BEING a parent is no easy task – sometimes you’ll do whatever to make the day less taxing.
And one mum, Raquel Tolman (@desertbabysteps), from Southern Utah, is no exception – she recently revealed her rather unusual feeding method.
To make her life easier, the mum just chucks the food on the floorTiktok/@desertbabysteps
Raquel, who is a mum two a toddler daughter and a baby son, claimed that on some occasions when she’s sick, she’ll feed the family’s latest addition like a little chicken.
Rather than putting the food on a plate, she’ll take the snacks – popcorn seems to be a favourite – and will chuck them on the floor.
The mum took to TikTok to demonstrate this, leaving social media users in hysterics.
With her son laying on the rug in the living room, Raquel grabbed a handful of the crunchy treat and proceeded to throw it towards him.
”Hey baby, eat the snacks,” she chuckled in the now-viral clip.
According to the mum, the feeding technique seems to be hit in their household, as the little one ”loves it”.
”Survival mode when moms sick,” Raquel explained in the caption.
It’s safe to say that the heartwarming video has taken the internet by storm, racking up a whopping 4.2million views and thousands of comments.
Fellow parents were in stitches after seeing the baby crawling towards the popcorn with missing sock, with some calling him ”free range”.
”Certified organic, cruelty free, free range baby,” one fan laughed.
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Someone else penned: ”I wish someone would throw snacks at me right now.”
A second mum added: ”Dude, sometimes my babies would reject the food I served in the high chair, then immediately start foraging for whatever food they found on the floor.”
”My parents taught me to walk by lining up cheerios across the house,” a social media user revealed.
Raquel’s not the first mum to go viral after sharing the feeding time in their household – one parent went viral for letting her babies munch on doughnuts.
One mum-of-four, Meg Korzon, has four children under the age of three and regularly shares what it’s like having young children on social media.
Known on TikTok as ‘Keeping Up With The Korzons’, Meg has 253.2k followers and 9.5million likes on the video sharing platform.
In a recent video, Meg gave her identical toddlers a doughnut each to try, but was stunned when she was criticised by other parents for her decision.
She said: “My triplets try donuts for the first time”, as she handed each of her triplets, Leo, Elias and Oliver, a glazed ring doughnut.
The mum-of-four filmed her year-old baby’s reactions when they received the doughnut – while Leo puts it straight in his mouth, Elias isn’t so sure and plays around with the sweet treat, before breaking a bite-sized piece off.
When it comes to Oliver, he tucks straight in, seemingly enjoying the afternoon snack.
But what appeared as a sweet video, was met with criticism from parents about feeding young children such snacks.
Meg then made a follow-up video, responding to a comment that read: “Please don’t feed sugar to your babies. It has no nutritional value but severely disrupts the gut microbiome which can lead to leaky gut and auto-immune”.
The mum explained: “The amount of hate I’ve gotten on that video because my babies tried doughnuts for the first time.
“Also, I’m saying ‘babies’, they’re 12 months old, it’s not like they’re a six-month old baby.
“Here’s a question for all of you – when you’re scrolling and you see parents and kids and you’re like ‘I need to say something’, do you ever look at the account and do back checking?
“I exercise and eat healthy, so does my husband, we are very fit people.
“My kids love all foods, they love veggies, they love fruits, they eat quinoa and my daughter’s favourite food is mango.
“Do we do any back-checking, that’s all I want to know?”.
The TikTok user than shared her food theories and explained why she gives her young children sweet treats.
She continued: “Here are my theories with eating, especially with children – I think it’s very important not to banish foods, to call foods bad, to not allow your children to have certain foods, because do you know what ends up happening?
“When they’re older, they end up bingeing those foods, they don’t know how to be responsible with those foods or to eat in moderation.
“I don’t think there are bad foods that you can never have, I don’t think that’s healthy for your brain to think of foods as bad.
“I think it’s important to feed yourself foods that are going to give yourself energy and make yourself feel good.
“We all know that candy and sweets are the pleasures of life, they’re not going to sustain you.
“My kids are allowed to have those foods, I believe that holidays, Halloween for instance, I let my daughter eat the candy that she gets and I’m not super intense about it because the only way to know that you ate too much candy is to eat too much candy and feel the consequence.
“But anyway I don’t think you should be labelling foods as bad, I let my kids try a doughnut for the first time.
“This is the first time they’ve ever had a doughnut, I don’t give them sweets constantly.
“They eat three meals a day and two snacks a day and I think we’re a pretty healthy family.
“We’re really active and I think I’m making pretty good choices but TikTok are always telling me I’m not, oh my gosh”.
TikTok users were overwhelming positive on Meg’s video and shared their support for the parent in the comments.
One person said: “Omg! You have four kids. I think you know how to feed them. Also, a little sugar here or there is nothing. Relax people!”
Another added: “Donuts are amazing and delicious. And your theory is 100% spot on. My son is 6. I’ve never denied him a “treat” – he rarely chooses candy. Go on, mama!!”
A third commented: “It’s a freaking donut! I loved watching them experience sweet”.
Someone else noted: “You don’t need to explain how you parent. You do you”.