How to teach a child to chew: practical tips and tricks. How to teach a child to chew: tips for parents

Modern pediatrics has placed the stages of development of the baby in a certain framework by age. There are times when it is necessary to introduce complementary foods, start feeding with a spoon, teach the crumbs to hold it on their own and chew solid food. According to doctors, already at the age of one, it is necessary to teach the child to chew properly.

general information

When the baby is given solid food, he refuses it, even if all the teeth are in place. She does not want to pick up a spoon at all, ceases to be interested in food or begins to choke on pieces. About, how to teach a child to chew and swallow, Komarovsky says the following:

There are no children who have not learned swallowing and chewing skills by the age of five.
The chewing reflex is present in every person, only its activation occurs in everyone at different times.
Only parents can interfere with the development of this process.

The care of parents is sometimes excessive, they do not give the baby food in the form of solid food, because they are afraid that he might choke. The result is that by the age of two, the baby is still getting pureed food.

To teach a child to chew at 2 years old, first of all, you need to offer him solid food more often.

This is a rather acute problem for those who have been breastfeeding for a long time and have not tried to accustom them to other foods. First you need to check the presence of teeth. If there are only two of them, then it is better not to let the baby gnaw a bagel or fruit, since he will be able to bite it off, but it is unlikely to chew it.

The best option is to introduce solid foods gradually. For starters, you can limit yourself to mashed potatoes, then add a few small pieces to it. Subsequently, you can move on to thick homogeneous food, which is later replaced with food with the presence of solid fragments.

Refusal to eat without cartoons is also a very common problem. Many children try to copy their parents who eat while watching TV. For some mothers, it is quite normal to turn on cartoons to divert the attention of the baby in order to feed him.

In this case, the baby will eat more, however, the production of gastric juice does not occur, therefore, such a meal will not benefit. Food will become less digestible, which can lead to stomach diseases.

It happens that the baby gets sick, and against the background of a high temperature refuses to eat, he may feel sick. Komarovsky recommends not to force-feed the child after vomiting, it is better to give some warm water and put him to bed.

While accustoming the crumbs to solid food, aggression should not be shown, do not forget that the reflex is not developed immediately. Some babies start biting their nails at an early age, this should not be allowed.

Parents of children under one year old and beyond face many difficult situations. One of the frequently asked questions to pediatricians is: “How to teach a child to chew solid food?” Our article contains the most useful tips on this topic. They will definitely help in solving a difficult task.

From this article you will learn

Why does the child not want to chew

The unwillingness or inability to chew food, eat second courses in solid form have several reasons. We divide them into two groups: external and internal.

External, emanating from the characteristics of upbringing and the atmosphere in the house, include:

Parents' fears. Fear of giving the child solid food: “He can choke!” This is how overly caring mothers argue and continue to feed a one-year-old baby with mashed potatoes, soups, rubbed through a blender. And deprive the baby of the desire to chew.
Fussiness and laziness of parents. Mom or dad want to quickly feed the child. There is no time for chewing. And a bottle of porridge is given, soft food is sent to the mouth with a spoon at an accelerated pace. You don't have to chew, it saves time.
Delay with the introduction of complementary foods up to 1–1.5 years. The myth that it is better to breastfeed for up to three years and at the same time the child does not need anything else is still alive in the minds of grandmothers, young inexperienced parents. Refusal of complementary foods, late introduction of solid food leads to the formation of the habit of eating cereals from a bottle, sucking on mother's breast. Chewing in this case is not necessary at all.
Lack of chewing training during teething. If the baby was not given croutons, teethers for scratching itchy gums at 6–10 months, the chewing apparatus was not used to active movements.

Internal reasons include:

Lazy chest. The baby is too lazy to chew, and the mother does not insist. He quickly replaces the second dish with the first one, forgets to give carrots for an afternoon snack in the whole version. The kid is happy, the parents are not tired of the whims. Everyone is fine, but the child has not learned to chew.
Fear of eating. This often affects the little ones. Caring grandmothers, mothers get tired of waiting for an appetite and feed the baby by force. It is easier to stuff liquid food into the mouth, and they start with it. The hard one stays aside for a long time, and then it is simply swallowed by the child without chewing. The only thing he wants during lunch is to swallow faster and run away from the hated plate. As a result, he chokes, is afraid to swallow, refuses to eat in pieces.
Restless character. The kid is spinning, running, not concentrating on one thing. With this temperament, children chew, but they do it so quickly that they constantly choke. In this case, more patience, perseverance should be shown to mom.
developmental pathology. In rare cases, we are talking about neurological or mental illness. Children with autism, children with cerebral palsy, with hypotension (weakness) of the muscles are afraid of introducing new foods.

