18 Month Eating Stage 3 Gerber

I'm just wondering if the 18 mos. old had an food adversions & that could be the reason for the baby food?? I know my daughter had ALOT of & still does have problems with eating certain foods, due to the texture of the foods. It's very difficult to at times to find things she will eat on her own, but we have been able to find enough foods that she is ok with to provide her an adequate diet. I would suggest mentioning to the Mom that her child seems VERY interested in what the other kids are eating, would she be ok if maybe you gave some to her child along with the baby food she requests. In this way, you would be able to help with progressing the child to table food & not interfering with the Mom's wishes. I also agree with only using a sippy, there's no reason why by this age the child can't consume their daily supply of milk in a cup. Its horrible for their teeth to still be using the bottle.

If she feels the child is still hungry after eating the baby food, she could just mention that to the mom, but I would not actually tell her what to feed her child.

Also, as long as the mom is ok with the sippy cup, then she should continue with it.

I understand what you're saying, but unless the mother is actively asking you for help it is really best for you to keep your opinions to yourself and stay out of it.

I would tend to agree with you - it's a little unnecessary for a child of that age to still be bottle-dependent and on jarred baby food. But...each parents is entitled to raise his or her own child the way they best see fit provided the way they raise them is not detrimental to the child's health.

The friend is the employee of the mother of the 18 month old. The mother is paying her salary. Unless the 18 month old is being harmed in any way, then the employee needs to continue to follow the instructions of the boss.

I know a lot of people are a little put off by breastfeeding past the age of one but at the same time, many mothers and babies choose to nurse well into the second year. What if the mother would send expressed breastmilk in a bottle? While some mothers would be like "That child is 18 months! Get him off the bottle and onto milk pronto!", other mothers would be content with their decision to continue to give breastmilk and nurse. Again, different strokes for different folks but since your friend is being paid by this mother, she needs to be respectful of her parenting choices.

That sounds very strange to me. My 1st son was on baby food for a long time (probably till almost 2) but it wasn't for lack of trying to get him off of it. He just didn't want to eat it. Now that he is older I know he has other sensory issues and this was probably part of that.

My second child is now 14 months and he has been eating mostly table food since he was 8-9 months. He was the polar opposite of his brother in that he wanted little to do with baby food and only wanted to eat what everyone else were eating!

Has she broached the subject with the Mom? I would at least say, "hey I noticed you are always sending baby food....is there some reason why she can't start having more table food? She seems very interested in it....". Maybe there are some allergy issues or something???