Wednesday, July 25, 2007

How to Get your kids to chew food?

Hey all, my son is going to be 2 years next month & he still does not chew his food. Is it my fault for giving him soft foods? But he does eat i.e. bite and chew things like french fries, wafers etc.
I have tried feeding him a banana (a relatively soft fruit) as we elders do, he did manage to take bites & chew but after some time he gave up as if to say that it is too much work. So I ended up mashing it for him again after which he ate it all !!

If you have any ideas, suggestions for me please do write them down in the comments.

4 comments:

Malina said...

With my toddler I have the same problem and she is almost two and a half.My seven and a half month old baby chews better than my daughter because I gave him unpureed food from the very beginning. I do not puree his food but just make sure that there are no big lumps which he can choke on. So with your son you can gradually add more texture to his food which requires chewing. Such as you can make his "khichdi" less watery and add some potatoes and peas in it.

Sonie said...

well i guess you will have to gradually introduce texture - but why dont you try with some buttered bread - or toop-poli - or anything thats a new thing for him that he might be interested in trying out and then you can start making his usual food lumpier. but interesting that you bring this up because just about a month back there was an article in the bbc (here is the link - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6762795.stm) which talks about pureed food being unnatural and delaying development of chewing skills and at that time i felt oh God, here comes some more new research to confuse us further, but maybe i should take its advice and let it be baby-led weaning. glad you bought it up though - puts a whole new perspective on our current situation - hopefully will give me more patience when feeding my baby.

Ketaki said...

My raskill is 3 now and he too is a bit lazy when it comes to chewing. I guess boys are lazier than girls. As Sonie said, try feeding him toop-sakhar-poli and in small bites. Maybe you could distract him with lego peices or cars (whatever toys he likes)and then dishing it to him, my bet is he will bite/ chew. Parenting is a 100% conjob!
all the best

himali said...

Hey Neelum, its not your fault! As you wrote, its easier for Aadi not to chew and he does that because he can. Its like speech, some kids talk when they r one and some take 3 yrs to talk. As written by other friends, you give him different textures of food. I started doing that with Anay, I think he chews because he eats and swallows his food but what he does is he keeps the food in his mouth for a long time...now how do I deal with that....hehehehe. Sooo, these things with toddlers will not end, you do what you have to do and Aadi will learn eventually, I promise:):)