How to teach a child to chew solid food

From birth, the baby not only grows, but also develops, every day developing new skills, learning to roll over, sit, crawl, stand on legs. Also, in stages, the baby learns to eat from the common table. So that the child does not have problems with the work of the gastrointestinal tract, so that he eats balanced and correct, the process of schooling should take place gradually. First, the baby is offered complementary food - at about 6 months, unobtrusively, otherwise the child will not develop an interest in food. Milk porridges, vegetable and fruit purees are introduced into the child’s diet. All food must be homogeneous so that the crumb does not choke. But sooner or later, mothers begin to think about when to put solid pieces into the child's diet? How to do it safely so that the baby does not choke? What if a child refuses solid food and just spits it out? Answers to all these questions can be found in this article.

When should you teach your child to chew solid food?

The skill of chewing is not an innate reflex, it is acquired with age. The ability to chew solid pieces of food is very important for the child. The correct work of the jaws and language management perfectly develops speech abilities. When the baby is actively moving the jaws, gastric juice is produced, the food is better absorbed. And yet the regular load on the jaws - is the formation of the correct bite.

Learning to chew pieces of solid food is very difficult at once, it is a long and gradual process that requires patience from parents. From the very beginning, baby food is offered vegetable puree or porridge. The consistency of the product is homogeneous, but thick. Now the child needs to work and work with the tongue to swallow this gruel. Next, the mother should gradually leave tiny pieces in the food. That is, at 8-9 months it is perfectly acceptable to leave in a puree pieces of vegetables or fruits the size of a match head that a baby should chew. It is believed that a child should already be able to chew small pieces of vegetables, fruits, bread and biscuits the size of peas a year. Gradually, the baby goes to the common table, he is offered larger pieces of food - macaroni, potatoes, etc. As for meat, do not expect that the baby will be able to chew a whole piece of boiled beef.It will be much easier for the child if it is minced, from which the mother cooks meatballs or meatballs. It is believed that by two years the child is able to chew completely, goes to the common table and does not differ in this sense from adults. If by two years the baby has not learned to fully chew food, you should consult a doctor - a gastroenterologist, orthopedist, perhaps it is a matter of the gastrointestinal tract or problems of the development of the jaw system.

How to teach a child to chew solid food?

Any child needs to be taught, step by step, this is the main responsibility of parents. And it depends only on you when the baby masters this or that skill. In the fight for chewing food there can be many problems that we will try to cope with together.

After 8 months, the child can offer familiar vegetables and fruits in a nibbler. Nibler is a modern device, which is a mesh of silicone or nylon fabric. A large piece of food (usually a fruit or vegetable) is placed inside the net, after which the bag is tightly closed and fixed on a convenient handle. The design is absolutely safe - you can safely give the baby.A child sucks and chews a bag, from which fruit comes out in the form of juice or small pieces, usually babies like this kind of pastime. But most importantly, it is a safe way to teach a child to chew and firmly squeeze the gums.

After 8 months you can teach the child to solid food, namely, to give him cookies. But not the usual, but a special baby. It is quickly soaked, not stuck in the throat, very soft and gentle. As a rule, kids love this delicacy.

Mom should watch every day what she cooks and how she does it. That is, with age and each new month you need to increase the size of large particles in baby food. First, you can chop food with a blender, then use a fork for this, leaving larger pieces. If you can't track it, just use ready-made mashed potatoes. Each pack indicates the age at which the given portion of food is designed. The older the child, the larger pieces of vegetables and fruits remain in the mash.

Another way to feel pieces of solid food safely in the tongue is to soak the bread.That is, you just need to put pieces of bread in the soup, they are not stuck in the throat, but the kid will have to work hard to chew on these lumps.

Surprisingly, children who are accustomed to the common table through pedagogical supplements do not suffer from the problem of inability to chew. The principle of the technique is the introduction of adult food in pieces. That is, the baby is sitting on her mother's lap, and if she is interested, she can take small pieces of healthy food from her plate - boiled vegetables, cereals, etc. This is a completely different method of feeding, which also has the right to exist.

Sometimes children can not chew, just because they have not yet grown teeth. Remember, to teach your baby to solid food is only when the child has 8-10 teeth.

In the process of mastering a skill, it is important to know the most important rule - take your time and NEVER leave a child alone with food. A crumb can choke, a piece of fruit can get into the wrong throat, the baby can quickly suffocate, it is extremely dangerous. It is better to do everything gradually and not to give the baby a piece of bread or an apple in 7-8 months.

Why does the child not want to chew solid food?

It so happens that a child who is more than a year old does not want to chew, literally chokes on pieces, they cause a gag reflex. As a rule, this is the absence of gradual schooling. If the baby is choking, most likely, he is simply unfamiliar with solid food and he was constantly fed only mashed potatoes. In fact, this happens very often - the mother does not want to fight a naughty child, she just wants the baby to eat at last. This happens from time to time, the child grows, but he is not accustomed to adult food. In this case, you can go to the trick, because kids after a year already understand quite a lot. Tell that the blender broke, and the jars of mashed potatoes ran out. Suggest your child to chop the pieces of boiled vegetables - give a plastic fork. Of course, the child cannot grind qualitatively. But sometimes hunger in the aggregate with interest and curiosity brings wonderful fruits - the child gladly sticks small pieces onto a fork and sends them into his mouth. And it does not matter that half of the contents of the plate will be on the floor - this is a completely different problem that you can handle later.

Teaching a child to chew hard food is easy, but it will take a lot of time and patience. Try to dine next to the baby - put food in front of him and sat down to eat next.Firstly, it will teach the child to eat independently with a spoon, secondly, the baby will see how you chew food. Thirdly, it will add to his independence, he will choose the size of the pieces that he can chew and eat. As they say, patience and work - all a little bit!

Video: how to teach a child to chew