20 Mo Old Holding Food in Mouth

Hi T.,

In my childcare, I have experienced this problem as well. Looking back, it is right around the same time (20-30 months of age) so this doesn't surprise me. What I do, for obvious safety reasons, is check the "food-holders" mouth before I put them down for nap. I make a big game out by saying "Let me see everyone's empty mouths!" I do this several times throughout the meal. Everyone opens their mouths and when I see that it is empty, we all clap and give a big whoop. Yes, I know this sounds silly, but my main concern for these children is choking on the "hostage food" during naptime! I make sure the offender has a drink at the end of mealtime and then I ask for empty mouths, once again. I have even been known to offer a little dum-dum sucker to everyone who has an empty mouth at the end of mealtime. Some people say no bribing, but I am more concerned for their safety than giving them a sucker as a reward. This stage doesn't last long so don't worry about it.

Good luck and let us know how everything turns out!

My son starting doing that recently too. He'd eat 3/4 of his meal and then be done, but wouldn't swallow the last bite! While the silence is kinda nice for those hours :0) it's a serious choking hazard! After I figured out what was going on with him, I tried just sticking my fingers in, only to get a bite back. So I came up with this: Natural habit when your nose is plugged is to open your mouth. I would go straight to the sink. Say spit it out or I'm plugging your nose. Count to 3. Give him the chance to do it himself, then... Plug it. He'd open his mouth and whatever liquified junk was in there would come dribbling out. Sometimes I'd do a finger sweep to make sure everything was out. After about the fourth time of being held over the sink, he stopped doing it all together. It sounds a little aggressive but my son (2 1/2) isn't really the best listener. :0) Good Luck!

I have also experienced this in my home daycare. I talked to the mohter's child about my concern and came up with a plan. After every meal I would take the child in to "brush" their teeth. I just wet their toothbrush and gave it to them. It takes a little more time, but they would get the food out of their mouth and it helped me talk about dental hygiene with all the kids.
Hope this helps.

My 3 year old daughter STILL does it. I have never been able to stop her. Now I just tell her to spit it out. I have found she does it the most with things she dislikes to eat. So if she holds it in her mouth I don't feed it to her anymore. Don't know if this is your situation or cause but that seems to be why mine does it. She has been doing it since she was about 20 months old as well by the way.

My almost 3 year old daughter does this and has for a while. I use two different approaches, depending on what is in her mouth. First, if it's not compleatly chewed up I pin her down, plug her nose, and pull it out. Second, if it is something that is almost chewed to the point of no return I will again pin her down, plug her nose, and pour water in her mouth so she has to swallow. She has never choked and gets the point pretty quick. The good news for you is that they will grow out of it. My daughter doesn't do this nearly as much as she used to. You really just have to use brute strength tho, it's surprising how strong those little buggers are :)

My son did that for a while and you don't really want her to go to bed with it in her mouth in case she'd choke on it. We just told our son that he could eat it, spit it out on his own, or we'd take it out. He resisted a few times, but it was more of just trying to make a game out of it. If she bites you flick her cheek and go after it again. Sometimes things like that is more about who has the stronger will to "win." If you absolutely can't get her mouth open, try using a spoon for leverage (at least b/t her teeth.) It'll only take a could times and she'll figure out it's not a game she wants to play.

My nephew still holds food in his mouth. I don't know how to stop him from doing it and he's almost six.