Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
It is important to create a good match between your child and the food you offer at mealtime. This means presenting food that reflects your child’s overall developmental level, oral motor skills, and preferences. We often see parents get stuck on the idea of “What should my child be eating at this age?” instead of asking “What can my child eat?”. Eating should be thought of as a skill that is developed and not necessarily something that happens automatically at a certain age.
In general, we recommend a sequential approach to introducing solids. When a baby is starting solids, typically at 4 to 6 months depending on their level of interest and readiness, we start with thin purees and gradually increase thickness and texture as they gain skill and confidence. Babies start to develop the following skills when they transition to foods that require chewing:
Tongue Lateralization: moving the tongue from side to side (this is important for moving food to the molars for chewing)
Lip Closure: closing the upper and bottom lip (this is important for spoon feeding, cup, and straw drinking and for keeping food in the mouth while chewing)
Tongue Elevation: lifting the tongue from the floor of the mouth (this is important for clearing food from the roof of the mouth)
Mature Rotary Chew: grinding up more resistive food using all 3 planes of movement (this is important for managing resistive meats, and raw fruits and vegetables)
Here are some tried and true strategies that we use in therapy for kids who are having difficulty learning to chew:
Present purees on the side of the mouth to encourage the tongue to move side to side.
Use thin stick-shaped foods (that you hold one end of) and let your child bite on it with their side gums or teeth. If your baby doesn’t have bigger chewing teeth on the side of the mouth yet, these should be foods that dissolve easily or are soft.
Model chewing with an open mouth and exaggerated movements. Kids often learn by watching what their parents are doing, and modeling how to chew can be a great tool.
Make sure to offer an appropriate bite size. Too big a bite and it will be difficult to move the food around in the mouth to chew…too small a bite and it may be hard for your child to “find” the food with their tongue to move it to the side to chew, and they may just try to swallow it. The right size bite for your child will depend on the size of their mouth as well.
*We understand that Baby Led-Weaning is a popular approach for introducing solids, and for some babies, this works well. However, it is important to really look at your child to determine if this is the best way to introduce solids. If your child is consistently having issues such as frequent gagging/vomiting with meals, near choking, or fear around eating, they may not be ready for this approach. It is possible to take the basic tenets of Baby-Led Weaning and apply it to purees as well. For example, you can put puree and pre-dipped spoons on the tray or table. Let babies touch the food and attempt to self-feed with the utensils. You can also feed them while they are playing and trying to feed themselves. You can still pay attention to your child’s cues and make sure they are letting you know they are ready for the next bite.
