Can the Baby Be Able to Swallow Solids

Y'all sit to a repast with your babe and lovingly place a picture-perfect plate on the table with 2 or three unlike types of foods, camera ready. Next matter you know you're tossing the photographic camera; your heart has stopped, and y'all're prepared for some hands-on support because your baby has filled their rima oris to the brim with too much food. You're sure they'll choke.

Or peradventure yous are getting your baby ready for a bath and you lot notice your baby nonetheless has food in their oral cavity…from the dinner, which was 45 minutes ago.

If this sounds at all familiar, you are not alone! When babies go along the food in their cheeks or put too much in to begin with it's chosen food pocketing, food packing, over-stuffing, or shoving. So why do babies do it and what can you do nigh it?

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What is over-stuffing?

Over-stuffing is only like it sounds — your baby or child puts too much food in their rima oris and information technology interferes with their ability to successfully chew and swallow.

What is food pocketing?

Pocketing nutrient or food packing is when your child holds nutrient in their mouth for an extended corporeality of time without swallowing. Usually babies and children pocket food in 1 of a few places:

• Inside either cheek
• In the very front of their mouth
• Confronting the roof of their mouth

Why do babies and toddlers shove too much food in their mouths?

Babies overstuff their mouth for a variety of reasons:

• They are withal learning how much food is likewise much.
• They enjoy playing and tasting the foods.
• They just don't know how to have it slow…nonetheless.

Food stuffing is common in infancy and fifty-fifty in toddlerhood. Our feeding specialists written report seeing lots of over-stuffing in baby-led weaning infants from half dozen-12 months, while non-babe-led weaning babies tend to over-stuff from 9-xviii months.

Food stuffing seems to be a phase most babies go through and there's good reason for information technology! Your baby is learning where everythingis within their rima oris. Since they can'tlook at the inside of their rima oris, they rely on touch awareness and feedback from the muscles in the tongue, jaw, and cheeks. This helps create what'southward known equally a "map" of the mouth.

Imagine you are chewing a bite of omelet and of a sudden crisis into a pocket-size flake of eggshell. A number of things happen at that moment.

1. Y'all pause and immediately "flick" where that eggshell is located in your oral cavity.
2. You sift around the nutrient in your rima oris until you isolate the tiny eggshell.
3. Yous scoop information technology up and motility it dorsum to the forepart of your mouth with your tongue.
4. You spit it out.
5. Yous go along to finish chewing and swallowing the bite of omelet in your oral fissure.

This level of sensory awareness within your mouth takes years to strop and is incredibly important to safely chew and swallow all textures of food.

Then, how does your babe build a map of the mouth? Biting down against a piece of nutrient which touches multiple points in your baby'due south oral fissure at once (i.e., the tongue, gums, roof of the oral cavity and the lips) helps your baby relate each of these areas to ane another. In fact, the bigger, firmer, and more flavorful the slice of food, the more input information technology gives your baby. So, when your baby stuffs likewise much nutrient in their mouth, they tend to get a actually articulate "pic" of what'southward going on inside their mouth. Yes, it can be scary and risky, but it has a purpose!

Julian, 10 months, stuffs a kiwi into his oral cavity.

What should I do when my baby puts as well much food in their mouth?

At that place are 2 elements to consider when babe stuffs their oral fissure with likewise much nutrient: helping in the moment and helping long-term.

How to address over-stuffing in the moment:

1. Stay calm.Take a deep breath and be patient. You lot don't want to scare your infant and, while it may feel like an emergency, it is not.
2. Talk to your baby. Calmly tell them, "That'due south a niggling too much in your mouth, let's spit some out."
3. Coach to spit. Encourage your babe to spit out the food. In an exaggerated manner, spit out a small bit of your own food with your tongue, and concur your mitt in front of your baby's oral fissure, ready to catch their nutrient.
4. Clear the food from the tray. Brand sure your baby does not continue to put more food in their oral fissure.
5. Utilize gravity if needed.Lean your baby forward gently so gravity tin aid them spit out the food. If your baby pushes dorsum against y'all, kneel downwardly in front of them to encourage looking down, which again allows gravity to help them spit out the nutrient.
6. Do not finger sweep or attempt to remove the food. Allow your babe work information technology out. If over-stuffing turns to pocketing (where your infant isn't moving the food around at all and instead storing it in their mouth somewhere) employ the strategies described beneath to get that food out of their oral cavity before leaving the table.

