[nikirj]

My 2.5yo has a strange problem when eating - he will put a bunch of food into his mouth, and then leave it there. It seems random when he does it. Like maybe he gets over-excited and puts too much food in, and then simply can't figure out how to get himself to swallow it - but sometimes the volume is quite small and he still has trouble.

Anyway, it has been really ticking DH off because the usual remedy is after several minutes of him sitting there with the food in his mouth, to take him to the bathroom to spit out the food so that he can continue eating (if we wait for him to swallow it, he may go for hours and still not do it, eventually he'll have to spit it out anyway). He tells DS to "take small bites, chew and swallow" multiple times every time we eat. He has demonstrated taking small bites, practiced it with DS, he even minces up DS's food extremely small.

Last night DS did this three times during one meal. DH lost it and on the third time, yelled at DS when he spit out the food, told him (among other things) "that's BAD - STOP WASTING FOOD!" and DS totally lost it, sobbing and crying and repeating "I bad" over and over and over. DH apologized and cuddled DS and told him he's a very good boy, he loves him, etc, etc, etc - but I'm afraid there was damage done, and DS is a sensitive kid.

So I really have two issues - how the heck to get him to stop storing food in his mouth, and how to get him to "forget" the "I bad" incident.

Any advice?

 

[Eustacia]

Maybe this is odd but I have heard of the food storage issue quite a bit from friends. I'd say I know a half-dozen parents whose dc have done this (holding food from dinner all the way through the bath with lips pursed).

My dd has never done this but I am inclined to recommend simply ignoring it completely. Your concern and anxiety over the food is probably exciting for your dc so the food remains lodged in place while your concern or anger escalates.

 

[tinams8]

My 2 1/2 year old does the same thing, and my dh also can't stand it! I figure he is just learning how to eat still. I'm sure he will grow out of it, and I just tell him to spit out his food when he obviously has too much in there. But dh goes crazy and rants about taking smaller bites. I always joke that dh is micromanaging ds' dinner.

One of my relatives has a 27 year old son and she says she always freaked out about him taking too big bites and not chewing, and now he STILL does it. That made me want to back way off!

 

[TiredX2]

DD did this when younger and she has totally outgrown it at 5.

That said, it did cause cavities. It isn't good for your teeth to hold food against them like that for long periods of time.

Good luck!

Kay

 

[nikirj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiredX2 That said, it did cause cavities. It isn't good for your teeth to hold food against them like that for long periods of time.

This is actually why we are trying to stop it. He has really bad teeth right now. His dentist actually said that at this rate, his front teeth would be capped by the time he was 4 :-(. We are being hypervigilant about brushing his teeth, but the real issue IMO is him sticking food in his mouth for hours (if we allow it or don't notice it). Sure the food-storing is annoying, but that isn't the only issue for us.

I totally didn't realize that so many kids did this. Normally I'd be the wait-and-see kind of person and just allow him to spit things out when he was done with it, but I'm not particularly wanting DS to wind up with dental surgery :-(.