A mum-of-one has shared how she feeds her daughter a rather bizarre dish for breakfast: lamb’s brains.
Viviane is mum to Rain, aged two, and started the tot on the unusual dish at just seven months old.
The 29-year-old claims lamb brains should be one of your baby’s first foods after breastmilk or formula.
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It has got people talking too, with her video online amassing over 100,000 likes, leaving users torn in the comments section and worried about potential health issues.
Despite the backlash, Viviane insists the meal is perfectly healthy to consume.
“I’ve eaten them all my life – my father used to make them for my sister and I for breakfast all the time,” she told What’s The Jam.
“We feel amazing when we eat them and my daughter loves them too.
“Lamb brains are a nutrient-dense part of the body that has a powerful impact.
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“The modern-day, marketed ‘baby food’ we see today, like rice cereal and fruit purees in pouches, is just made-up food.
“I give her foods like lamb brains because I want to make sure she gets the best possible nutrition from the very start.
“I also want her to be an adventurous eater and keep her natural hunger cues intact.
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“I don’t want to feed Rain foods like rice cereal, oatmeal or processed foods from the start.
“These will set her up to only want foods like this when she’s older.
“A lot of people [online] thought it was gross and that its quick way to transmit prions disease, which is extremely rare.
“People are so scared of organ meats or nose-to-tail eating.
“But they’ll happily feed their kids processed foods like pop tarts, sugary ice creams filled with chemicals and food dyes, juice boxes and Dunkaroos.
“I think people are so used to highly processed, chemical-filled, sugar-packed foods that they’ve forgotten what real, whole food is so when they see someone eating it, especially a baby, they freak out.”
Viviane is a certified holistic nutrition consultant for babies and has been consuming the delicacy for years.
She added: “I believe strongly in the power of nutrient-dense, traditional, ancestral foods for supporting and building optimal health.
“Nose-to-tail eating is at the heart of ancestral wisdom and I teach parents the benefits of feeding babies this way.
“A child doesn’t need anything else but foods like these.
“My mum loves brains and eats them with us whenever I make them.
“She was actually the one who first brought them to me because she was able to source them near her place, so I asked her to bring them over.”
Viviane started feeding Rain the lamb brains when she was just seven months old but says that there is a window at six months where feeding your little ones nutrient-dense foods prevents them being picky as time goes on.
She explained: “I just fry them in ghee or butter with some salt and serve them with eggs.
“Sometimes, I scramble them together.
“You can also bread them with einkorn flour and egg or even simmer them with eggs, tomatoes, olives, and spices, similar to a shakshouka.
“Foods like lamb brains are so rich in nutrients, they support mood, sleep, and learning.
“You feel full for hours, it puts you in a good mood and you just feel great.”
The dish is believed to be high in cholesterol, protein, omega-3 fatty acids, minerals and choline.
Viviane said: “Babies need cholesterol to build their brains, about 25% of the body’s cholesterol is found in the brain, and it’s critical for the formation and function of nerve cells.
“Lamb brains are full of all of this, making them a great food for growing babies.”
In response to her post on Instagram, one user commented: “Great way to get a prion infection.”
Another person said: “Prions disease risk is too high. Please don’t feed your baby the brains of any animal.”
Someone else said: “I would never feed my child that.”
But others were more on board with the quirky dish.
Idan said: “Considering brains are mostly fats and salts it’s a wonderful food to start out with.”
Another user said: “My father from the Greek village always talks about how this was one of the main foods he’d eat as a young child.”
One person added: “Brains are a delicacy in many countries, including where I live. Western society as a whole think that their way of living is the right way and the rest can go to hell. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
Viviane weighed in on the negativity online and said: “The negative comments don’t bother me at all.
“I actually don’t even have time to read them.
“I’m confident in my choices and how I feed Rain, and that’s all that matters to me.”
