Graca Walters, a stay-at-home mom who grew up in the Congo, loves preparing African and Caribbean-inspired dishes for her 13-month-old daughter, Zuri.
The meat-heavy meals remind Walters of her childhood.
“Where I come from we don’t have baby food in containers and jars,” the 31-year-old, who now lives in New York, told TODAY Parents. “I’m giving Zuri what my mother gave me. She likes curry. She likes lamb. She likes Jamaican food, too."
But when Walters began sharing cooking videos with Zuri on TiKTok and YouTube, she was inundated with hateful messages. The cruel remarks caught Walters off guard. It never crossed her mind that there would be backlash.
“Who would ever feed their kid that disgusting food,” one person commented on a clip featuring homemade oxtail and rice.
Another person took aim at a sausage dish, writing: “Wtf is that the baby should be getting fruit and vegetables not that crap.”
“My dog wouldn’t even eat that,” added another person.
One troll threatened to call Child Protective Services because Walters fed her toddler lamb curry.
“It hurt my feelings a lot in the beginning," Walters revealed. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”
Dr. Tobi Amosun, a primary care pediatrician and medical director in Nashville, Tennessee, agrees with Walters. Amosun echoed that Walters is doing absolutely nothing wrong.
“The only food I limit before a child is a year old is honey because of botulism, and milk because they don’t need it,” Amosun told TODAY Parents. “I don’t give kids food restrictions after a year as long as they don’t have food allergies.”
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