Chewing and Swallowing Food

Updated on March 06, 2007
T. asks from Hamilton, OH
4 answers

I have a 16 month old daughter who has recently started storing her food in her cheek. Why would she start doing this after her being such a good eater? How can i get her to chew and swallow her food? It used to take her about fifteen to twenty minutes to eat now sometimes it takes almost 2 hrs for her to swallow her food. I still can not get her to eat beef but she will eat chicken and turkey well store it for a few hours in the cheek. I tell her she can not get down until she swallows all the food. Can anyone help? My husband and i are worried because at her 15b month checkup they did not know why she was not gaining enough weight. She is gaining though and growing.

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So What Happened?

Well my daughter is 19 months old and now it is getting worse with her eating habits. Even if it is food she likes she still does not eat when i feed her. She now gags sometimes and spits the food up. Last night my brother-in-law was feeding her while my husband and i ate and she decided after so much food she would spit it out at him. Of course all my husband would say was your daughter is spitting food. I feel i am losing this battle because she will eat most of the time for my husband and not me and my husband travels most of the time. I asked the pedatrician about this and they could not help me but was worried about her weight. She is 19 months old and weighs 20 lbs. She is a healthy little girl and does not look bad, she is just a litle girl and was one since birth (5lbs). All the pedatrician could tell me is to try carnation breakfast drink to maybe give her more calories. So three months later i am still where we were and don't know what to do but get her to eat a few bites and hope that is not hurting her.

More Answers

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M.R.

answers from Wheeling on

It's a texture thing. lol. They've already learned that their tongue can have a sense of touch and now they are finding out that the rest of the mouth does too (but that it feels totally different).

Most little kids go through this phase (2 of my 3 did). It amuses them to do so. Remind them that they need to swallow and they normally will.

As long as it's not bedtime immediately after, or they aren't about to go running around with half chewed food in their mouth (a choking hazard) there's no real reason why they can't sit for a few minutes with their "chipmunked" food. Just make sure they understand they can't get up until they have swallowed all of it.

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L.

answers from Cleveland on

My daughter just turned 2 and also had started doing this. I thought it was because she was cutting molars but I took her to the pediatrician and it turned out she had an ear infection on the side she was storing the food on. This was the only indication that there was anything wrong with her ear - she never pulled or rubbed it. After starting the antibiotics, the fever disappeared and so did the food storing. Don't know if this helps you, but I thought I would mention it.

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S.M.

answers from Cincinnati on

Hi T.,
I have a 28 month old that does the same thing!! I thought she was the only one that was weird!! Ha Ha. She usually starts doing it when she has had enough. Sometimes it is when she has had a few bites and other times she will do it only after a couple of bites when I know she should have more. Sometimes I squeeze her cheeks (not hard!) to make the food go into her mouth. She dosen't like that too much though!! I have to hound her and tell her to swallow her food or you will rot your teeth out!! I think it is so gross!! She is a pretty picky eater too so believe me she does it quite often! She is a grazer though. She will eat little snacks all day. She had trouble gaining weight too before and a little after she was 1 years old. She is much better now but still is on the slender side but in this day and age of obesity I don't think that is such a bad thing! She is in the 90th percentile in height though so I know she is growing!
Wish I had a solution for you but I just found it funny that somebody has a kid that does the same thing!

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A.M.

answers from Columbus on

Both of my children weren't wild about eating small pieces of meat as they began to eat table food. The texture was a little too tough. Try very tender chicken... Don't push the meat as long as she will eat other things with protein.
Good luck!

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