A mother has been accused of “child abuse” after feeding her toddler Wasabi for the first time.
In the 30-second video that went viral, Rosie can be seen sitting in her high chair with food all around her, and the little girl seems obsessed with the wasabi before trying it.
“You want to try wasabi?” the mom asked.
The little girl responds “no.”
But then Rosie looks interested in trying wasabi, so the mom asks again: “Do you want to try it?” as her daughter looks curiously at the wasabi, before again saying “no.”
However, as Rosie’s mom is about to put it away, it seems the toddler did in fact want to try it by saying “wasabi”.
Asking her again if she wants to try it, Rosie’s mom puts a tiny blob on a chopstick and told her to smell it first. Rosie then opens her mouth and takes a tiny bite of wasabi paste and swishes it inside her mouth as she assesses the taste.
But after a few seconds of tasting it, Rosie realizes that she does not like the taste, and the messy-faced child looks and stares at the camera saying: “help.”
At the time of this writing, the video gained more than 14 million views and been shared 211,000 times, and received a lot of different reactions.
However, while some think it is adorably funny, others are not impressed with the mother’s parenting skills.
The clip drew outrage among netizens in the comment section. Some viewers have been infatuated with the little girl’s “adorable” reaction but several of them call her mom’s decision to feed her daughter wasabi child abuse.
“Who feeds a baby Wasabi after they say no twice,” one person commented. “Not funny at all. Don’t believe that it didn’t hurt. That baby did NOT want to try it, she was learning to speak.”
“Someone needs to turn this video into authority for child abuse!” another one added. “Wasabi burns, and when it does burn the mouth it could also choke the kid.”
“Not only is that not adorable, but I’m sure that’s borderline abuse,” another commenter said. “That poor girl. She also wasn’t really “warned” more like coaxed into it. Why would the mom laugh at her reaction?”
“Poor girl is abused, she is dirty,” another one added. “She has probably force-fed wasabi before filming this. She is looking for help to be rescued from this monster of a mum. It is not funny. Nor is it cute. And should be reported. Disgusting how it keeps getting picked up from feed to feed”.
“This is child abuse,” a person wrote. “A child of this age already knows good from wrong and clearly, some people don’t understand the meaning of being a parent. There are limits until children are older to prank”.
Though others were a big fan of the video and have been supportive of the mom’s choice to feed her daughter spicy food.
“You guys, she didn’t take a giant bite, she barely put any on her tongue,” one person argued.
“Yes, it’s hot but come on it’s ok for kids to try new things. This is not abuse at all. My baby wanted to try my buffalo sauce just to realize: “Oh that’s what spicy means.” It’s ok. The child will live to fight another day”.
“If you want to see what real child abuse looks like you should try working for CPS (Child Protective Services),” a second person added.
“Rosie, you are an adorable brave child who reminds me of my daughter, don’t ever stop trying new things,” another person wrote.
And others have compared the video to harmless videos of kids where parents feed their children lemons for the first time and record their reactions.
According to the website ‘Parenting Healthy Babies’, feeding your child a small amount of wasabi is harmless and could even be beneficial as wasabi is known for its anti-inflammatory properties and is used as a digestive aid.
The spicy condiment can also help cavity prevention and help rid your baby of toxins.
Dr. Lisa Lewis, a pediatrician and author of “Feed the Baby Hummus,” has told The Independent that introducing flavorful food at a young age can prevent picky eating and there is no reason infants need to eat plain food.
Although little Rosie was unhappy with the taste, it is doubtful that she will endure any lasting effects from her experience with wasabi.