Food pocketing seems adorable in the beginning but once your kid keeps on undertaking it, it might be a purpose for concern. Read more to discover why your kid pockets the food of theirs and the way to stop it.
Does your kid store foods in their mouth rather than swallowing them? If behaviour weirds you out there, do realize that it’s very common among kids that are small . Actually, some kids actually hold food in the mouth of theirs for hours! Nevertheless, when this particular food pocketing habit remains until your kid is five many years of age, which may be a purpose for concern.
What’s food pocketing?
Food pocketing is the activity of putting food inside the jaws without swallowing it. Children
usually store or perhaps “pocket” their meals inside the cheeks of theirs but a few also stow it in front of the gums of theirs.
Precisely why does it occur?
- Sensory Issue
Many kids tend to keep meal in the mouth of theirs since they dislike the consistency of the foods. Meanwhile, some kids store it since they’re not even conscious there’s food left in the mouth of theirs. This occurs when a kid has oral sensory problems just where they can’t feel where food is in the mouth of theirs. As an outcome, they will stuff the mouth of theirs with foods to boost the sensation but and then it will be excessive to swallow. This condition is pretty common among children with sensory processing disorder and autism, and yes it might require a far more intensive therapy.
- Oral motor skills
The many other likely reason why your kid is storing food is since they’ve poor oral motor skills. Oral motor skills have everything to do with the power & control of the muscles inside the mouth of yours, like the way you move the tongue of yours to assist with swallowing and chewing, along with always keeping your mouth shut to make sure that the meals does not spill out. If your kid has poor oral motor skills, they may have difficulty attempting to eliminate the food that’s trapped in the mouth of theirs.
- Painful swallowing
It might begin as being a sore throat, a bloated tonsil or even chronic reflux for matter, though the primary issue is the fact that it hurts when your kid swallows. As a coping mechanism, the kid of yours could opt never to swallow and also hold onto their meal instead. Even worse still, the anxiety about swallowing becomes a habit or even learned behaviour of course, if this occurs, the kid of yours might need assistance to move past that emotional block.
What could I do to stop the kid of mine from food pocketing?
- Demonstrate the way to eat properly
Walk your child through the system, step by step, from scooping the meals to swallowing and chewing. You are able to additionally instruct the kid of yours to utilize an open cup rather than a sippy cup as well as just take sips of warm water to help you wash the pocketed food down the throat. Reducing the food of theirs to small bits might benefit them eat and also swallow better too.
- Use a toothbrush or perhaps a Myo Munchee
If your kid is fighting with weak oral motor skills, you are able to utilize a toothbrush to assist them eliminate the pocketed meal from the lips of theirs. Yet another alternative is using a device known as Myo Munchee, a chewing system, which can easily help build the muscle groups needed in chewing as well as boost the muscle tone of the tongue. Simply by chewing the Munchee for approximately ten minutes each day, it is able to enhance dental function and swallowing and as an outcome, changes in skin growth may also be noticed.
- See a dentist
If the solutions above don’t work, the perfect option is seeking medical help. The dental professional of yours is going to examine your child’s mouth to figure out the reason why your kid pockets food. Sometimes, tooth abscess happens within the origins of decayed tooth, that is the reason the dental professional of yours usually takes a X ray of your child’s mouth to recognize some dental decay or even an infection. If the problem continues, the dentist of yours could refer the kid of yours to a professional as pocketing food is often an indication of an complicated feeding problem and a feeding therapy might be needed.