Hallie Bulkin explains that kids don't naturally know how to chew and need you to model it by eating alongside them and exaggerating your own chewing. Many preschoolers still can't handle solid foods, and children with tongue-tie or airway problems especially need this demonstration. Keep offering foods even when they refuse.
I want to bring that back to feeding because whenever I hear, oh yeah, my kiddo doesn't want to eat, I'm like, well, do you eat with them? Do you sit next to them? Do you eat with them? Do you show them how to chew? Are you exaggerating your chew? We have to show them. They are fresh. They've never seen this before. They don't just come out knowing how to eat, especially for our kiddos who are experiencing tongue-tie, airway issues, you know, jaw discrepancies, all that stuff. They do not come out knowing how to eat. So we have to teach them. You know, we see in our practice, I'm sure you do too, like 3 or 4-year-olds who don't chew food, right? And so we have to show them, we have to teach them, and also not stop offering when they decide that they don't want it. So there is a bunch of information in there too on just feeding as they get older too, and, you know, food preparation things. But I'm sure you see that in your practice too. Just like parents just don't know that you actually have to show your child how to eat. We have to model it.
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