How to Teach Your Child to Chew
When babies begin the transition to solid foods, it can be hard to know where to start! Purées? Baby-led weaning? Or combination feeding? Often, parents start with purées because they’re scared their child doesn’t have enough teeth to break down anything but soft foods. Simply put, we worry that our kids won’t be able to chew solid foods safely.
How to Teach Your Child to Chew
By: Abbie Gacke M.A. CCC-SLP, CLC
When babies begin the transition to solid foods, it can be hard to know where to start! Purées? Baby-led weaning? Or combination feeding? Often, parents start with purées because they’re scared their child doesn’t have enough teeth to break down anything but soft foods. Simply put, we worry that our kids won’t be able to chew solid foods safely.
All of those fears are valid concerns, but believe it or not, babies are born to chew!
Chewing is a developmental skill that improves with time and practice over the first year of life. At birth, babies are born with a bite reflex, which means that they reflexively bite down when gentle pressure is applied to their gums. This reflexive biting movement becomes an intentional motion around 4-6 months when they become very interested in “chewing.” This makes it the perfect time to offer teethers, rubber toothbrushes, etc. so they can start building jaw strength!
Research shows that working on up-down jaw movement with mouthing on toys, their own hands, or even caregivers’ hands helps kids between the ages of 3-6 months develop good jaw movement to support more refined eating, drinking, and talking skills. And promoting chewing practice in those early months makes the transition to solid foods much smoother since they’ll be getting practice with the hand-to-mouth connection needed for self-feeding and with the up-and-down munching pattern needed for chewing soft solids.
When considering what teether is best for your baby, you want to consider the size of the teether. It should not be so small that it is a choking hazard, but it shouldn’t be so big that your baby can’t fit it past the front of their mouth. The teether also needs some vertical length so that the baby can safely place it on their back molar gum ridge for chewing practice.
Having teethers of various textures and shapes is great for oral exploration and chewing practice. Here are some of my favorites:
· Haaka 360 Silicone Toothbrush
· Sensory Chew Hollow Teething Tubes-Y Style
· Innobaby Original Teethin Smart EZ Grip Star Teether
When presenting a teether, let your child lead the way. Help them grasp the teether and hold it midline. Then, gently prompt them to bring the teether to their own mouth. The goal is for them to explore the teether at the front of their mouth, and then, as they get more comfortable, begin to put the teether further back on their molar gum ridges for munching and chewing practice. Chewing practice should always move toward the back gum ridge area since that is where we can most efficiently chew solid foods.
You can also use your child’s own hands or your hands to provide positive input to their mouth. This “oral play” can look like moving your finger along their upper and lower gums to stimulate a munching response, gently massaging their cheeks and lips, or playfully tapping the front or sides of their tongue to promote tongue movement. Like the teethers, oral play also promotes oral exploration, gag desensitization, and chewing practice.
As your child starts solid foods around 6 months, presenting foods in long strips (e.g., toast strips, avocado strips, banana strips, etc.) not only makes it easier for them to grasp for self-feeding but also allows them to place the food laterally on their back gums and start munching, just as they did with the teethers. Chewing development isn’t fully established until 12-24 months of age, so practice early on is crucial to feeding success down the line because it will accelerate their progression to eating more complex textures and consistencies!
Thank you, Abbie Gacke M.A. CCC-SLP, CLC for writing this article! You can find her on Instagram for more feeding tips, tricks, and real-life examples for supporting your baby’s feeding development.
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