Swallowing
For those of you who have read my previous 3 or 4 posts over the last 6 months lamenting about Amelia's solid food habits, I'm really happy with her progression the last month. I've cut out one nursing session and she is eating so much more! At the Chinese restaurant tonight she was shoving the fresh seaweed in her mouth and the waitress was super impressed that she was eating something so healthy. She also likes kale and broccoli. Grain wise she loves teff and also eats millet, amaranth, oats, and brown rice. Plus all kinds of fruit. For about 2 weeks there, frozen wild blueberries made up about 95% of her solid food diet. She loves them and wouldn't eat anything else! She still will not eat bananas or avocado even though I keep offering them to her.
Anyway, I know she likes the flavor of these things. She also must be swallowing some of it because so much food goes into her mouth that doesn't come back out. But I swear her mouth is like a clown car. She just keeps shoveling food in as fast as she can and hardly swallows. I know she gets annoyed with me when I ask her to swallow. She holds enormous quantities of food in there for HOURS. It can't be good for her teeth. Eventually before I nurse her I have to take the food that is in there out (which is not fun) because she can't get a good latch with it all in there. Again, I think over the hours most of it goes down because I know the amount that went in, but there is always still a good amount in there. Occasionally she'll swallow a bunch at once and then gag. Once she starts swallowing her food I think feeding her will finally start to be an enjoyable experience.
Did anybody else ever have a kid that just holds food in their mouth almost indefinitely without swallowing it? Did they just eventually "get it" or did you do something to encourage swallowing? I try just slowly offering her the meal a little bit at a time and encouraging her to swallow before giving her more, but she just gets mad at me and insists that I give her more right away. I'm fresh out of ideas.
Sounds like typical toddler stuff. frustrating, but very normal. they get it eventually.
Thank you! While I'll say that even before I had a child, I was quite knowledgeable about the "academic" end of parenting because I do a lot of reading...nothing prepares you for the day-to-day life of what is normal and what kinds of issues to crop up. Only hands-on experience will do that and I had almost none before becoming a parent! I learn something new every day. Good to know from a more experienced parent that this is normal toddler stuff. :) Most of the (nonveg) kids in my daughter's play group do seem to be getting the hang of eating more quickly than she is - but they eat a lot of processed junk - I think these things are alot easier to chew and swallow than real fruits and vegetables.
I never realized how crazy toddlers are when they eat! I started nannying for a 16 month old. She doesn't hold everything in her mouth for extended periods of time like Amelia but she definitely stuffs all that she can fit in her mouth and pretty much swallows it whole. There are so many pumpkin and sunflower seeds in her poop. And watching her eat a banana is unbelievable. I love your clown car analogy. I hope she gets the hang of swallowing soon!