Gemma Atkinson proudly announced that her baby son Thiago has already started eating porridge, despite being just four months old. The official guidance from the NHS on weaning is that a baby should start on solid food at around six months, but Thiago – the son she shares with Strictly Come Dancing pro Gorka Marquez – has already been scoffing porridge for weeks.
The 39-year-old’s decision to give him solids early, after declaring she “knew he was ready”, has sparked concern from some mums, who told her they didn’t want her “spreading misinformation” to other parents. However, Gemma, who says she has consulted with a “private baby physio”, stated that she has always advised individual parents to make their own choices about their children’s development.
The debate began when the former Hollyoaks star shared a proud update to her Instagram Stories. “A few of you have asked if we introduced the porridge. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I knew he was ready so we started a few weeks back,” she revealed.
“He has two bowls a day for now and he absolutely loves it. He gets excited when he sees the bowl.” She then added: “Obviously everyone parents differently and no one knows your baby better than you so always do what you think is best.”
One mum quizzed curiously: “How did you know he was ready for the porridge? He’s adorable and only a few weeks younger than my little lady.” Gemma responded: “I knew as it was the same things [four-year-old daughter] Mia did [when she was Thiago’s age].
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“Draining his bottles and still rooting for more (even with a 6 ounce), taking an interest in watching us eat, picking his lips when I was eating and reaching for my food if I was eating with him on my knee.”
She added: “He’s a lot bigger than Mia was as well so u knew he was defo ready!” (sic)
However, she received a backlash from concerned fans, with one arguing: “None of them are signs of readiness lovely. Signs of readiness are sitting up with no or little support, no tongue thrust and being able to put food up to their mouth themselves.
“Look on the NHS website, draining bottles and watching you eat are not signs of readiness. Just really don’t want you spreading misinformation to new mams.”
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Gemma replied: “That’s why I always say ppl should do their own research. I spoke with a private baby physio who told me that the sitting up with no support is down to a baby’s weight and size – not food related at all, hence why they all do it at different stages.” (sic)
She added: “The sitting up for food is to reduce choking hazards. Weaning with different foods of course you wait for the 6 month mark.”
Meanwhile, Gemma also made it clear that she has no intention of giving him foods with a harder texture such as breadsticks at this stage, and that she’ll just stick to a porridge made by the same brand as his milk.
She added that little Mia had also started the weaning process earlier than usual, with no issues.
Gemma then suggested that she felt the official guidelines on the NHS website had a tendency to change from time to time too.
“There never seems to be any actual evidence or reason why which is a shame as it’d help us mums a lot more. I understand hospitals have policies they stick to but for me as a 2nd time mum I’m a lot more confident in my decisions for them. 100 per cent each to their own though for sure,” she concluded.
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