Julian, 10 months, shoves a whole kiwi half into his mouth.

How to address over-stuffing long-term:

With all things feeding, you want to go on the long game in listen. The long-term goal is to raise an independent, healthy, happy, confident eater.

• Eat with your baby.Babies love to watch and learn. Assist them quickly get by the over-stuffing phase by sitting down and eating together. They will sentinel and learn from y'all!
• Talk to your baby.Every time you see your baby starting to over-stuff, tell them: "That looks similar a lot of food in your mouth. Finish that seize with teeth kickoff." Or: "Tiresome downward, you have too much in your oral fissure."
• Let them investigate.In one case your baby spits out the wad of food, don't take it away! Information technology may seem gross, but looking at information technology, touching information technology, and even allowing your baby to pick it back up and try over again can be extremely valuable learning. You can point to the mass of food and say: "See, that was too much. Accept a smaller seize with teeth."
• Become big! Around 9-12 months former, your baby is probable chewing better and knows how to spit out nutrient, if needed. Starting time coaching them to take bites off larger pieces of foods. Babies effectually 9-12 months erstwhile love to selection upwardly pocket-size pieces of food and practice their pincer grasp merely dicing foods into small-scale pieces at every repast for 9-24-calendar month-old babies denies them the run a risk to do the important skill of taking a pocket-size seize with teeth from a large slice. As e'er, show them how it's done. If your infant needs support, hold softer foods at the front end of their oral fissure for front teeth to bite through, or teach them to use their molars with more resistive foods, like meat, where they will acquire to seize with teeth, hold, and pull.

It can exist tempting to endeavour to foreclose over-stuffing by only putting i bite at a time on your infant's tray. However, we don't recommend this since in that location are some benefits to over-stuffing and information technology's not a long-term solution. Regardless, your baby volition likely go through a phase of over-stuffing once you end limiting the amount of nutrient on the tray.

Why do babies and toddlerspocket food in their cheeks or oral fissure?

There are a few reasons why a babe or toddler might pocket food or concur food in their mouth without swallowing. The most mutual reason is merely defective the sensory awareness and/or natural language coordination to fully chew and swallow certain foods. Instead, they chew or suck on the nutrient, and pocket information technology.

Some babies may accidentally pocket food, or the food moves to a identify in the mouth where the baby can't quite become it back out. Other babies are purposeful in their pocketing — holding the food in the same spot every time because they don't feel confident about safely swallowing.

Just like over-stuffing, food pocketing is often totally normal in 6-12-calendar month-quondam babies as they map and acquire the boundaries and spaces of their mouth. Pocketing should happen less as your baby builds the "map" of their rima oris and develops the natural language coordination and jaw strength to successfully chew and swallow foods. Information technology's very possible to meet pocketing beyond 12 months, specially with challenging-to-chew textures.

Is nutrient pocketing dangerous?

Well, sort of. Any time food is held in the mouth for an extended period of time or the oral fissure is so full of food that it can't be fully chewed, there is increased adventure of choking.

Over-stuffing the mouth maylook more dangerous and scarier to a parent because you lot canmeet it. Pocketing tin seem less dangerous mayhap because information technology'south not as obvious and piece of cake to miss. However, food pocketing may be more than concerning than over-stuffing. The longer the food sits in your babe's mouth, the more likely your baby or child will have moved on to something else, potentially unsupervised and forget all about the nutrient, which is a serious choking risk. Pocketing also carries a significant risk for molar disuse and cavities as food sits for an extended menstruation of time confronting your kid's teeth.

What should I do if my baby or kid pockets nutrient?

If your infant or toddler is ofttimes pocketing food and storing it in their cheeks similar a chipmunk, you will need to address this in the moment to get the food out of their mouthand aid them break the habit over fourth dimension.

