A toddler covered her face in sauce while eating spaghetti at a fast food chain.
Rhianna Lexy Cayabyab, the spirited one-year-old, turned the simple pasta meal into a full-on ‘hands-on’ dining experience at a Jollibee fast food restaurant in Manila.
Footage shows Rhianna, whose parents are following the baby-led weaning method, eagerly scooping up handfuls of spaghetti and shoving them into her mouth on August 12.
Moments later, the little foodie, smothered in sauce on her face, grabbed a spoonful of rice and ate it enthusiastically before returning to the long strands of pasta.
She can be seen pulling the noodle threads to break them in half before slurping them.
Her white-and-orange dress was not spared either, smeared liberally with the red goo as she rubbed her hands across the fabric.
Nearby, her parents watched proudly, quietly admiring their daughter as she enjoyed her meal alone despite the mess. They said they were raising her with ‘baby-led weaning’ so she learns to eat food herself from a young age.
Her mother, Lovely Rose Ignacio, posted the now-viral video on Facebook on August 12, amassing 13 million views and 17,600 likes so far.
This amused online users.
“That’s how you enjoy,” a Facebook user said.
“Enjoy eating spaghetti, baby,” another said.
“Batang may konting spaghetti,” a commenter quipped.
Others advised Rhianna’s parents to teach the child how to eat properly.
“Wala naman masama as long as itatama din si Baby as she grows older. I think it’s okay as long as the parents cleaned up their baby’s own mess after eating like that,” a Facebook user said.
Ignacio explained that they are training Rhianna in “baby-led weaning.”
“We decided to train her in baby-led weaning so she could learn independence from a young age,” Ignacio said.
“She knows how to feed herself, even at just one year old. The mess doesn’t bother us — I always come prepared with extra clothes,” she added.
Baby-led weaning (BLW) is an approach to introducing solid foods that allows babies to self-feed from the very start, rather than being spoon-fed purees. It encourages infants to explore textures, develop motor skills, and gain confidence with food.
However, there are risks, such as infants choking and gagging on food – as well as the mess it creates for others to clean.
There is also yet to be any conclusive scientific evidence that baby-led weaning aids a baby’s development.
—With reports by Rosette Adel and Viral Press via Reuters Connect