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18 month old does not chew

Discussion in 'Baby / Kids Foods' started by tulip2301, Sep 30, 2010.

  1. tulip2301

    tulip2301 New IL'ite

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    Hi everyone,

    I'm very new to this forum and was looking for people with similar experience as mine. Here is my problem:
    My son is 18 month old and he was born 1-1/2 mnth premature.He has had a lot of throwing up in his 1st year due to mild GERD.He is much better now.However he is very thin, although extremely active. His diet is poor , actually I've hardly ever seen him hungry . He has no intrest in mild so even though he can drink water from a bottle and sippy cup( we need to hold it for him) he just refuses milk from a bottle, so we have to spoon feed him his milk, which is such a pain, especially when we travel.

    Also, he only eats pureed food or even if I give him a little textured food, he would swallow it instead of shewing on it.If he cannot swallow, he gags on it and throws up.He can bite stuff because I have seen him biting wafers and crackers but he pushes the pieces out with his tongue instead of chewing on them. So all he eats is pasty/puried food. No breads,biscuits,fries,fruits chunks etc at all. Can someone share their experience and how they found a solution, if any.

    Thanks in advance.
     
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  2. Happysoul1234

    Happysoul1234 Gold IL'ite

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    normal ... some kids start eating non-pureed foods later, especially since ur son had gerd this is ok. my son was primarily on purees until he was 18-20 month olds. he had infact dropped from 50% percentile for weight at birth to 6th percentile at his 18 month checkup, even though he was fond of milk. we used to fed him purees and put some solids on his high chair table. like fruits, small pasta, bits of roti, small pieces of cheese etc. sometimes he ate them, sometimes he did not. but around 22 months I'd say he made the switchover to non-pureed foods completely. at his 24 month checkup his weight had shot up to the 25th percentile.

    so just be patient and give you ds some more time. encourage him to eat solids, but don't force him. one fine day he will decide .. hey I want texture, I want real food, not purees.

    to add calories to his diet, add ghee, butter, olive oil or shredded cheese to his pureed foods.
     
  3. tulip2301

    tulip2301 New IL'ite

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    @pmahensa :Thanks so much !! its really encouraging to hear all this.i hope my son makes the turn-around soon enough as right now its driving me nuts. He too is in the 5th percentile , but he has been that way ever since he was born.
    Thanks again for the reply. I guess its just wait and watch for now :)
     
  4. tulip2301

    tulip2301 New IL'ite

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    Bumping this thread up so that I can get a few more responses please.
     
  5. raj2k3e

    raj2k3e New IL'ite

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    My son is 22 month and even he doesnt eat normal food which we eat.
    He doesnt chew. He just swollows everything. if byte is larger or hard. he justpushes it out with toungue. I also worried. Need suggestion on it.

    -Rashmi
     
  6. cutedoc

    cutedoc New IL'ite

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    Try giving him his favorite food in full form, for example a whole banana , string cheese, fruit cereal bars so he gets used to the concept of biting on it in order to eat it. Even though my 16 month old daughter did not cut teeth she could bite it with the gums, I let her eat on her own around the house.
    hope that helps..
     
  7. Nephateria

    Nephateria New IL'ite

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    Hello I am new the forums. I have been searching for answers for a long time as to why my baby could not open her mouth when she was born let alone suck a bottle. She was hospitalized for a month because she had no suck. They sent her home for some reason and we had to feed her around the clock and write down every ounce she drank. At months she slowly started to open her mouth and when she went back to the docs for her check up he threatened to put her back in the hospital because she had lost so much weight. Then we were referred to a feeding therapist and that was a waste of money. Then she stared have a reaction to her formula and we finally go that under control. Then at about 8 months she finally developed her own survival mechanism of how she drank her bottle with her tongue but it was never a suck. When people would see her with a bottle in her mouth they would say why isn't she sucking it her bottle then I would say she is drinking it trust me. At 10 to 11 months we put her on a sippy cup and that was the best thing ever:) She is now 18 months old and doing well and she sill has a lot of stumbling blocks like not chewing her food. She still does not like to open her mouth and the only word she can really say is daddy. But its amazing how far she has come. She has a therapist who comes twice a month to see her and she said that drinking out of a straw will help her with the drilling and strengthen her jaw muscles and help with chewing as well. Giving her something to put in the back of her mouth to chew on will help too. If your doctor recommends a barium swallow maybe you should consider it to see how they swallowing their food.
     

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