In order to understand how to teach a child to chew and swallow, you will have to analyze the situation individually. If the problem is in the behavior of the parent, start the solution with yourself.

Why is it important to teach

It is necessary to transfer children to solid food. Delayed learning leads to problems. Parents of one-year-old children should understand that chewing is a vital necessity. Consider this process from the negative and positive side.

Positive aspects of chewing

Relief of the digestive tract. It is much easier for the stomach to digest thoroughly chewed food.

Training of the jaw, teeth. The chewing apparatus without load fails faster. With the constant use of liquid food, the teeth weaken, fall out, the maxillofacial muscles atrophy.

Formation of the skill of swallowing hard food. The final stage is important: swallowing. The child understands that the better he chews, the easier a small piece will pass through the throat, it will be easy to swallow. It will analyze how much you need to bite off so that food fits in your mouth. That is, chewing is a physical and intellectual process at the same time.

The development of speech. In the process of chewing and swallowing, the same muscles are involved that are responsible for articulation. By training to bite and chew, the baby learns to pronounce sounds, words, breathe correctly.

Possible problems due to inability to chew solid food

Difficulties with adaptation in the kindergarten. Solid foods are included in the diet of pupils of preschool institutions. If the child does not eat porridge, meat, the second course, he will remain hungry.
Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Much more enzymes and juices are required to process pieces of solid food that have entered the stomach. They are released during chewing. If the food is swallowed in large pieces, then the stomach takes them dry, it cannot fully digest. The consequence of this process is gastritis, heartburn, nausea, and so on.
Formation of the habit of eating monotonous food. A child who is accustomed to eating the same mashed foods, receives less fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
It is painful for a toddler at the age of 2–3 years, who switched to solid food, to chew. Gums and teeth are not accustomed to the load. You need to introduce products for chewing earlier.
Difficulty making sounds. The relationship between clear articulation and the ability to eat hard food is understandable from the point of view of physiology. The muscles of the jaw are responsible for chewing; tongue, cheeks, throat - for the process of swallowing. They also work when speaking. The passivity of the masticatory organs leads to late speech development or poor diction.

When can a child be given solid food?

Solid foods should be introduced at 5-6 months of age. The starting point for starting a skill is a noticeable salivation. From this point on, the gums are preparing for teething. The kid pulls everything that comes to hand into his mouth. Including your fists. Replace them with useful devices, the baby will train with benefit. Suggest as chewing gum:

Drying, cracker. Change them constantly so that the child does not choke on a piece of chewed off treats.

Teethers. The option with water inside is the most effective and convenient. The child will gnaw and thoroughly chew the chilled toy with great pleasure.

A modern version of gauze with a carrot or an apple inside. This device is a bag. It has a solid sweetness in it. The baby nibbles on the nibbler, crushes the fruit, and sucks the juices out of it. Eating and scratching gums at the same time.

When organizing a workout for the chewing apparatus, it is important to observe regularity. Encourage your young child to chew on something every day. If he refuses, insist, but in moderation. In case of tantrums and complete rejection of teethers, nibbler, pause for 2-3 days, then try again.

When the baby has mastered chewing hard objects, start feeding pieces of soft cookies, fruit for an afternoon snack or lunch. First, give a little, then offer to bite and chew on your own. But never leave a toothless baby alone with a large cookie, he can choke, biting off and swallowing a huge piece.

Thus, by starting positive solid food training at 6 months, mothers will have good chewing babies in about a year. If you start later, the process will be delayed.

Important! Wash all gum trainers (rodents, nibbler, gauze with apples) after each use, or rather boil them. The baby's mouth is very susceptible to bacteria.

At what age does your child learn to chew?

Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

How to teach to chew and swallow

You can teach your baby to chew using simple methods. Follow the advice without psychological pressure, regularly, and everything will work out:

Introduce solid foods into your diet gradually. Start complementary foods at 6-8 months. First, try adding pieces of fruit to the porridge, then crush the soup with a fork, without a blender, to get a heterogeneous mass.
In a year, mix liquid food with solid food in one plate. The ideal option is a broth with vegetables, pieces of potatoes. It will be easier for the child to swallow the chewed mass with liquid. As you learn, add less and less broth until the child chews and swallows only vegetables, meat, pasta.
At 12-16 months, give solid vegetables for a whole afternoon snack: carrots, an apple. If it is difficult for a child to chew on a hard skin, peel it.

Important! Check with your doctor about when you can give your child a new solid segment product. Errors in the introduction of complementary foods serve as provocateurs of problems with eating, difficulties in developing chewing skills.

And here is what Dr. Komarovsky advises:

A few more tricks

Start teaching chewing on your favorite toddler foods. Choose any, as long as the process gets better. But be careful: bread, cookies, crackers, sweet desserts in large quantities daily are harmful to the children's stomach.
Set an example of table manners and careful chewing. Be sure to combine your lunch with a meal of crumbs. Defiantly chew, swallow, let him understand how the process is going on visually. Forbid yourself to eat on the go without chewing. Children are very observant.
Start eating tough foods in small portions. For the first or third time, it is enough to add 1 teaspoon of fruit to the porridge.
Build muzzles with the baby near the mirror, grimace. Fun with mom will replace articulatory gymnastics, a warm-up for facial muscles.
If the child talks at least a little, ask him why he does not chew the food that is on the plate. Perhaps the baby himself will reveal the secret, the problem will be solved faster.

You can learn more useful tips in this short video:

What to do if the right moment is missed

The child is already 2-3 years old, and he is afraid to eat solid food, when he tries to offer second courses, he vomits and cries. Such situations are not uncommon if parents delayed with complementary foods or went on about the desire of the crumbs. In this case, the advice of a speech therapist, a neurologist will help:

Start the process from the very beginning. That is, a one and a half year old baby can be offered a nibbler, small pieces of fruit in porridge, poorly softened mashed potatoes. For the first training dinners, semi-solid foods are suitable.
Do articulation exercises. Pull your lips into a tube, smile broadly, imitate chewing near the mirror. Do exercises with your child. Spend at least 20 minutes a day exercising. Breaking up approaches for three to five minutes.
Use tongue massage as a prevention of the gag reflex. The purpose of the classes: to activate the muscles of the tongue. After a course of massage, the tongue will get used to getting solid food into the throat, and will not push it out. The baby will no longer choke, be afraid to swallow pieces, choke.

How to do it: use the services of a professional or learn on yourself first, then carry out the procedure on a child. Take a spatula or a stick for examining the throat, put it on the tongue and press, slowly moving towards the root of the tongue. If the child feels fear, starts crying, stop. Continue the next day. Go deeper slowly, let it take two or three weeks.

Help chew with your hands. Touch your face, move your cheeks, if the baby does not mind. At this moment, chew for fun yourself, comment on all the actions.
Provoke the desire to chew. Give a tasty treat, such as marmalade, banana (small piece). And then offer a bigger piece. The child must want to bite him.
Look to other people for example. Go for lunch or dinner to visit, invite couples with children to your place. By studying the behavior of peers, the baby will quickly learn to chew.

To master the chewing skill, especially at an older age (1.5–2 years), the psychological environment and a few simple tricks are important:

Make up a story about the benefits of chewing. Tell a compelling story more often. Do not forget to scare the beginning a little, where the hero did not want to eat bread, meat, but coped with laziness and learned everything.
Talk about the benefits of good nutrition. Stories about the work of internal organs are liked by children after 2 years. Persuade the baby to help the stomach cope with the load, provide the body with useful substances in solid form.
Arrange competitions. Who will chew meat better, who has sharper and faster teeth, etc.
Do not spare time and effort. It will take more time to study after a year.
Do not scare the child, even if he choked, do not be afraid yourself. In extreme cases, help the baby cope with the cough. If the little one sees how tense his mother is, he will be excited and scared himself.
Involve your little one in food preparation. Let him grate vegetables, salt porridge, etc. And then eat the fruits of his labor. Praise for any manifestation of interest, attempts to chew is a must.
Serve the table with forks for second courses. Stringing pieces and putting them in your mouth with a fork is much more interesting.
Shouting, swearing is prohibited. Let the child spit out the cooked dish, frown, protest. For bad behavior, you can only scold him a little and make an upset look. Shouting, threatening is strictly prohibited.
Don't forget to praise achievements. Praise for children is the best engine of progress.

