baby keeps food in mouth and takes long to swallow-how to improve?

happyjoy2016

New Member
Hi mummies, anybody have experience dealing with a toddler that eats very slowly. Likes to keep food in the mouth and takes long to completely swallow the food. We have mainly been feeding our 20 month old girl porridge ( with ingredients cut finely and a bit mashed up). This porridge feeding takes about 1 and a half hours to 2hrs. If we feed bottled puree, she will eat much faster. Bottled puree (organic kind) with small pasta and pumpkin and tomato sauce based.

However, we can't be feeding the puree all the time and need to progress to porridge and rice. She seem to be slow on the uptake in chewing food. Is there any way to enable her to learn to chew faster. She already almost has full set of teeth, with back molars. We don't send her to full day childcare, just 2hrs playgroup everyday.

Over there, they have snack time and so she does get to see how other children eats. The other parents with kids in the same playgroup of her age says their kids eats ok.

Would appreciate any experience mummies can share anything that might be of help? Thanks in advance.
 


Hi happyjoy2016,

Its that dreadful phase where they like to keep food in their mouth. I remember when my elder girl was at the age of 1 plus, that was what she like to do. Feeding takes hours and was SO SO frustrating. Those days seemed to last forever!

While I can't say when they will outgrow this, they will eventually. Mine took months and months... Hang in there ok mummy!

Not providing much of a help here but rest assured you are not alone here...


*after she stopped storing food in her mouth... she started storing poo poo in her butt... getting herself constipated :( well thats another story for another day :)
 
Hi happyjoy2016,

Its that dreadful phase where they like to keep food in their mouth. I remember when my elder girl was at the age of 1 plus, that was what she like to do. Feeding takes hours and was SO SO frustrating. Those days seemed to last forever!

While I can't say when they will outgrow this, they will eventually. Mine took months and months... Hang in there ok mummy!

Not providing much of a help here but rest assured you are not alone here...


*after she stopped storing food in her mouth... she started storing poo poo in her butt... getting herself constipated :( well thats another story for another day :)
Thank you for your encouragement. It’s a relief to know that it’s a phase that some go through..

So there was nothing special you did along the way?
 
Nope. Other than to just keep try feeding until things get normal again. It is going to be a dreadful painful and frustrating journey. Don't lose your senses. Get someone else to feed her once a while. A new experience may help.

You can ask for medication from the PD to increase her appetite but I doubt it is necessary. Its not that they don't want to eat, just that they like to keep it in the mouth.
 
@happyjoy2016 don't worry. i think ur girl is simply experimenting or getting used to the idea of chewing and eating. different children react differently. u can buy some toddler biscuit or boiled carrot for her to feed herself to have more practise.

i also feed my children when they were young. now i realised it is wrong. should let them feed themselves. yes, it will be messy but it saves my sanity and time and teach them independence skill. self feed also engage the toddler so they r not bored. don't need to turn on tv or phone or run around the playground chasing them to feed 1 spoonful.
 

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