When did your babe's tongue thrust disappear? Update question post 14 with rant about my ped.

[Buzzer Beater]

We're not set on giving dd solids yet, she's just over six months. The only thing we've tried to feed her, a little mashed banana, she pushes out quite forcefully. (She seems to like the taste, even reaches for more, but def not any going down.) So we'll wait, no problem. Just curious when your babe actually would swallow something.

[Knitting Mama]

A little after 6 months for Cecilia. But she's still at nearly 8 months a very casual solids eater.

[P.J.]

This may sound like a really dumb question, but how can you tell if the tongue thrust reflex is still operating?

DS is just over 6 months (born a few days after your DD!) and his new highchair should arrive tomorrow. As he'll be sitting with us at the table, I'd like to start offering him food but I'm not sure if it's too early because I can't tell if he still has tongue thrust.

[GoBecGo]

My DD still had it 4 weeks ago when a friend's toddler put croissant in her mouth, but it is gone now, and she is tentatively sticking toast, avocado, etc. in there, and i can tell by her nappies that she's swallowing some of it.  She'll be 6months on Saturday.

[Knitting Mama]

Originally Posted by P.J. 

This may sound like a really dumb question, but how can you tell if the tongue thrust reflex is still operating?

DS is just over 6 months (born a few days after your DD!) and his new highchair should arrive tomorrow. As he'll be sitting with us at the table, I'd like to start offering him food but I'm not sure if it's too early because I can't tell if he still has tongue thrust.

Pretty much the only way I know of to test it is to try some food. When I tested Cecilia's back around 6 months, I put a dab of mashed potato (no butter or milk, just potato) on my fingertip and held it near her mouth. She grabbed my finger, pulled it into her mouth and sucked off the potato. When nothing came back out, I knew her tongue thrust was gone, and we did avocado as first food the next weekend.

[MJB]

My babe is 4.5 mos. and only pushes things out if she bites off too big of a piece. 

[Buzzer Beater]

I love seeing pics of everybody's babes!

Aimee, did that avocado go over well then, as in she liked it and got some down?

[Knitting Mama]

Yep! She is a very casual eater so not much ever goes down, but there was enough that I could tell a difference in the consistency of her next BM. Avocado can be really hard to pick up off of highchair trays/tables, so when I give her avocado I generally put it in her mesh feeder. Everything else she gets in chunks. Her favorites now are fish of any sort, butternut squash, avocado and sweet potatoes.

[PatioGardener]

My guy had his until about 7 months, so you are in good company

[Catubodua]

my little guy is almost 10 months old and still will not eat table food and will try to get it out of his mouth if he accidentally gets some in there while playing with the food.

[MammaB21]

DD still had it pretty strong at 6-7 months when we started a small amount of solids and was never a big eater. But my new little guy is only 4 months with no tongue thrust. He's only rejected food that way if it's a big bite or when he's full. I know it's not a popular choice to start solids so young around here, but there is no doubt in my mind that he is totally ready and the kid eats way more then I remember DD EVER eating until she weaned from the breast at almost 3 years. So I think it's a really big range that this happens. I think some kids are ready young and some aren't ready until much older. It's all a variation of normal.

[SeattleRain]

Have you tried rolling the avocado in wheat germ, Cecelia's Mama? I've heard that's a way to make it easier for baby to grab it.

[Knitting Mama]

We aren't doing grains of any sort at this stage.

[Buzzer Beater]

Jeeze Loueeze We had our 6 month check up today. I love my ped to a point- she is great energy, goes the extra mile for us, seems to love our babe and doesn't even remotely hassle us about our very minimal vaxxing. But ugh!

At our 4 month she mentioned we should start rice cereal. We knew we weren't probably ever feeding that, so we just smiled and nodded. Now at 6 mos we're still not feeding and she's turned into... I don't know... somebody really distressing. I told her Georgia still has a tongue thrust and won't take in anything. She said it's not normal. Wha??? Says we have to get her eating 3 meals a day soon because breastmilk doesn't have enough nutrients. And then she referred us to an OT for oral motor skills... she knows we have seen LCs and OTs about Georgia's latch, which has been bad and painful since day one. Are these things related? People shouldn't have to hear shit like this from a doctor they trust. No wonder women don't breast feed. No wonder they don't have good information. I would really dump her in a second but we need a ped... at this point we need her as our liason between us and the geneticists in another town. We have had to travel so much for Georgia's care for her club feet and other things and until we figure out if we have another problem (cystic fibrosis) we need her. Oh man now I am rambling.

Okay does anybody know if bad latch and late tongue thrust add up to anything?

[Super~Single~Mama]

The only thing I can think is, does she have a tongue tie?  Maybe one of the less common types?  I only know what I've read about it here on MDC, but you should be able to ask about it in the BF'ing forum to get more info.

ETA - those dimples are to die for!  Your dd is gorgeous!!!

[Buzzer Beater]

Nobody has ever checked her for tongue tie as far as I remember- if they did it at the hospital when she was born it all got lost in the shuffle of a quick c/sec. Maybe I should just go get an evaluation. I am sooooo sick of doctors at this point. Maybe a new OT could help with her latch? I wonder if it's too late for that.

[Knitting Mama]

I'm SO glad to hear that you're not taking her advice to heart. Breastmilk doesn't have enough nutrients?? What a load of bull-you-know-what. Breastmilk has MORE calories and MORE fat than any table food you could get your baby to eat! Your baby could actually thrive on just breastmilk for the first TWO YEARS of her life if necessary. Good for you for sticking to your guns. A slow introduction of solids is just fine.

[Knitting Mama]

Oh and I don't think she has a late tongue thrust at all! I have known several babies who had a tongue thrust well past 7-8 months, and didn't start getting into solids until a year!

[Hannah32]

My son takes solids enthusiastically from a spoon, no tongue thrust. We started at four months old.

[Llyra]

My DD1 tongue-thrusted until about 7 or 8 months. FWIW, she was later diagnosed with some minor oral motor control problems, and we did a few months of OT to help with the problem. When she did eventually start eating table food, she had a lot of problem with texture and learning to chew. She also had a crappy latch as an infant, to the point that I gave up and pumped for her. I had no idea what else to do, and nobody else seemed able to help-- that's before I wound up here on MDC. She also had some speech delays, and I've often thought the whole thing was related.

Anyway, she's six now and just fine. Her speech is normal for her age. She still struggles with pickiness at meals-- she dislikes food with too much texture, or food that requires a lot of chewing. But she CAN eat anything, if she wants to. The few months of OT we had clued me in to what I could do to help her, and we managed to overcome the problem just fine. I wish I'd known about the OT earlier, so we might have been able to continue breastfeeding.

Here's my take-- your ped sounds hostile. If you didn't need her for other reasons, I'd say fire her, and find somebody who's going to be more professional about airing her concerns. But if you need her, then you just roll with it. Chances are, your LO is just fine, and will learn to eat when she's ready. It's nonsense to say breastmilk hasn't got enough nutrition. It's way more nutritionally dense than most of the foods we commonly offer babies. In your position, though, with a child who's already struggled with poor latch, why not get the eval? The worst that can happen is they say the child's fine, right? Or they'll see a delay, and be able to help with it? Either way you have the reassurance of knowing somebody else is involved, so your ped can't continue to be all hostile about it.