Important! Forcing to eat by force is tantamount to mockery of the little one. According to Dr. Komarovsky, young children should be left alone for a couple of days. They themselves will come running to the kitchen with a request to feed. And the persistence of parents in the matter of feeding: their frequency, the volume of the portion eaten - provokes whims and infantilism.

How to stimulate appetite

Children with poor appetite often suffer from a lack of desire to eat solid foods and eat well in general. Induce hunger in the following ways:

Don't force feed.
Avoid snacking on sweets, rolls, juices from packages.
Walk a lot.
Lead an active lifestyle.
Drink sour compotes. Prepare a decoction of prunes and add fennel seeds to it.
Keep your stool regular.
Include boiled and raw vegetables in the menu.
Let's drink more water.
Replace teas with a decoction of wild rose, chamomile.
Drink a course of vitamins prescribed by a doctor.
Feed properly. Give complementary foods first, followed by formula or breast milk.

It is not easy to teach a child to chew if he does not want to, chokes or chokes. But who said that raising children is easy. Show restraint, be patient, follow the advice of doctors, psychologists, experienced parents, and everything will work out.

IMPORTANT! *when copying article materials, be sure to indicate an active link to the first

When a baby pushes away the steering wheel with his hand, refusing to take it in his mouth, most parents do not attach any importance to this. When at the age of one and a half the little sun will persistently spit out all the solid pieces of food, and then most of the mothers do not worry.

And only when, at the age of two, it turns out that the already grown up strong man does not chew food, because of which he has to give only grated and crushed puree-like products, then panic begins. Why is it so often today that a child does not have a chewing reflex? How to restore it and teach the baby to chew?

In order not to face a similar problem and not go to pediatricians with complaints that your child cannot chew, you need to think about this as early as possible. If you do not develop fine motor skills of the hands in 2-3 years, it will be difficult for him later. Exactly the same here. If you don't develop a chewing reflex at 6 months, then it will be too late to bite your elbows. When, at what age does a child begin to chew? Everything happens gradually.

half a year

The chewing reflex wakes up in infancy, by 6 months. If at this age you give your child a dryer, a bagel or the same teether, what does he begin to do with it? Many believe that in this way he scratches the gums, but, as it turns out, this is not the only reason that makes the baby send all hard objects into his mouth. So he learns to make the first chewing movements. And this moment is very important not to miss, because after a couple of months, when your baby turns into a funny bunny with two front teeth, it will be very difficult for him to chew. Therefore, try to get the first skills he acquired even before the appearance of the first teeth.

When the baby has more than a pair of teeth in his mouth, he will again try to chew mixed with swallowing and sucking. And again, if you miss this moment and do not support the chewing reflex, the child will gladly refuse this “work” and will swallow soft and liquid purees and cereals.

Two years

By this time, the baby should definitely learn to actively chew (even if he does not always succeed) solid food. And if he does not want to chew by this age, know: you need to take action. After all, it is at this age that solid food contributes to the proper development of the dentition, exercise of the masticatory muscles and normal salivation, without which there will be neither self-washing of the oral cavity, nor normal digestion.

This is how the development of the chewing reflex in the baby should occur. The task of parents is to help him in this difficult matter. And if the situation is such that at 2 years old he does not chew solid food, it is necessary to identify the cause of this phenomenon as soon as possible and try to correct the situation.

Why the child does not chew

The baby may refuse to make chewing movements for various reasons. Some of them can be easily eliminated, but others are problematic, because it will be too late to fix them in two years. The reasons that an already grown little one chews badly or refuses to do it at all, most often are the following factors.

Improper feeding. This happens if the mother, taking too much care of her baby, is afraid to introduce solid food into the diet, referring to the fact that he may choke. The predominance of liquid, puree-like food is the first and most common cause of this phenomenon.
Lack of skills in infancy. This happens if at six months the child did not have bagels and teethers, and at the year he was not introduced into the diet anything that could be chewed.
Laziness. Some kids are too spoiled and lazy: yes, they are just too lazy to chew. Especially if they know that at their first request (whims) mom will replace the hard piece with soft puree. You will find a couple of tips for this case in the article:.
Hyperactivity. Sometimes a child refuses to chew for the simple reason that he has no time to do it: he always spins, does not sit still, runs, he always needs to run somewhere. Read: .

