Introduction
Some children can become very sensitive to the food that goes into their mouth, especially new food. Please see below for information on interventions you can carry out at home to reduce the impact of oral sensitivity on your child’s eating habits.
1. Make very small changes in texture
There are two main ways to make small changes in texture: either by gradually making the food thicker, or by gradually making the food lumpier. Children are more likely to accept food being thickened gradually than they are likely to accept food being made lumpier gradually. However, it is important to try both as it is impossible to know which method your child will respond better to until you try both.
Start by very gradually and slowly thickening the texture of the smooth foods that your child currently accepts. Thicker textures provide more sensory stimulation to the mouth and help your child to reduce their oral oversensitivity.
This change needs to be made very gradually to avoid overwhelming your child’s learnt sensory reactions. Do this by:
- Using thickening agents such as baby porridge powder, powdered or frozen mash potatoes, or baby rice.
- If you purée home cooked meals, save one portion, and blend it just slightly less than normal, so it retains slightly more texture. It can help to then freeze this portion in an ice cube tray so that you can take out small amounts of the less-blended food for each meal.
- Mix in either ½ or 1 teaspoon of the thickening agent, or less puréed portion, to your child’s normal smooth foods. Do this for a week.
- After a week, increase the amount by another ½ or 1 teaspoon and continue with this for a further week.
- Very gradually, continue to increase the amount of thickener every week until your child is accepting more textured/thicker foods.
- In the same way, continue to slowly introduce even more texture by adding in ½ or 1 teaspoon of foods with very small lumps.
2. Use bite and dissolve foods
Encourage your child to try bite-and-dissolve foods. These are solid foods that can be bitten and chewed but quickly dissolve in the mouth e.g., Wotsits, Quavers, prawn crackers, or ice cream wafers. These foods provide less sensory stimulation to the mouth and so can help your child to grow in confidence with new foods.
3. Bring foods into play
Using food in play activities between mealtimes, when there is no pressure to eat, can allow your child to touch and explore food in a relaxed and fun way. This can help to reduce any anxieties around foods. Exploring foods with their hands can also help them to learn about how different foods might feel in their mouths.
4. Use positive touch around the face and mouth
Use toys and different materials such as soft blankets, soft brushes, flannels, or towels to stroke your child’s face and around their lips and mouth. Keep this fun and enjoyable by turning into a game of tickles and allowing your child to tickle your face in the same way. This play-based stimulation can help your child to reduce their sensory reaction to touch in this area.
5. Decrease oral sensitivity while brushing teeth
While brushing your child’s teeth, encourage your child to use their toothbrush to brush all around the inside of their mouth – around the gums, the tongue, and the roof of the mouth too. Once they are happy with this brushing, you can even try a vibrating toothbrush to add even more sensory stimulation.
6. Encourage your child to mouth toys
Try dipping favourite toys into different flavours such as ketchup, chocolate sauce, curry sauce, custard etc. and let them lick or suck off the toy. This will encourage your child to try new flavours in a non-threatening way. Please ensure there are no small bits on the toy that might break off and pose a choking risk.
7. Encourage self-feeding skills
Work towards self-feeding as soon as possible. We are all more confident in tackling a new skill when we are in control and so young children are often more willing to try new foods when they are feeding themselves. Even before your child has developed self-feeding skills, when you feed your child with a spoon, give your child their own spoon to hold, play with, or even to use to try to feed themself.
8. Bite and chew hard
Once your child will put solid foods in their mouth, encourage them to put the food into the side of the mouth, where their molars would be, and chew hard. This can help them to learn to chew and to break up the food before it touches the tongue and triggers a gag response. Chewing in an exaggerated way can provide more sensory feedback and help your child to learn how to deal with the food. Show your child how to do over the top chewing – feel free to making noisy chewing noises – to encourage your child to copy!
9. Distract your child when they gag
Sing a funny song, pull a silly face, or put a toy on your head! The distraction can help to interrupt your child’s learnt response of gagging and they may surprise themselves, and you, by just dealing with the lumpy food in their mouth.
10. Try not to reward any gagging behaviours with lots of attention
Children have many ways to get adults’ attention and they can quickly learn that Mummy or Daddy stop what they are doing and come running when they gag. When you child does gag talk calmly and reassuringly in a quiet voice while they deal with the food. If they are sick, clean them up quietly and without fuss. Once they are clean and the meal is finished you can offer cuddles and kisses.
11. Don’t panic!
Children are very sensitive to their parents’ responses to their feeding. If parents are anxious about the texture of what their child is eating, children pick up on this and can become anxious too. This can change their attitude towards the food you want them to eat and can put them off wanting to try it.
We hope you find these tips useful. However, it is important to remember not to push your child into trying new textures before they are ready. Let your child set the pace of each activity and allow them to be in control at all times. If you push too hard, too fast, you can risk reinforcing your child’s fears. Go slowly and your child will progress.
Your child will learn how to enjoy solid foods in their own time – after all how many adults do you know who only eat puréed foods?