Milk alone is not enough to provide other things like carbohydrates, protein and nutrients. By having mom pre-chew meat for babies and toddlers who are beginning to eat solids for example, she is able to give them their dose of iron.
- Stronger immune system. Mom’s saliva contains antibody generators which may help in preventing allergies and infections.
- Better Digestion. Mom’s saliva contains enzymes – which babies don’t have yet – that help break-down starch.
Disadvantages:
- Transmission of diseases. Premastication is also a good delivery system for viruses. So if mom has hepatitis B for example, it can easily be passed to the kiddo.
- Transmission of drugs. If mom is taking medication, she may pass this on to her child too. [Source: WikiPedia]
So, what say you about this topic?
We’re not here to judge anyone so we’d like to know your thoughts on this feeding method.
Granted that premastication has been going on for a quite some time now, would you do this in today’s day and age? Even just once?
Photo:Creative Commons from shawncampbell