These are the main reasons why a child does not chew food. Analyze your own situation, watch the baby - and soon you yourself will understand what is the reason for this unpleasant phenomenon. After that, getting rid of this scourge will be much easier.

How to teach a child to chew food

The main question that worries all parents is how to teach a child to chew food and restore his chewing functions? Nothing is impossible, so be patient and get started.

Show him by your own example how to chew: teach him, give him a few lessons in a playful way.
Buy marshmallows or marmalade, which must be chewed.
Stop grinding and grinding food: only hard pieces. If you haven’t eaten, don’t insist: hunger will eventually take its toll.
Don't shout or get angry. Try to calmly communicate with the child during meals, explaining everything to him in an even, kind, calm voice.

Yes, it’s not so easy to endure whims, but if the process is started through your fault, there’s nothing you can do about it. Sometimes you can only make your beloved child chew food with your own endurance. Always remember at the same time about the result that you want to achieve, and not about the whims and tears of your little trickster. Seeing how uncompromising his mother is, you will see - he will soon give up and give in to you.

Usually parents have to make an effort so that their baby has mastered some new skill for himself. The same is true with the introduction of crumbs of solid food into the diet. The baby refuses to chew and swallow pieces of food, preferring the usual mashed and grated foods. Modern pediatricians note that this trend is observed more and more often.

The reason for this phenomenon is that mothers do not want to bother preparing food for the baby and feed him ready-made baby formulas and purees, and these products have a liquid puree-like consistency, and the baby does not need to make an effort to eat them. How to teach a child to chew solid food? At what age should you sound the alarm, and when is there no reason to worry?

The child does not always agree to accept the new rules of the game. Sometimes parents have to deal with tantrums and the desire of the baby to eat food that is purely familiar to him - liquid and pureed

Such a necessary chewing skill

Young parents are wondering if it is worth teaching a child to chew at all? It would seem that the moment will come, and the baby will independently master this skill. In fact, if the baby is not offered solid foods on time, this leads to problems and disastrous consequences. The formation of the chewing reflex is a necessary process, it affects:

dental health - the unwillingness and inability of the crumbs to chew can eventually lead to malocclusion and other dental problems;
the work of the digestive system - soft food that can be simply swallowed is not wetted by saliva, which leads to a disruption in the production of digestive enzymes, and the stomach becomes “lazy”, as a result, numerous problems with the gastrointestinal tract await the baby in the future;
the process of speech development - the inability to chew leads to difficulties with speech and the pronunciation of individual sounds in the future, since the muscles involved in articulation do not train and lose their tone.

If the child does not develop a chewing skill in time, then the baby may simply begin to be lazy and capricious. At the age of 2-3 years, the baby makes the first attempts to manipulate adults, he realizes that you can cry or purse your lips, as a result, the mother will give up and offer him pureed products.

Why should he try and make an effort to chew hard pieces of food? You should not go on about, otherwise it will turn into much bigger problems in the future.

At what age should a child be taught to chew?

Dear reader!
This article talks about typical ways to solve your questions, but each case is unique! If you want to know how to solve your particular problem - ask your question. It's fast and free!
The chewing reflex is formed in babies at an early age - even before the first teeth begin to erupt. At the age of 6 months, the baby actively sends various objects into the mouth to scratch the gums. It is important not to miss this moment and periodically give the baby a special device - a rubber teether, with the help of which the chewing muscles will also develop. This technique will help to avoid problems with the transition to another type of food in the future.
In ancient times, children were offered a solid product (for example, a piece of an apple) wrapped in gauze, which they could procrastinate in their mouths for a long time and try to chew. Today, mothers use a much more convenient device - a nibbler. It is also intended for the formation and development of chewing skills. You need to offer it to the baby at 7-9 months. You can replace the nibbler with ordinary drying. Of course, this product does not contain useful substances, but it will become an excellent simulator.
At the age of 9-10 months, the crumbs can be given pieces of vegetables and fruits. If the baby refuses such food, after a while offer him this product again. As a result, the child will still take a piece in his mouth.
Some parents believe that solid foods for a baby under 1 year old are completely useless. In fact, they help develop and tone the masticatory muscles. In the future, the baby will not have difficulties with chewing pieces of food, as well as the formation of speech skills.

