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Swallowing food

Discussion in 'Baby / Kids Foods' started by anjusuren, Nov 26, 2014.

  1. anjusuren

    anjusuren New IL'ite

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    HI

    My daughter is 3 years old and most of the time she swallow food very late. She keeps the food in the mouth long time and if she keep on say to eat she will eat.

    Is it something normal or do i need to check with doctor whether she have problem to swallow food .

    Please advise.

    regards
    Anjana
     
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  2. pmold368

    pmold368 New IL'ite

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    Yes, its normal & common with most of the kids.
     
  3. CrayoNess

    CrayoNess Platinum IL'ite

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    Is she eating by herself or are you feeding her?
     
  4. anjusuren

    anjusuren New IL'ite

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    Sometimes she eat herself.. like fried rice she eat herself.. if it is like other rice(sambar or rasam) i will feed her
     
  5. CrayoNess

    CrayoNess Platinum IL'ite

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    Let her eat herself as then she can better control the eating. Usually children are able to eat by themselves at that age.
     
  6. Rakhii

    Rakhii Moderator IL Hall of Fame

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    Is she watching TV or is she having any distractions while eating? If yes, perhaps reducing that distraction might help.
     
  7. guesshoo

    guesshoo IL Hall of Fame

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    Mine does that now and again. I remind her to chew and she does.

    At one point when it was at its worst, the way I fixed it was to ask if she'd had enough and take the food away if she said yes. If I fussed it only got worse. It was very difficult but I'd just ask her if she's done and move to the next course. perhaps because I'm an Indian mum - letting go of the control was a big challenge but nothing worked for as long as me(or her dad) kept banging on about how she must chew and swallow.

    Setting an alarm for 20 min and another 5 min grace time, and taking away whats remaining showed her that either she chewed and swallowed or lost her food.

    She recalibrated her portion sizes herself. I must say that the quantities have gone down a great deal over the last year; (half a dosai/ half an apple while she used to eat one last year) it is disconcerting, indeed. However it is important to let her figure out how much she wants to eat. Hence I've tried to cut out all snacks like biscuit/ breadsticks. She has three meals a day each about 5 hours apart - breakfast with whole grain, protein, fruit and milk; lunch and dinner with a carb main dish, protein, veg, fruit, yoghurt and cheese. In school she gets a mid morning snack; at home none.

    Another way that she chews quickly is sitting with friends and family. If she's eating by herself with us, while having a chat about random things, she doesn't store food in her mouth. When she is not conscious about the food in her mouth it goes in quicker.

    Humming songs like Jonny, jonny, yes papa soon after she took in a mouthful reminds her chew quickly so she can say "ha ha ha" in the end to which I'd clap and encourage her.

    You might also want to take her to a dentist just to ensure that there aren't any issues with the alignment of her teeth - my uncle supposedly had problems eating quickly because of misalignment of teeth.
     
  8. deenamathew

    deenamathew New IL'ite

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    Its common with every one.
     

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