Normal stages of development
Children discover how to eat and drink at different stages. Below is a guide detailing approximate stages of physical eating drinking and swallowing development.
| AGE |
LIQUID |
SOLID |
| 0-6 months |
Breast/bottle milk |
|
| Around 6 months |
Cup may be introduced with adult support (along with bottle/breast) |
Pureed foods introduced |
| 6-9 months |
Continues to develop stability with cup drinking |
Mashed textures and finger foods gradually introduced |
| 12 months |
As above |
Managing lumpier textures |
| 18 months |
Child may bite on the cup to support themselves |
Gradual introduction of new tastes and textures |
| 2 years |
Should be able to stabilise the cup |
Should be coping with a range of tastes and textures |
Babies can experience difficulty with eating and drinking because of physical problems in and around their mouth or at the stage of swallowing. This can lead to aspiration, i.e. when food or drink goes down the wrong way.
Warning Signs
Please refer to a speech and language therapist if any of the following are occurring:
- Frequent chest infections
- Loss of weight/poor weight gain
- Observation of any of the following while eating/drinking:
- Coughing/choking
- Vomiting/gagging
- Sudden sweating
- Gurgly voice
- Breathlessness/colour change
- Watering eyes
- Difficulty with breast/bottle feeding involving ability to suck and swallow
- Prolonged difficulty moving onto lumpier textures.
Strategies to help with behavioural eating difficulties
Some children can be very sensitive to new tastes and textures and have an extreme reaction (such as repeated gagging or spitting food out to avoid swallowing) when presented with something new.
It is a normal pattern of child development to refuse new foods when first offered them. To help with this try:
- Messy food play (allow you’re your child to explore the feel/smell etc of different textures)
- Pretend play, allow child to hold spoon/cup and feed teddy/dolly
- Don’t force feed your child
- Keep trying new foods; children require lots of tastes before liking new foods.