Modern mothers have a convenient assistant, which is just responsible for the formation of the chewing skill - the nibbler. The device helps to introduce solid fruits and vegetables into the child's diet.
What to do when time is already lost?
The baby is already 2 years old, but he does not want to chew food in pieces and eats only mashed potatoes - a large number of parents face a similar situation. What should they do in this case? The first thing to do is to make sure your little one doesn't have any physiological problems that could cause chewing difficulties. These include various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, oral cavity or throat. In this regard, mothers need to bring the baby to the medical examination at the appointed time, since medical examinations usually reveal possible violations.
When the health of the child is all right, the reason for refusing to chew food is simple laziness and unwillingness to cope with difficulties. In this case, parents do not need to indulge the baby, but you can’t put pressure on him either, you should show maximum patience.
Teaching methods
In no case should you drastically change the usual food for the baby. If a child is accustomed only to grated foods, then when he sees pieces of food for the first time, he will refuse to eat them. It happens that the baby is even afraid of unusual foods, considering them inedible. The process of transition to other food should be smooth. You should gradually change the consistency of the usual purees, making them thicker, but without pieces. If the baby initially refuses such food, you can dilute it a little with something liquid (broth, water or milk). Only in this way will the child begin to get used to the new food for him, which has a thick consistency.
A little later, pieces of vegetables or fruits should be added to the plate along with the mashed products. At the same time, the baby needs to be explained that it is precisely such food that big children and adults eat. This technique will help to interest the child and push him to the desire to chew foods in the form of pieces, and not frayed.
Another way to teach your baby to chew is to put him at a common table with adults during the meal. To do this, you will need a special high chair, or the knees of one of the parents. The baby will see that everyone is eating food in the form of pieces, and he will have a desire to do the same.

Being at the family table, the child will be able to see the food of the parents and taste it. Experts advise not to forbid the child to do this - this way the problem will be solved several times without effort
The next step is to add other food to the usual porridge or puree: for example, you can put berries, slices of non-solid fruits (peach, banana) or vegetables (boiled carrots, beets). Over time, the pieces should become larger, and their number in a baby plate is greater. This technique will help to gradually move away from mashed products to soft ones. Then it is worth introducing solid food into the diet - apples, pears or cucumbers.
Another great way to teach your baby to solid foods is to play. Let's say you can try to play a squirrel or a bunny with a crumb and invite him to gnaw on a dryer, a cookie, a slice of a carrot or an apple. What child would refuse such entertainment?
The famous children's doctor Evgeny Komarovsky in his video lessons gives parents a lot of useful advice on raising and maintaining the health of babies. He also has recommendations that will help moms and dads teach their crumbs to chew food:
Parents will have to try themselves in the role of an actor, explaining to the baby the reasons why there is no usual liquid puree for lunch today. For example, you can say that the blender has broken, so the food will now only be in the form of pieces, or come up with something else.
You can give the baby some treat in a piece - for example, a slice of marmalade or marshmallow.
It is worth using for your own purposes the tendency of kids to imitate other children or adults. For example, you can invite guests with children of about the same age to your place, then the baby will see that his peers send food in the form of pieces to his mouth, become interested and try to do the same.

Making a baby give up the usual grated food and teach him to chew solid foods is not an easy task for parents, requiring endurance and perseverance from them. It is important here not to waste time and start training the crumbs at the moment when his teeth erupt. However, even at a later age, results can be achieved. Parents should build the process of accustoming the baby to new food in such a way that the baby does not perceive it as a punishment. You should not shout and get angry at the child if something fails, a positive attitude and patience will be the best helpers. The experience of other mothers can also help.

The question of how to teach a child to chew arises before young parents when the baby refuses solid food and prefers soft pureed purees and mixtures. Parents are worried that the baby will not be able to grow and develop normally, as it is malnourished: it simply spits out food and remains hungry. To understand this problem, it is necessary to find out why the child refuses to chew food and how to teach him to do it.

Chewing skills in a child begin to form from the moment: he begins to actively drag into his mouth everything that falls into his hands. It is necessary to take advantage of this moment and make the process of chewing and getting used to the new solid food exciting for the child.

It is required to know how to accustom a child to solid food, if before that he did not receive anything other than pureed mashed potatoes and cereals. Many parents believe that the child will eventually learn to do this on their own. But if the baby is fed only with wiped and soft dishes during the period of teething, this can later turn into problems in its development and formation.

