My 15mo won't chew - HELP!

[Southern_Belle]

I need your help. My 15 month old daughter REFUSES to eat anything other than baby food. She FINALLY started eating stage three at 14 months, but she won't ingest anything that requires her to chew. She either has to be able to swallow it or drink it. Even with her yogurt melts. She waits for them to fully melt.

And to be honest, even with the stage three foods, she will keep the "solid bits" in her mouth, and eventually spit them out.

With anything that requires chewing, she either spits it out, or will gag/choke as she tries to swallow the piece almost whole. Also, we do bite-size, slightly smaller than pea sized pieces of food, and she "gags" on these too.

I just don't know what to do. I'm either stuck mashing foods to death, or stuck with baby food. I'm afraid she's not getting the nutrients she needs from real foods (we're a pretty healthy household).

She exclusively had BM for 9months (delaying solids) and then we continued to nurse until about 13 - 13.5 months and we are down to night time nursing only (which is even getting few and far between as she likes to put herself to sleep).

Anyway, any thoughts/help?!?!?! How do I get her to start chewing her food? And it's not like she doesn't like the taste whatever she's attempting to eat, she just won't chew.

[IAMommy]

Some kids have sensory issues that manifest as oral hypersensitivity. She may have a really tough time knowing how to process the texture of non-pureed food.

Here is a link that talks about it http://www.costellokids.com/therapy/...nsitivity.html
and if you do a search on "oral hypersensitivity" you'll find more. You might also want to check out sensory processing disorder http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

I have SPD, and I kind of bridle at it being a label - I think some people are simply much more sensitive than others, but if your DD has one of these problems, an occupational therapist can work with her on it and get her eating normally at some point.

I hope you find some answers!

[Southern_Belle]

Interesting! I'll make sure to bring this up to our ped when we go back next week. Thanks for the links!

One description fits her to a tee - she gags on even the smallest pieces of food. Can be kinda scary!

[tankgirl73]

It could be a sensory issue. But have you tried giving her BIG pieces of food? Like, stuff that won't fit in her mouth so that she has to gnaw on it.

If you're concerned about choking because she doesn't know how to handle bits of food in her mouth that would come off, then give something tasty but hard -- like big meat bones. From what you're describing, it sounds like it MIGHT be that she doesn't realize she's supposed to chew, rather than being specifically that she doesn't like the texture.

FWIW this is one of the reasons I always recommend baby-led solids. With this philosophy, baby's first foods are big chunks that they gnaw on, even if they don't actually ingest anything for awhile. The whole starting-with-runny stuff and only oh-so-gradually increasing the texture does increase the risk for what you've described -- babies get older and they don't know how to deal with bigger bits of food, because the only thing they've ever learned about is mushy stuff.

And I know someone will come on and say "we did mushy foods and my child eats just fine". Some do. I just said it increases the risk.. perhaps a child who is more susceptible to sensory issues might be less likely to manifest in this particular way if you do baby-led solids.

And someone else will come on and say "chicken and egg -- do they have texture issues because of the food they were given, or were they given mushy foods because of the texture issues?" Maybe your child would have had these issues anyway, we can't go back in time.

But whatever the root cause, my suggestion would be to give your child things to encourage them to chew. That means larger things, not little teeny bits. Big things to gnaw on.

Hm, related question - has she ever been much of a gnawer with toys, blankets, etc... putting everything in her mouth and chewing on it?

Also, gagging in and of itself isn't something to worry about. It's the normal protective mechanism to prevent choking. Gagging moves food (or whatever else) from the back of the mouth to the front, or even out -- sometimes violently heh... The gag reflex is much more pronounced in infants, and is located further forward... this provides protection while they are learning to eat, learning to manipulate food in their mouths.

Normally by this age, it's receding to more 'normal' position and response, but some children are on a different schedule. Anyway, I'm just saying, the gagging itself isn't something to worry about, in fact it is happily doing its job of preventing your daughter from inhaling the food bits that she doesn't yet know how to deal with.

[Southern_Belle]

Tankgirl,
Thanks so much for your post!

I actually ask myself this question all the time - if giving in to the whole baby food route could be the culprit. Exclusively breastfeeding for as long as we did was hard enough (well, not for us, but for "our parents") - I gave in when last summer both DH's mom and my mom basically ganged up on me and I had to sit through hours of nagging about what DD should be doing by now and how she was too dependent on me and how I was handicapping her in the long run. All of this coming from women who didn't BF.

Hindsight it 20/20. But I do think you are right. With #2, I am going to stick to my guns. There are some times in the last few months where I've had to say, this is our daughter. I think I'll have to find that voice sooner rather than later with #2 and STICK TO MY GUNS about Baby Led Weaning.

Sometimes, you kinda need that kick in the pants reminder of how certain things are supposed to go/certain things led to XYZ/etc.

She DOES mouth EVERYTHING else besides her food!! Toys, blocks, blankets, etc. You name it, it will go into her mouth! That being said, I think you are on to something with the bigger pieces of food.

[sapphire_chan]

Another thing to try, along with the large pieces of food, sit her on your lap while you eat dinner. Lina's been eating solids for 10 months now (ye ghods, that long??) and she's started this new toddler thing of always wanting to share a plate with me. She'll actually climb out of her high chair and try to start walking across the table to my plate after a few bites of her food.

Yogurt and applesauce, otoh, she tosses her little spoon to one side or shoves it at me, grabs the container and my big spoon, and goes to town. If I say "ahhh??" I might get a drippy spoonful or two offered in my general direction, but generally I don't get any until she's decided she has enough.

Er, so it might not be all in the way you introduced solids, it could just be the 12-who knows how many months old, thing. It's definitely something that 16 month olds do.