Helping child to chew food properly

Contributed by : Palak Vyas, Prachi Mihir Shah, Dr Aliraza Khunt

Kids tend to skip chewing and try to swallow the food directly. Do not get angry, try to be patient and address the problem.

Chewing may start around 6-9 months. By 10 months, your baby should be given textured food and opportunity to chew. Babies can do light chewing till 1.5 years as they still lack molar teeth.

There can be several reasons behind a child not chewing its food properly:

Late introduction of food
Delayed development of motor skills (jaw, tongue, swallowing)
Disinterest in food because of test, texture, or flavour
Boredom of same food
Allergy
Consumption of milk three times
Big portions
Distraction

Please refrain from the following behaviour:

Generally, parents put on child's favourite cartoon or TV programme and feed their child. For parents, the only concern is to make the child eat sufficient amount of food so as soon as this is done, they think that their part of duty to feed the child is over.
This is where children get into the bad habit of eating while watching T.V. When a child eats in front of the screen, (s)he does not know what (s)he is eating. The child will also not chew the food properly.
If a child observes that his/her parent is taking a sandwich in their hand while going to office and eats moving around the house or watches television while eating, the child will learn the same. The child models their parents’ behaviour and thus (s)he doesn’t chew properly. Either they eat too slow or just gulp without chewing.

For improvement, take the following steps:

When a child eats food on their own, proper chewing habit develops easily. This way the child becomes independent and learns to do his/her own thing. So encourage them to eat their food on their own.
Make it a point to have a family meal time where everyone eats together.
Vary the type of food, food's texture to keep the food interesting for your child.
Instead of a screen, tell them stories or talk to them while feeding them.
Make sure there is sufficient gap between meals. When the child is not hungry, (s)he does not chew the food properly. Take this as a sign that your child is not hungry.
You can constantly keep telling them about the importance of chewing process and help them develop this habit by following it yourself.
Eat with them, but in a different plate. When a child watches you eating calmly and properly, (s)he learns the same.

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