Parents Share Alarming Video Of Shopping With Their Newborn In Target — 'They Are Making Tons Of Money Using Their Baby As A Prop'
The baby just wanted to go home and take a nap. Her parents had other plans.
@alixandstephenshow / TikTok A video of a couple taking their newborn baby shopping through the aisles of Target is breaking the hearts and boiling the blood of other parents for all the right reasons.
People are now slamming the couple as “irresponsible” for seemingly using their baby for social media likes and shares. Some are even going as far as reporting the couple to CPS in hopes that the baby will be placed into better care.
With no context, the video appears to be a completely normal one of new parents proudly taking their newborn baby to Target for her first outing. However, once we learn the background of the video, it makes it all the more disturbing.
The parents took their newborn to Target right after she was discharged from the NICU.
The video was posted on TikTok by content creators Alix and Stephen (@alixandstephen) depicting their first outing at the store with their newborn daughter, Miya — on the same day she was released from the NICU.
The NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) is a unit in the hospital that specializes in treating infants who are sick or born prematurely (born anytime before 37 weeks gestation).
According to the couple in a previous video, little Miya spent a week in the NICU before she was discharged due to having “underdeveloped lungs” and being “underweight.” Even by the time she left, she was only four pounds and nine ounces.
Usually when babies are first released from the NICU, their parents are given strict instructions to keep them at home and lay low to avoid compromising their already fragile immune systems even further. Instead, the parents decided that Miya’s first stop out of the NICU would be at a Target, where her father carried her through the aisles one-handed.
At one point, Miya’s mother Alix, who is behind the camera, encourages her husband to dangle the infant in the air with one hand. The parents then laugh at their incredibly small newborn’s unamused expression.
However, most people on the Internet did not find it as funny as the couple did and responded to the video before it was deleted.
Many parents were outraged that the couple would even risk their baby’s health, considering that she was fresh out of the NICU.
They could not even fathom putting their own children through the same. “After my kids were born, I was the parent that was sitting in the backseat and criticizing my husband for driving and hitting every bump on the way home,” said TikTok user @lovee.miss.lauren. “I cannot imagine your baby finally getting out of the NICU, taking them to Target, and then dangling them like the Lion King baby over that hard flooring.”
She adds that she is saddened by what the world has come to, and how parents will put their children in unsafe situations just to generate more clicks.
Other parents have called for all of us to stop showing our support for family content creators like Alix and Stephen who simply use their children as props in their videos instead of treating them like people.
“They are making tons of money using their baby as a prop,” says TikTok user @erin.monroe_. “We have to stop supporting them and the companies that work with them.” This consists of any company that is sponsoring their videos.
Erin claims that it is the only way family content creators will stop exploiting their children and putting them in harm's way.
“There is no other reason why they would be flinging their baby around the aisles of a Target the second they leave the NICU,” she adds of Alix and Stephen.
The video was also especially upsetting to parents who have had children in the NICU, a heartbreaking journey they do not wish on anyone. Many of them shared that they never even imagined taking their baby out and exposing them to germs when they were finally discharged.
“I had two NICU babies. One died in my arms. The other stayed in the NICU for 105 days. We isolated for over a YEAR after he came home,” one parent revealed in the comments section.
“My oldest spent five weeks in the NICU!! She was in a bubble for four weeks after that. This video made me so mad,” another user wrote.
Medical professionals advise against taking babies recently released from the NICU out to public places for the first few weeks.
While every newborn coming home from the hospital for the first time must be treated with delicacy and protection from their parents, babies who endured a NICU stay need to be especially monitored since they have higher chances of contracting illnesses and infections than infants who do not spend any time in the NICU.
According to March of Dimes, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping new moms and infants healthy, parents should avoid taking their NICU baby to any public spaces besides the doctor’s office for routine checkups for the first few weeks. It is important to allow that time for your baby to rest and recover (they will definitely need it!).
It is also wise to limit how many visitors come in and out of your home when your baby is newly discharged, and ensure that they wash their hands and do not have any sicknesses before meeting the baby.
Additionally, it is not a good idea to dangle your NICU baby with one hand over a hardwood floor. Instead, you must support their heads and neck, since they do not have much control over them themselves. When you lift a newborn baby, place one hand under the head, and one hand under the bottom, per Healthline.
Thankfully, the parents realized their mistake and posted a follow-up video apologizing for their actions.
Miya's father Stephen took to TikTok to issue an apology to all of the "young moms and healthcare workers" that he scared with his actions. "I wanted to promise to you all that I will never pick her up like that again," Stephen says.
He assures viwers that little Miya is now thriving, and includes a video-clip to prove it. He has also learned from he and his wife's mistakes, and encourages other NICU parents to refrain from taking thier babies out in public so soon after they are discharged. "Know your kids and be careful," he warns.
Your NICU baby will have their whole life to go to Target. Instead, spend their first few weeks of life loving on them, keeping them safe within your own home, and do not sweat getting all the likes and shares on social media.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.