My 3yr old son wont chew food.he swallows all he can...i.e soft foods like rice spaggettio,pureed food?

Question

he was born early,had all those tubes in and now he is grown and wont eat alot of stuff unless we chop them up and its soft.its hurting me cuz i really would like for him to eat every thing.not even french fries....it has to be mashed and made in a way he can easily swallow without hurting himself.now he is very careful,cuz if u give him something he knows he cant chew,he will run away.so all that goes in his mouth....goes down.first the pedi said speech theraphy,Honestly thats not working.he can repeat words im not worried with that.they just dont understand.I want my baby ready for school next year.i dont want this to be a hinderance.please any one outthere with a very good advice should help me.we have a great insurance,money is not the problem,the people i meet are the problem cuz they're not listening to me...talking bout i have to wait for another evaluation by October.By the way,he is growing everyday!!!cant take any chances.if i have to stop working to fix this....so be it.

Answer 1

It sounds like your son has oral sensory issues when it comes to food.  My son was the same way.  They have therapists out there that specifically deal with eating issues.  It usually falls under the speech therapy realm, but there are ones that specialize in oral sensory issues, and there is work they can do to help your child overcome these.  Talk to your pediatrician and see if you can get a referral from him.

Answer 2

it sounds like he might need occupational therapy too. I would continue to take him to speech therapy. They can write a goal that he needs to be eating chunkier textures and work towards this goal. there are all kinds of tools they can use to help him be more accepting of textures in his mouth and strengthen his jaw so he can chew easier. make sure to ask the speech therapist what you can do to make him progress quicker...I'm sure she would be happy to give you "homework".

also, you might want to look into something called a "baby safe feeder" . It is a mesh bag on a rattle handle. you put chunkier foods in it and the baby/child chews the food through the bag, but cannot get out pieces big enough to choke on.

Answer 3

Try and make it into a game if you both do it together it becomes fun...