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Mom Discovers Why Her Toddler Hardly Ate Anything For Weeks, Warns Other Parents
Toddler behavior ranges from comical to downright incomprehensible, but a clever parent can don their best deerstalker and do their best Sherlock Holmes impression. Because, underneath the unusual shifts in behavior, there always is a reason.
One example of this is eating. Influencer, mom, and parenting blogger Ashley Stewart from Toddler Meal Ideas documented her experience with her toddler suddenly not having an appetite. After a bit of hands-on investigation, she found that the silicon plates she served him food on were to blame, so she decided to share the problem and some solutions with others online.
More info: Instagram
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Parents with toddlers have to be extra vigilant, as they can’t exactly tell you if there is a problem
Image credits: reallittlemeals
One mother found that her young son was eating less, so she decided to investigate his silicon plate
Image credits: reallittlemeals
Image credits: reallittlemeals
Image credits: reallittlemeals
Image credits: reallittlemeals
Image credits: reallittlemeals
Image credits: reallittlemeals
You can find the full video here
View this post on Instagram
Silicone is a sort of wonder material, except for the flavor of soap
Image credits: Andres Ayrton (not the actual photo)
While not nearly as classy as any alternative, save perhaps plastic and paper, silicone does have the advantage of being very, very heat resistant and non-toxic at the same time. It’s also not brittle, so it won’t shatter, when, for example, a toddler hurls a silicone plate across the room. Indeed, it’s such an effective insulator, that silicone oven mitts can be used to reach directly into boiling water. Despite all these magic benefits, as Ashley Stewart and many other young parents have discovered, silicone seems to “soak up” the flavors of all the things it comes into contact with, including the overpowering taste of dish soap.
Despite this pretty obvious flaw, many parents will still end up sticking to silicone tableware, at least up to a certain age. Toddlers, unlike babies, do have more fine motor skills and have started to learn how to impact the world around them. In the abstract, that sounds ok, but in practice, it can mean chaos. A baby might accidentally knock over a plate through clumsiness or while pushing it away in a fit, but a toddler has already grasped the evolutionary power of throwing. And, unfortunately, it’s an age with a lot of rage, “the terrible twos,” as it’s sometimes called by parents who have gone through it.
Toddlers tend to not care too much about keeping their parent’s dishes intact
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
This is a time when a young child has more energy and ability than a baby and often seems inexplicably filled with rage. Psychologists suggest that it’s not so much that they are more angry than an older child or even an adult, but that they have not yet developed any tools to manage it. The only outlet is their surroundings, as they will scream, shout and break things in an attempt to try and feel better. It’s also a time of discovery, where toddlers are slowly realizing that they can, in fact, affect their surroundings and even others’ behavior. So they begin to test the limits of their parent’s patience and the physical integrity of material items, for example, a plate or bowl. Remember, a baby really only knows how to cry when he or she is angry, sad, or stressed, while a toddler has begun to explore other communication techniques.
Child behavior specialists note that the “terrible twos” in many ways mirror the rebellion and anger so often found in adolescents, who are similarly discovering a lot about themselves and the world, often faster than they can handle it. The good news is that both of these periods are, generally, temporary, and the kid will grow out of it. But, just like children’s clothes, it’s not really worth investing a lot of resources into a plate that might get broken. And pair of pants can only do so much damage, but, for example, a tossed, ceramic bowl is pretty dangerous. So soap or no soap, silicone might remain parents’ best bet for now.
Readers shared their similar experiences with the plates making food taste like soap and gave some extra advice
What do you think ?
Mathias 1 year ago
Why, just why would you ever even get the idea to use that stuff to eat food from? Well yes of course it's convenient because it doesn't break, just like plastic. But neither does stainless steal and on the plus side steel neither releases potential poisonous micro particles, nor soaks up soap and other stuff. I get it the world is complicated there is so much information and life is stressful but please, try to inform yourselves about materials before you buy them for food or clothes. Just like with non stick pans that so many scratch up but keep using not knowing that it's made out of one of the most poisonous materials and is only save as long as it's surface undamaged.
Liam Walsh 1 year ago
Older Teflon used to contain perfluorooctanoic acid — or PFOA. The current Teflon used on its own is safe and can’t harm you when you ingest it. Particles of flaked or chipped pans that find themselves in food pass through your digestive system. So throw away older pans! However, heating it to above 300 degrees Celsius or 570 degrees Fahrenheit can pose a danger to health due to the fumes that may be released. For more details this link is useful: https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/is-teflon-coating-safe
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Kady LaHaie 1 year ago
Well duh. Silicone is toxic plastic and I would never eat off it let alone give it to a baby.
Mathias 1 year ago
Why, just why would you ever even get the idea to use that stuff to eat food from? Well yes of course it's convenient because it doesn't break, just like plastic. But neither does stainless steal and on the plus side steel neither releases potential poisonous micro particles, nor soaks up soap and other stuff. I get it the world is complicated there is so much information and life is stressful but please, try to inform yourselves about materials before you buy them for food or clothes. Just like with non stick pans that so many scratch up but keep using not knowing that it's made out of one of the most poisonous materials and is only save as long as it's surface undamaged.
Liam Walsh 1 year ago
Older Teflon used to contain perfluorooctanoic acid — or PFOA. The current Teflon used on its own is safe and can’t harm you when you ingest it. Particles of flaked or chipped pans that find themselves in food pass through your digestive system. So throw away older pans! However, heating it to above 300 degrees Celsius or 570 degrees Fahrenheit can pose a danger to health due to the fumes that may be released. For more details this link is useful: https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/is-teflon-coating-safe
Load More Replies... Kady LaHaie 1 year ago
Well duh. Silicone is toxic plastic and I would never eat off it let alone give it to a baby.
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