Feeding Questions

Our twins are just over a year and we are feeding table food. Both girls are doing pretty well just have a few questions. Kaytlin is doing great with picking things up and getting them to her mouth, but every time she gets something in her mouth she uses her tongue to push it back out. Other than keep trying has anyone had this problem and was there anything that you could do that might keep them from doing it.

Next question, Alivea does really well getting the food in her mouth and chewing but she tends to store things in her cheeks. We had given them some food the other night and an hour later after scooping her mouth we found some left over food in there, just worried that she might choke.

And ideas?

 

WOW! I don't know what to tell you. Do they swallow ANY of it? If you give blueberries, is their poo blue/black? If you give carrots or other orange food, is it that color? (get where I am going?) If they are getting enough and swallowing, you might have to check your little baby chipmunk after dinner. (I feel like my DD had food in her mouth for a long time after she at because she didn't have teeth, so it took a LONG time to get it broken down).

Does your tongue pusher gag or anything if she swallows? Maybe she's not wanting to swallow because of it?

I might talk to your pedi about it to see what they think is going on. They've seen it all and may be able to either explain or help!

 

I agree with Diane, and I know that I mentino to a speech therapist one time about storing food in the cheeks, and she said it's called "pocketing." It's not normal after a certain age, but I forget what it is...somewhere around a year. Also, the tongue thrust reflex, if that's what it is, is supposed to be gone by this age. Not trying to worry you...and that may not even be exactly what's going on. Either way, your pedi can refer you to a speech therapist tht can work on both of these problems.

 

Thank you for your replies,

It just seems weird that this has just started in the last week or so. They do really well with their baby food and rice cereal. Kaytlin only seems to have this problem when we sit down at the table as a family. She eats Puffs really well and that has a crunchy texture to them, she will also eat crackers, waffles, pancakes, toast, just don't know why she don't take things like Mac & Cheese, peas and things of that sort. I guess I should have added all this to the first post, I just don't like haveing really long posts

Once again thank you, we planned on giving it a few more days and seeing how it goes and then go from there.

 

quote:
She eats Puffs really well and that has a crunchy texture to them, she will also eat crackers, waffles, pancakes, toast, just don't know why she don't take things like Mac & Cheese, peas and things of that sort.


You might be onto something. Maybe it has to do with the texture. They might be able to get a better grip on the crunchier foods. Maybe the mac and cheese and peas are slippery and they are having a hard time manipulating them in their mouths. How many teeth do they have? The food might be slipping right over their gums.

 

They both have 9 teeth

 

I think that the texture of the food might be the problem. Watch them and definitely try to remove whatever food is getting into Alivea's cheeks. If it doesn't improve then ask your pedi.

 

I think all pp's had great (and futher experienced) advice than I can provide. Just wanted to let you know we have a little chipmunk too. A couple things we do that seems to help:

*Sit & eat with them and keep saying, "chew, chew, chew" while making overexaggerated chewing motions.

*Continue offering milk sippy...especially when those cheeks get filled & after a meal. I think having the milk reminds him to swallow.

*Dole out the food...one...piece...at...a...time. This gets REALLY old, but once they get better at it (swallowing), you can throw a few pieces out at a time.

 

rachel wanted to push things out even while spoon feeding and I told her No, eat that. you like that. chew it up and swallow it. i just kept saying that and kept trying and she is a good eater now. you may also try giving a spoon and see if that helps. or cut finger foods up in smaller pieces.