Mum influencer divides followers with steak and lobster 'birthday cake' for toddlers

Toddlers are notoriously fussy, especially when it comes to food.

But one mum’s attempt to appease her little ones and give them a special, and unique, treat has been met with shock, horror and concern on social media.

The 31-year-old, who goes by the name Dani Fitmom on TikTok and Instagram, shared footage of her one-year-old daughter and two-year-old son tucking into a special meal on their respective birthdays.

But rather than the decorated cake and candles you’d normally expect to see, Dani served her kids “tomahawk steak and wild-caught lobster” with “grass-fed organic butter”.

“It’s our family tradition – surf n’ turf platter to celebrate!” the mother-of-two, who’s pregnant with her third, explained in a caption.

“Both my kids prefer steak over sweets so this is how we do it.”

In the two clips, the children can be seen gnawing at the large steak bone, after apparently stripping it clean of meat.

Alongside the video of her son, Dani explained that he had “requested ‘moo’ and ‘fish’ for his bday.”

Her posts have racked up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes, as viewers continue to clash over the celebratory spread.

One commentator branded it “child abuse” while another told Dani she should “teach [her son] to be vegetarian or vegan.”

Another said: “Poor kid is gonna get cancer, high cholesterol, obesity, and a lower life span.”

And a third argued: “This actually looks fire, but cake is a childhood birthday staple and it can't be replaced.”

However, fans were quick to spring to Dani’s defence, with one writing: “Wait, [I’m] confused why are people finding this offensive?”

They added: “[The son] likes meat, he got meat, how is this abuse? I didn’t think anyone in the comments was gonna react like this. Crazy.”

Another said: “Ex vegan here, now eat animal-based with our 2-year-old and I LOVE this.”

And a third pointed out: “This is so common in Argentina! We celebrate with bbq instead of cake.”

The proud stay-at-home mum eventually tackled the vitriol herself, in a video addressed to “all you haters that keep asking me why I can’t just do a normal birthday cake”.

“It's because most birthday cakes and cookies are filled with nasty artificial dyes, most of which are banned in Europe, but still very widely used in the US, and it's a known cancer link,” she said.

“It's known to cause behaviour and learning issues, known to have adverse effects on attention, irritability, hypersensitivity, all that. So it's like, why would I pay a lot of money to give that to my daughter on her birthday? Especially because she's only one year old.”

Dani then claimed that she “did reach out to several local companies” and “asked about their ingredients,” but said she was “shocked" at both the contents and cost.

“They're way more expensive than you would think they are,” she said of the cakes and cookies on offer. “And it's like they're using the most nasty, cheap ingredients with those food dyes.

“Why in the world would you pay all that money to give your child something that could potentially harm them?”

She then acknowledged that she could make her own cakes but admitted: “I'm not really into that”.

Still, she went on: “If my daughter ever asks for a cake, of course I would make her own healthy cake, and I know I could do that.

“But at one year old, she's not asking for cake,” she continued, adding that the little girl would “rather” have steak.

“She absolutely loves it,” Dani insisted. “So until she asks me for cake, I don't see any problem in continuing our amazing family tradition where she's enjoying it, the whole family's enjoying it, everyone's happy and everyone's staying healthy.”

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