With children under one year of age, be sure to engage and teach them to chew solid food. This will further help to form the correct bite, a good digestive system and develop the facial muscles responsible for speech function in a small person.

Why the child does not chew

There are several reasons why the chewing reflex was poorly developed in babies 1.5-2 years old:

Many mothers begin to enter late, without weaning the baby from the breast for as long as possible. As a result, a one-year-old baby actively resists chewing solid food, knowing a more accessible and easy way to saturate.
Sometimes parents are afraid that the baby may choke on pieces of food, because it is still too small. Such excessive caution leads later to the refusal of the child to eat solid food on his own: he accumulates it in his mouth, and then spit it out.
A small child does not chew pieces of food, because the skill of using special teethers has not been formed. These rubber rings not only allow you to massage the gums with growing teeth, but also form the habit of chewing.
Laziness or excessive employment of parents who do not pay enough attention to the feeding process. Not wanting to spend a lot of time eating and feeding the child only pureed soups, cereals and baby formula, fathers and mothers accustom him to the same type of light food, which he then does not want to change to a more difficult one that requires chewing.
Excessive activity of the little man, who finds it difficult to concentrate on the process of chewing and swallowing. Such children try to finish the feeding process quickly by choosing food that does not require long chewing.

Learning to chew

Parents should have an idea of how to teach a child to chew food. The child should learn chewing and chewing movements gradually. From about 6 months of age, you can give the baby to eat solid food, which he will try to grind in his mouth: pieces of vegetables or fruits, bread crumb. You need to give it in small portions and make sure that the baby does not choke.

In purees and soups, you should also gradually add pieces of solid food, without grinding everything in a blender. When introducing additional products into complementary foods, they should not be crushed, but kneaded with a fork into small pieces or processed on a coarse grater.

We also learn to swallow gradually. To do this, you can daily stimulate swallowing movements with a simple massage of the tongue with a plastic or wooden spatula, gradually moving towards the base. Such a massage will save the child from the gag reflex when solid food enters the mouth and swallows it.

It is required to consider how to teach a child to chew and swallow, making this process interesting and enjoyable for him. Difficulties in learning will help to avoid such a device as a nibbler - a special nipple with holes in which pieces of solid food are placed. The child chews food without risking choking. Thus, chewing skills are gradually formed.

The kid can be involved in the process of preparing food for him in the form of a game: explain that there is nothing to grind food with, because the blender is broken, and give him a fork to knead solid food. This will interest him, and he will gladly join the cooking game. After that, it will be easier to persuade the child to eat food prepared by oneself.

Inspire the baby with a positive example: having seated at the table with everyone, offer him “adult” food. Explain to him that eating it is exciting, although it takes more time. Put the child at the table only after he is hungry, then this will make him take great interest in the food offered.

If the baby suffers from a lack of appetite, the development of chewing skills should begin with the awakening of interest in food. It is worth doing more with the child, stimulating physical activity and the emergence of a feeling of hunger. Avoid snacking between meals and drinking milk or sugary drinks and juices. It is better to replace purchased juices with homemade dried fruit compotes and rosehip juice.

Make the process of eating fun for your child: for example, you can put colored pieces of different fruits (apples,) in each spoonful of porridge, and vegetables in the soup can become the subject of a “hunt” using a special plastic fork with blunt teeth.

Drying and baby biscuits help in the development of chewing skills, which can be given to children from 5-6 months. The child, in the process of working on hard drying or cookies, not only enjoys soaking them in his mouth, but also massages his gums with cutting teeth and learns to chew.

Thus, by 10-12 months, if the baby is properly prepared for taking solid food and helping him form a chewing reflex, then he will not have difficulties with the transition to more “adult” food.

How to understand that the baby is ready

By the age of 1, the baby has 6-8 teeth, with which he can already bite and chew food with the help of gums. The child can cope with small pieces of boiled vegetables and soft fruits, cookies, chopped meat products.

The baby is able to hold thin pieces of food with his fingers, which allows him to offer him food that he can take with his hand and put in his mouth. This ability stimulates the development of fine motor skills, teaches the child the skills of independent nutrition. During this period, you should carefully monitor the baby so that he does not put more food in his mouth or other food than he can chew.

After 1 year, chewing teeth gradually erupt, by the time they appear, the chewing skill is already fully developed. Chewing becomes complete at 1.5-2 years, when there are already 16 teeth in the mouth and the diet consists mainly of solid food.