FEEDING / ORAL MOTOR DEFICITS:
How do I know if my child has a feeding or oral motor problem?
Some indicators of feeding problems are:- Irritability or physical discomfort during feeding
- Refusing to eat or drink
- Refusing to try different textures of food
- Feeding times that last more than 30 minutes
- Difficulty chewing
- Difficulty sucking
- Coughing, gagging, or frequent throat clearing during meals
- Excessive drooling or food/liquid coming out of the mouth or nose
- Recurring pneumonia or respiratory infections
- Difficulty gaining weight
- Picky eaters
What problems can this cause?
Feeding problems can cause health issues including respiratory infections, low weight, and nutrition problems.Feeding and oral motor problems can also influence social development as children become aware of their problems and become uncomfortable around their peers during meal and snack times.
These problems can also influence speech sound development, as the motions required for feeding and drinking are closely related to the motions required for speech clarity. For example, if a child is unable to control the liquid coming out of a cup with his/her lips, then he/she probably also has difficulty producing sounds that require lip rounding, such as /w/ and /b/.
Children who are unable to wean from the bottle and/or “sippy” cups also frequently have problems separating control of their tongues from control of their jaws, otherwise known as tongue-jaw dissociation. When children cannot separate control of their tongues from their jaws, then they are also at risk for speech production problems including difficulty producing /k/ and /g/ sounds (which require use of the back of the tongue), /r/ and /l/ sounds (which require a complex series of fine approximations of the tongue to the roof of the mouth) and/or possible lisps.
What are some basic feeding and oral motor milestones?
Around 6-9 months, infants should begin to munch on easy to dissolve solids (e.g., cereal puffs) and should be finger-feeding with these items as well as pureed solids.By 9-12 months, infants should begin to attempt cup drinking and eating more lumpy/mashed textures.
By 14-16 months children should be able to drink from a straw without biting on the straw or putting more than ¼-½ inch of the straw in their mouths at a time.