People Aren't Laughing at This Dad's Joke About His Baby's Bottle Full of Cereal

By Murphy Moroney

Tyrese Loyd, a father from Chicago, had no idea that a photo of his baby's bottle would start a heated, ongoing debate on Facebook. So what set off the internet? A picture Loyd uploaded of adult cereal inside a baby bottle with the caption: "So I asked my lil brother to make the baby a bottle last night and put 2 scoops of cereal in it. This the thanks I get for not doing it myself."

Although the post — which has amassed 18,000 reactions and 8,000 comments since it was posted on Nov. 5 — was intended to be a joke, users went in on the father for admitting to adding infant rice cereal to his baby's bottle at bedtime. While some people are defending the father's right to choose what's best for his kid, others are taking a far more critical route. One commenter said: "It's not recommended anymore to put baby cereal in the baby bottle — it is just empty calories, there is no nutritional value. It will cause the baby to gain unnecessary weight. Babies can't even handle food until 6 months or older." Another woman chimed in with a warning: "Putting baby cereal in a bottle is a CHOKING HAZARD."

Even though some people swear by this outdated parenting hack for getting babies to sleep through the night, children under 6 months old shouldn't be ingesting solids yet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). "A baby's digestive system is not thought to be well prepared to process cereal until about 6 months of age," says an article from HealthyChildren.org, the official AAP parenting website. "When he is old enough to digest cereal, he should also be ready to eat it from a spoon."

The same article also highlights the potential dangers of giving your baby infant cereal earlier than suggested: "Offering cereal in a bottle (or even on a spoon) before babies are developmentally ready can increase the likelihood of gagging and/or inhaling the thickened mixture into their lungs. Unless there's a medical reason for giving it early, it's not worth jumping the gun."