Eating and Drinking
Eating and Drinking
Advice to develop your child's eating and drinking skills
SOS Approach to Feeding | Feeding Disorders in Children
Bite & Dissolve
BITE AND DISSOLVE FOOD
Some children who are on a pureed or mashed diet may be able to manage some bite-and dissolve foods. These may be recommended by your child’s therapist in order to help your child develop more advanced skills. This should be done under supervision. Bite-and-dissolve foods melt in the mouth and so do not require any chewing, but the child needs sufficient control to hold the food in the mouth until it melts. Children with strong suck and-swallow reflex may swallow pieces whole if placed on the tongue. This may cause choking. Most of these foods are snack foods: (extract from ‘A Guide to Food Textures’)
Foods that dissolve smoothly and quickly (less than 15 seconds) with no tongue movement required:
Sweet Snacks Bite and Dissolve Foods that dissolve smoothly and quickly (less than 15 seconds) with no tongue movement required:
• Heinz organic biscotti
• Heinz Farley’s rusks
• Rich tea biscuits
• Sainsbury’s malted milk biscuits
• Lee’s meringue (be careful of meringues with softer filling, e.g. M&S brand).
Savoury Snacks
• Tuc biscuits
• Pom-bear
• Quavers
• Wotsits
Foods that are slow to dissolve and require some tongue movement (including wheat and dairy free foods):
Sweet Snacks
• Chocolate buttons
• Maltesers (MILK only not white, broken into small pieces)
• Dairy Milk (cut into small pieces)
• Dietary special vanilla wafers
• Pink wafer biscuits
• Morrisons Short Bread fingers
• Cheerios
• Coco Pops
• Somerfield Malted Milk Biscuits
• Sponge fingers Savoury Snacks Foods that are slow to dissolve and require some tongue movement (including wheat and dairy free foods):
• Heinz toddler own mini cheese (has a strong after taste).
• Somerfield Cheese twists
• Cheddars
DO NOT OFFER YOUR CHILD:
• Stringy, fibrous texture, e.g. pineapple, runner beans, celery, lettuce
• Vegetable and fruit skins, including beans, e.g. broad, baked, soya, black eye, peas and grapes
• Mixed consistency foods, e.g. cereals which do not blend with milk, e.g. muesli, mince with thin gravy, soup with lumps
• Crunchy foods, e.g. toast, flaky pastry, dry biscuits, crisps
• Crumbly items, e.g. bread crusts, pie crusts, crumble, dry biscuits
• Hard foods, e.g. boiled and chewy sweets and toffees, nuts and seeds
• Husks, e.g. sweet corn and granary bread.….because children who need bite-and dissolve foods do not have the oral skills to be safe with these more textured foods that do not dissolve.
Developing Chewing Skills
DEVELOPING CHEWING SKILLS
What do we need for chewing?
Chewing requires co-ordinated movements of the tongue, jaws, cheeks and lips:
• Jaws need to open and close smoothly and make the grinding movements needed for chewing.
• The tongue needs to move sideways to locate and move food within the mouth.
• Cheeks draw in to keep the food on the side teeth for chewing.
• Lips should close to keep the food inside the mouth for efficient chewing.
What problems may arise with chewing?
Children may have difficulty moving from smooth foods to lumpier foods. This may be due to sensory or physical difficulties.
Developing the movements needed for chewing
Mouthing Objects
Encourage your child to explore toys with different textures and put them to their mouth. Try putting a taste of food on the toy or dipping the toy in their favourite flavoured drink/puree.
Gum Massage
Use your finger, a cloth or a child’s soft toothbrush; gently but firmly rub along the gum line, where the teeth will be in a backwards-forwards motion. This will encourage the tongue to move sideways towards the gums.
Provide Chin Support
Some children would benefit from chin support to facilitate better control of jaw movements.
Oral control from opposite child: (a) middle finger under jaw, just behind chin; (b) middle finger at hyoid notch.*
* Image taken from: Winstock, 1994
Bite and Dissolve Foods
Experience of bite and dissolve foods (see separate leaflet) may help to develop more sideways tongue movement in preparation for chewing.
Place food between teeth at the side of the mouth; alternate the sides you place food. If your child is self-feeding encourage them to place food to the side of the mouth.
Expanding Chewing Skills
As chewing skills improve, use food that has a long thin shape and slowly move it into the mouth between the teeth, e.g. long, thick liquorice strip, fruit leather, French fries, bread sticks, soft cooked vegetables, e.g. carrot sticks.
Item placed along line of child’s jaw.*
Placement which crosses mid-line and may stimulate sucking , tongue thrusting or biting.*
* Images taken from: Winstock, 1994
we’re kind we’re fair we listen we care
