How to get a toddler to CHEW his food

Kelina - posted on 06/09/2012

It doesn't work for everyone and not everyone's comfortable with it. I was and it worked with both my kids. Yes, their mouths got full(not many times lol) but they learned. But then I'm also the strange parent who will give my kids piping hot food and tell them it's hot from the time they're less than a year. It only takes them once of burning their fingers.

Jennifer - posted on 06/09/2012

Check his bite. Some toddlers have a more open bite that actually makes it harder for them to chew properly because their teeth don't quite come together. A friend of mine's son has this problem and if that is the case the DO continue to break up your child's food because it may not be his fault that he's not chewing properly. My friend talked to her dentist about her son's bite and was told that it usually corrects itself on it's own by the time their adult teeth come in so they won't actually try to correct it until he loses his baby teeth. Until then he is actually only chewing with his back molars.

Elfrieda - posted on 06/09/2012

@Kelina, it doesn't really work like that.
If you give a kid like that a banana, for example, he'll bite, then bite again, then bite again, then again. Now, he hasn't chewed at all yet, and now his mouth is too full to do it. If he doesn't know how to spit out food yet (my son's 2.5 and is just learning this skill) it could get scary. He might not choke and die, but it's not really something I'd be comfortable experimenting with.

Kelina - posted on 06/09/2012

Give him big stuff. That'll teach him to take bites that are the right size for him. Stop breaking up his food, he's never going to learn that way. And if you're really worried about the choking, give him soft stuff that will dissolve if he does swallow too much for the first little bit. Otherwise, let him gag. Then remind him he has to chew his food. Don't remind him every time, but once or twice he'll catch on really quick. Gagging, choking, and throwing up are all unpleasant experiences. and if he does throw up-don't feed him again. Wait until the next meal before he gets anything to eat.

Elfrieda - posted on 06/07/2012

My son was the same way, without the throwing up. I wish we would have tried Kim's idea! We just hovered and reminded him, "small bite... no more until your mouth is empty." It was kind of embarrassing to leave him, a 20-month-old, at the church nursery and have to say, "Please watch him if you give him a cracker, he's going to choke himself!" when the 11-month-old beside him is daintily gumming a cracker with no problem.



I also never gave him more than 2 or 3 bites worth of food on his plate at once.



He just snapped out of it one day. Now he's two and a half, and rarely over-stuffs his mouth.

Kim - posted on 06/06/2012

I had the same problem with my middle daughter. We had her hold up her hand and count up to five with one finger for each chew. It took a minute to get her to do it and she didn't really have the manual dexterity yet, but then she loved it, and would even go up to ten sometimes. I don't remember how long she did that, but it did establish good chewing habits!