hording food and gagging

[BabySmurf]

is this something I can do to teach my 20 month old not to do that?

when he eats, he tried to shove as much food into his mouth as possible, and then ends up gagging and spitting everything out.  so i started limiting the amount of food that he puts in his mouth, but he still just squirrels what i give him away in there, and usually just spits it out anyway.  and then he isn't interested in eating any more. normal? not normal?

just for some background, we are fighting a yeast issue, and as he is feeling better, he is getting much more easily distracted and he is nursing much less, without really taking in more calories.  i just got a scale and realized that he lost ~2 pounds since his last check up (around 16 months).  i'm not sure how accurate the scale is or when the weight dropped, but it's something that's gnawing at me....help?  he seems otherwise happy and healthy.

[The4OfUs]

I remember reading in numerous places that children won't put more into their mouth than they can chew/swallow.  Apparently *neither* of my children got that particular memo as babies/toddlers...heck, even now.   As toddlers, I just had to give them a few bites at a time of foods they really like.  To this day they both will stuff if it's something they like, or something they don't like (trying to get it over with).  I am hoping/assuming by the time they are interested in a relationship with someone, or in a group of friends out to eat as teens, they will decide to curb it - or they'll learn the hard way because nobody will want to eat with them.  I'm honestly at a loss with it - Shrug.  I'm not going to go all harsh onthem about food, doling out bites at their age because that could lead to more complex issues IMO, so I just remind them, mostly gently but firmly - although sometimes genuinely disgusted or exasperated, that if food is oozing out the sides, or you can't manage to swallow what's in there in one effort, it's too much.  It used to be a hot button, but I really had to learn to let it go.  They're bright, kind, mostly polite, capable kids, they just clearly do NOT care about this issue, and since they're not really hurting anyone, I had to start to not care about it as much either...it's not like I'm going to *punish* a kid for stuffing their mouth with food, you know?  That's a road I don't want to go down...so I continue to model and correct them, and hope that just like every other vexing issue I've faced, it's goign to click one day and be just a memory.

[MrsGregory]

Us too.

I have also heard the "Babies won't put more in their mouth than they can manage." line, and like some other things I've heard, it's malarky. 

As a curiosity (don't judge me, please!) I let Little Miss cram in as much zucchini bread as she could one day... sure enough, out the sides, some gagging, some nimble fingers on Mama saved the day, and I continue to make the "Pay attention!" noise at her and say the word "Careful!" when I see her going for a second mouthful before the first one is swallowed.

It's with foods she really likes.  We don't have this problem with lentils.  
 

But she will continue to eat after she over-stuffs, unlike your little sweetness.  I'm sorry, I don't know what to say there.  Can you revert to placing food in his mouth?

[BabySmurf]

Well, I am glad to hear that the mouth stuffing is more of a character trait!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsGregory 

Us too.

I have also heard the "Babies won't put more in their mouth than they can manage." line, and like some other things I've heard, it's malarky. 

As a curiosity (don't judge me, please!) I let Little Miss cram in as much zucchini bread as she could one day... sure enough, out the sides, some gagging, some nimble fingers on Mama saved the day, and I continue to make the "Pay attention!" noise at her and say the word "Careful!" when I see her going for a second mouthful before the first one is swallowed.

It's with foods she really likes.  We don't have this problem with lentils.  
 

But she will continue to eat after she over-stuffs, unlike your little sweetness.  I'm sorry, I don't know what to say there.  Can you revert to placing food in his mouth?

It really is amazing how much they can stuff into their mouths!! I think that he is starting to understand that he is supposed to swallow in between bites, but it's still quite an endeavor to get him to eat.  It's funny, DS will do it to any food that he is willing to eat.  Almost like he doesn't quite know how to use his teeth yet, and is just attempting to suck the juice out of things.  Seriously, sometimes hours will go by, and then all of a sudden he will ask for my hand to spit things into. 

I've tried to go back to spoon feeding, but he will go nutty asking for more before he even has him mouth closed from the first bite.  If I tell him he has to swallow first, he will either go for the food himself, or he will give up and say all done, and won't really take more.  It's weird.  Maybe there is a little miscommunication there....He's only recently becoming interested in food on a semi regular basis, so it's hard for me to anticipate exactly how much of what foods at what times he should be getting.

BTW, I think I need to make some zucchini bread now, that just sounds so fabulous right now! 

[graciegal]

My 22 MO DD is a stuffer. I am always saying "Small bites" and "Chew" - it makes me look like I am micromanaging her eating, which I kinda am, but only because she will stuff SO much into her mouth at once!