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My 18 month stores food in his cheeks

Abigail - posted on 06/21/2010 ( 4 moms have responded )

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My 18 Month old stores food in his cheeks. He has done it since he started solid foods. The pediatrician had a swollow study done before he was a year old, which somehow was an expensive test that came back normal, and we have been working with a speech therapist and OT with this issue. He has not started talking much but the storing of the food has been one of the bigger issues. The rest of his development is Average or Above Average. He has had the heimlich manouver performed on him at daycare due to this as well. We always remove the food from his cheeks before he gets down from his chair after eating, but we aren't sure why he does this. The speech therapist thought it was due to texture but he doesn't always do this with the same foods. One week he will swallow all of his food and the next week he could have some of the same foods and store them. Just wondering if anyone else deals with this as well.

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Caitlin - posted on 06/22/2010

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I was always worried about the choking thing too, which is why I taught her in order to get down form the chair, she has to either eat whats in her mouth or put it back on her plate. It took about a week for her to figure it out. Now if she tries to get down before with her cheeks full (because she just learned the word "down") she asks to get down when she is done, and if her mouth is full, I say "sorry, I don't understand, your mouth is full" and wont let her down until she swallows or spits it out. It works well for us.

Abigail - posted on 06/22/2010

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The only reason it has become an issue with my child is due to the fact that it has gone on for so long and he sometimes chokes on the food he stores.

Caitlin - posted on 06/21/2010

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Chipmunk syndrome.. (that's what I call it..) My daughter does this too sometimes, and I have no idae why, myabe because she is sav ing it for later. I tell her she either has to swallow the food or put it back on the plate at the end of the meal and she'll listen now. I never really thought that it was a big problem though.. My family thinks it's hillarious to see her pack it all in..

Abigail - posted on 06/21/2010

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Let me add that he is not a picky eater and would leave the food in his cheeks for hours if we let him. This just seems like it has gone on for too long at this point and I do not think it is a texture thing.

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