How to accost food pocketing in the moment:

1. Watch your baby closely.If, subsequently a infinitesimal or so of chewing, they take not swallowed, remind your baby to swallow the food. Yous can show "swallow" by swallowing a bit of your own nutrient (or drink) while running your hand from your lips, along your throat, and down to your stomach.
2. Jitney your baby.If demonstrating swallowing doesn't work, tell your baby, "You can spit that out," and show how information technology'southward done in an exaggerated fashion. Spit out a modest chip of food with your tongue while holding your mitt in front of your babe's mouth to take hold of the food.
3. Offer a drink.If coaching doesn't work, offering a small sip of water, breastmilk, or formula to potable. You are trying to help wash downwardly the nutrient and clear the mouth. Ideally, offer an open loving cup rather than a straw cup. An open up loving cup allows liquid to enter your child's mouth right at the front to clear all areas. When we sip from a harbinger, the liquid enters the mouth further dorsum and may miss the food if it's sitting towards the front of the mouth.^[1]
4. Carefully remove the nutrient.As a last resort, if the higher up steps practice non work, you will need to help your baby get the food out of their mouth. This should be done with extreme care, as any time yous put your fingers or an object in your babe's mouth yous increase the adventure of pushing that food back into their throat, which is a significant choking risk. However, leaving food to sit in your infant's mouth subsequently a repast also increases the risk of choking. You lot tin can clear the food with your finger or with a toothbrush. Either way, you want to get-go know where the nutrient is sitting in your baby's mouth, so effort to look by request them to open up. Carefully get into your babe's rima oris along the side (the inner cheek), not in the middle of their oral cavity, and sweep the food out.

How to address pocketing to break or prevent the habit:

1. Build sensation.You lot want to help your baby or toddler build sensory awareness within the mouth, as well equally develop tongue coordination and jaw forcefulness to chew food and move information technology back to eat. This comes with lots of practice eating both like shooting fish in a barrel and challenging-to-chew foods. Long, unbreakable stick-shaped foods are ideal for this: 1) Beefiness or pork ribs with most of the meat cutting off and all fibrous or loose bits removed; 2) mango pits with most of the fruit cut off; iii) Corn on the cob with almost of the kernels cut off. All of these are extremely difficult, if not impossible for a baby or young toddler to seize with teeth through. However, gnawing or sucking on these foods build strength and coordination in your baby'southward jaw and tongue muscles, while also giving lots of sensory input to the jaw, gums, tongue, and roof of the mouth. This helps build that mental "map" of the mouth! Your babe won't get much nutrition from these foods, so consider them exercises for your baby'due south rima oris.
2. Keep it like shooting fish in a barrel.When it comes to actually chewing and swallowing foods, your baby may pocket less with soft, well-cooked foods. Dry textures (similar bread or chicken without sauce) may be challenging. Avoiding dry out foods for a few weeks tin can help your baby practice chewing and moving food back to consume, rather than develop a addiction of pocketing challenging-to-chew or dry out foods. In a few weeks, try again with more challenging foods.
3. Pump up the season!Offering your baby lots of foods with slightly tart or sour bright flavors: oranges or lemons, mashed blackberries, marinara sauce, and tangy yogurt are all examples. These types of foods "wake up" the muscles of mouth and lead to increased saliva menstruum, which prepare your baby to swallow.
4. Regular tooth brushing. Brushing your infant'south gums, teeth, and tongue twice a day also "wakes up" and helps to "map" the mouth.
5. Talk to your baby.Share what you come across: "That seize with teeth is really chewy. In that location is nevertheless food in your mouth. You lot need to keep chewing and and so eat." Or, "You demand to keep chewing that bite and then consume it."

When should I seek support for pocketing or over-stuffing? Who tin help me with this?

It may be time to seek support if:

• You are regularly finding food in your babe or toddler's mouth one-half an hour or more after meals.
• Yous take tried the strategies to a higher place for a month or and so and are seeing no progress.
• Your baby is over-stuffing and pocketing at every repast with all types of foods.

Discuss options with your pediatrician. You tin can find support with an occupational therapist or speech therapist who has expertise in pediatric feeding, eating, and swallowing.

Read on for more information on creating a safe environment, condom nutrient shapes and sizes, and how to tell the difference between gagging and choking.

Reviewed by:

Kary Rappaport, OTR/Fifty, MS, SCFES, IBCLC

The content offered on SolidStarts.com is for informational purposes only. Solidstarts is not engaged in rendering professional person communication, whether medical or otherwise, to private users or their children or families. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever exist used equally a substitute for direct medical communication from your md or your medical or health professional person, nutritionist, or expert in pediatric feeding and eating. By accessing the content on SolidStarts.com, you admit and agree that y'all are accepting the responsibleness for your child's wellness and well-being. In return for providing yous with an array of content "babe-led weaning" information, you waive any claims that you or your child may have equally a result of utilizing the content on SolidStarts.com.

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